Do you think this is cool??? What's the rule here?

It sucks but you will not be able to prove to ebay that your the owner of the IP.

The copyright of Nintendo of America on your design negates any claim you could attempt.
 
coinopdirect said:
It sucks but you will not be able to prove to ebay that your the owner of the IP.

The copyright of Nintendo of America on your design negates any claim you could attempt.
Click to expand...

So is this other guy selling Copyright stuff and may face possible legal action anyway?
 
audiomidiman said:
Hey John, just send him an e-mail and requests he takes them down. Tell him your the creator of this piece of art and you will be reporting it to e-bay if he doesn't remove it himself.

This is BS because this is your original work inspired by DK and DK Jr. instructions. This isn't as simple as recreating Nintendo's original art. This is theft of your original art! Just not 100% sure how this would play out seeing it's created/inspired from Nintendo's original art. But, it's still not Nintendo's design. Just a fine / confusing line.

Good luck.
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If he knows it`s your work here , yes it is wrong , he needed to ask for permission at least .

But if your work is not a copyright reg , can you stop him ? even though it is cheeky .

If he never knew who did that art , and just reproduced a sticker he saw , that is different again , as if the sticker has no copyright or patent /company owner , he can do what he wants with it i would think
 
that's a guy named Bill who i bought a couple of monitors and my Juno First cabinet off of a few years ago. he's been making some "repro" (inkjet? i don't know; never bought any but i've heard a few people question the quality) DK/DKjr artwork that he's been selling on eBay for years. he always seemed like a stand-up guy when i dealt with him (i usually went home with more than i drove out there for at little or no more $$.)

i didn't know that the DK3 instruction sticker wasn't original Nintendo and he may not either. someone concerned might just want to drop him a line and see if he was aware and maybe he'll stop selling them.
 
RetrOmatic said:
If he knows it`s your work here , yes it is wrong , he needed to ask for permission at least .

But if your work is not a copyright reg , can you stop him ? even though it is cheeky .

If he never knew who did that art , and just reproduced a sticker he saw , that is different again , as if the sticker has no copyright or patent /company owner , he can do what he wants with it i would think
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Lots of people assume that anything not "registered" is fair game, but that is simply incorrect. A registration reinforces your claim to the material, but copyrighted material does NOT have to be registered to be protected. You own the rights to an exclusive work the instant it is created. I recently successfully executed a DMCA complaint on a competitor that stole some of my content. His counterclaims were;

1) You did not register the copyright, therefore it is public domain.
2) It was my content and you stole it from me originally.

I used the internet archive to show that we published the content (including a unique spelling error) three years before he registered his domain name, and 5 years before the content appeared on his page.

It does make it more complicated that this is an original work based on non-original elements, but that does not vacate your claim. You may owe Nintendo royalties, or they may wish to send you a cease-and-desist letter, but that does not change the fact that your work is original. Since the reality is that Nintendo will never pursue you, I would press forward and either demand royalties or issue a cease-and-desist as you prefer.
 
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Glass Joe said:
If this piece was a one off how did he get a hold of it to reproduce?
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Probably bought one from Rich, scanned and printed. Happens all the time I'm sure. In fact, someone is selling Venture and Mouse Trap art using images from my site. Can't imagine it would look great but I can't do anything about it because I don't own the original files.
 
I don't think it is right that he stole your design, it reminds me of playing DK2 on MAME. It is just different when you steal from the "little man". Look at it this way, he is selling them for $5.50, after eBay fees, PayPal fees, packaging fees, driving to the post office, and shipping costs he is probably clearing $3.00 at most. Hardly seems worth it anyway. Flag this listing as inappropriate and hopefully it will go away.
 
If he won't remove them, create a fictitious e-bay account, bid on it and don't pay. Do it over and over... he'll get the hint!
 
I don't think it's right that he's aping your design, you should definitely send him a message about it, and maybe report it to ebay.

People do need to chill on the copyright thing though. How can you protect something that is for the most part, Nintendo's property? The DK3 logo, the Nintendo Copyright text, and even if the pixel art is original, all of the characters are an unmistakeable likeness of the Nintendo's. Having some original text and an original composition of these things doesn't matter. It's still based on and featuring someone else's material.

Now will you get sued for making it for yourself? Never

Could you get sued for selling it? You could. I doubt they would unless you were reproducing something that took money out of their pockets. I'd never want to be sued by the big N - That would be lights out.

I'm definitely not passing any judgement, and I think it's fucking rad that John made his own art - We need more of that in this community. I also think it's a douche move to reproduce his work and re-sell it, but look at all the reproduction stuff that is sold in this hobby. For the most part it's ALL STOLEN, and vectorizing something in illustrator does NOT make it your property.
 
Sucks to hear it John, you worked your ass off to create that and now some freeloader is trying to profit from it.

Listen to PLdoolittle. Send the guy a good strong email (report to ebay that he is selling restricted items without a right to and get his email address etc and send a hard copy letter).

Additionally, you have enough people here to 'flash mob' the guy. Constant barrage of questions to him. Bidding, buying and then neg'ing. His choice...
 
Or you could just start selling them for alot less. Undercut the hell out of him and he gets almost no profit and he quits.
 
What is next for this guy? Maybe reproducing $20 bills.

They have no copyright buy yes they are protected. Only our government can authorize printing more money.
 
I think it is ok to be pissed, but you would be more prudent just to keep your mouth shut. You created it in violation of Nintendo's copyright/ licensing so you are both technically wrong. Kind of hard to say hey this guy stole from me what I stole parts of from someone else....
 
vicemikey said:
For the most part it's ALL STOLEN, and vectorizing something in illustrator does NOT make it your property.
Click to expand...

Dude, I totally agree with you and everyone else that is saying the same thing. You're preachin' to the choir. I fully understand what's going on here and that no one has any rights. PERIOD. I did this for fun and for me. I created a decoration for my game. It was a fan project. I'm just saying, what this guy is doing is bad form. And if it is someone from here, that sucks. The art either came from a post I made here, my website, or from Rich's printing. So, whoever it is, he is amongst us. :) I just don't get why someone would do it, that's all. The community is pretty small. So, why bother. Which is why I asked "Do you think this is cool?"
 
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jow said:
I think its cool. You should feel honored.
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You know what's funny... Someone on Ebay right now is seeing this sticker and thinking this was an original sticker that came with the game. Is history being altered? :)
 
blkdog7 said:
You know what's funny... Someone on Ebay right now is seeing this sticker and thinking this was an original sticker that came with the game. Is history being altered? :)
Click to expand...

See? You feel better already.
 
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