Embroidery Piracy, Copyrights, and eBay Users' Privacy

[mandy]

A grandmother sits in her sewing room and reads a letter that threatens her with $100,000 lawsuits if she doesn't admit to copyright infringement and pay a $300 fine. Not only might she have no clue as to what she did wrong, she could in fact only be a victim of copyright piracy, not a perpetrator. Unfortunately, this is a scene that, with slight variations, has played out again and again across the country, and it's time we take notice before the copyright lawyers fleece us all.

The people, grandmothers and otherwise, who are receiving these letters are embroidery fans who own computer-aided equipment to stitch from digitized designs. The letter states that it is a legal notice - and "not an advertisement, solicitation, or a scam" as one might assume -- from the Embroidery Software Protection Coalition (ESPC). The ESPC, after an investigation including records recently obtained from eBay or eBay resellers, has determined that the recipient has "purchased and utilized counterfeit and pirated embroidery designs online ... and that these pirated copies of embroidery designs are in your possession, all in violation of the Federal Copyright Act."...

full article: http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2006...82110/2869

The situation I described in yesterday's story (see "Embroidering on a Copyright Shakedown Theme") raises many troubling questions - questions I must admit I don't have definitive answers for yet. But in looking for answers, I found myself asking yet one more question: what duty of privacy does eBay and its PayPal subsidiary owe customers purchasing goods via their services?

As near as I can tell, the ESPC letters had their origins a little over a year ago when the group settled a lawsuit it had filed against eBay. The ESPC, which then as now seemed to consist mostly of embroidery design house Great Notions and its business partners, had accused eBay of being complicit in illegal sales of copyrighted designs. Terms of the settlement were not announced, but an ESPC legal spokesman at the time made it clear he thought it would enable them to go after the buyers as well as sellers...

full article: http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/ar..._pira.html

[Ms Molly]

Mandy, thanks for this post! I was  :o . I had no idea. I have purchased cd's (some there) and was planning on selling the finished product. Guess I better make sure everything is covered up! 

I must say I have often thought if I were giving a cocktail party you would be the perfect guest. I think you could hold your own on any given topic. Thanks for your excellent posts. 

[cranky_hippie]

As near as I can tell, the ESPC letters had their origins a little over a year ago when the group settled a lawsuit it had filed against eBay.

This is true.

There was at one time a long thread on the Needle Arts board on Ebay about this issue. It got extremely heated (trolls were involved - probably Live World) and Ebay moved the thread to the basement, hoping it would go away, I guess. Of course it IS gone now.

The posters on that thread made it very plain that the Embroidery Coalition was deadly serious. Many of them had received these letters with "$300 fines" and most were pretty scared.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what the outcome was but several posters had contacted their lawyers.

It seems that the issue has not died. 

[thentavius]

The CDs / pre-made embroidery designs should be slathered with warning labels--especially if they're not already.

If the pre-sets are not currently covered with warning information, can the users of said designs actually get in trouble?