Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Pro Business Discussion => Topic started by: MichaelEzra on June 04, 2018, 10:12:06 am

Title: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: MichaelEzra on June 04, 2018, 10:12:06 am: I found unauthorized e-commerce website apparently selling prints from web-sized images stolen from my website / ebay listings.

https://www.kskswww.online/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=MICHAEL%20EZRA&inc_subcat=0&sort=20a&page=2

What would be the best course of action against this entity? Any experience you can share?
I am taking this very seriously and intend to pursue them to the end of this earth and till the end of time if it takes so.
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on June 04, 2018, 10:39:09 am: They claim:

“Original Limited Edition Archival pigment print - hand signed, dated & editioned; personally produced by the artist.”

How is that possible? Are they ripping off buyers as well? Or is someone who purchased your prints reselling them?
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: MichaelEzra on June 04, 2018, 10:41:02 am: All information is copied from my item description, which is the same on my website and on eBay listings.
Looks like they rip off everyone.
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: Martin Kristiansen on June 04, 2018, 10:46:02 am: Are they selling the prints for more, less or the same amount of money that you are selling them for? Could they not be buying from you and then selling on?
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: MichaelEzra on June 04, 2018, 11:43:28 am: They are selling prints from the web images that they copied from my website.
They are selling for $37 while my prices are $450 to $4000, so of course they are not re-selling my real prints.
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: drmike on June 04, 2018, 11:46:30 am: What happens if you or a friend buy one in apparent good faith? Would the vendor then be guilty of fraud? I think they might be in the UK.

In the UK it is quite easy to commit fraud and if you can get a prosecution going I think it tends to be prison time :)
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: MichaelEzra on June 04, 2018, 12:04:43 pm: Yes, it actually IS fraud.

Their domain name is registered from Japan:
Registrant State/Province: Shizuoka
Registrant Country: JP

But most of the information is missing. They intend to cover their tracks.
https://www.whois.com/whois/kskswww.online
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: Martin Kristiansen on June 04, 2018, 12:08:58 pm: Quote from: MichaelEzra on June 04, 2018, 11:43:28 am
They are selling prints from the web images that they copied from my website.
They are selling for $37 while my prices are $450 to $4000, so of course they are not re-selling my real prints.

That wasn’t immediately clear to me. All I can say is good luck. I really hope you are able to nail them.

Lovely images by the way.
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: drmike on June 04, 2018, 02:14:45 pm: So, I guess you get a friend in Japan to buy one and see what happens. I imagine the Japanese take fraud very seriously as it must be a very un-Japanese thing to do.
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: Box Brownie on June 04, 2018, 05:50:33 pm: I have seen mention of and some success mentioned by folk using these guys.

http://www.pixsy.com/find/

I wonder if they can help in your situation???
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: JoeKitchen on June 05, 2018, 08:12:37 am: This is one of the craziest cases I have seen. Are you an ASMP member? If so, you should reach out to our legal counsel Tom Maddrey.

Also, are these images registered with the Library of Congress so you get full copyright protection?
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: Joe Towner on June 08, 2018, 12:36:40 am: So they're pulling the images from eBay ...

<a id="zoom1" class="cloud-zoom" rel="" href="//i.ebayimg.com/images/g/OkwAAOSw42JZEcX0/s-l500.jpg" style="position: relative; display: block;"><img src="//i.ebayimg.com/images/g/OkwAAOSw42JZEcX0/s-l500.jpg" alt="MICHAEL EZRA Fine Art Print Unimpossible BZATA815V2 Open Numbered" title=" MICHAEL EZRA Fine Art Print Unimpossible BZATA815V2 Open Numbered " style="display: block;" width="150" height="120"></a>

I wonder how their site works if you pull down one of the auction listings - 332370430463 is the one on https://www.kskswww.online/michael-ezra-fine-art-print-unimpossible-bzata815v2-open-numbered-item-460.html

I'd DMCA their CloudFlare account - that's step one.

-Joe
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: MichaelEzra on June 08, 2018, 09:53:03 am: Yep, they are pulling images off what seems is an ebay's server and selling fraud items.
I've changed the image for that listing (added a border). It is not reflected in real time, they probably have a periodic sync to i.ebayimg.com.
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: Joe Towner on June 08, 2018, 12:54:26 pm: The new image has a new URL, so now it's a matter if/when the old one is flushed off the eBay servers...

Might want to reach out to eBay as to the fraud - chances are you aren't the only one, and eBay might be interested due to them being the source & host for the artwork.
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: MichaelEzra on June 09, 2018, 03:27:50 pm: DCMA to Cloudfare & call to eBay - the listings were magically removed.
I discussed with eBay at length option to implement dynamic image URLs and change them periodically. They took the suggestions.. we'll see.

Would be great to get this website removed entirely - looks like everything on it is fraud copies of ebay listings.
Title: Re: Best way to kick their A**
Post by: MichaelEzra on June 21, 2018, 09:07:24 am: Thanks everyone for your help!