I hate Moviegoods

[erik1925]

As collectors and buyers of film posters... none has the legal standing (unless you are the creator and copyright owner) to go after someone like Moviegoods. they lift images of STUDIO posters and sell reprints. Just because someone owns a copy of one doesnt make them the OWNER of that poster image. I found that they lifted a poster that i put on one poster website and are selling repros on their site for 20 bucks. The image even shows the additional fold lines and a bit of glare from the snapped photo..LOL

who, in their right mind, would buy something that looks like that? This was a one of a kind pre war belgian. If i could have reprints made.. i might sell them, too... cha-ching!

Jeff

[Dr Hackenbush]

In case anyone hadn't seen this posted on MoPo, looks like Moviegoods has been sued by Disney for copyright infringement in Cal District Court

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-cacdce/case_no-2:2009cv04968/case_id-448705/

[eatbrie]

Am I a horrible person for wishing, from the bottom of my heart, that they go down in flame?

Thierry

[treegate]

Am I a horrible person for wishing, from the bottom of my heart, that they go down in flame?

Thierry

Not at all, you know how I feel about them, I am in agreement with you. Anyone notice their Avatar "double-sided" posters seem to be missing their "Genuine Authentic Item" tag line that they put on their site listings for what they call originals? Makes me thing these are double-sided fakes they are producing, like what they were doing for Dark Knight Joker "B" styles.

[Carson]

I found that they lifted a poster that i put on one poster website and are selling repros on their site for 20 bucks.

who, in their right mind, would buy something that looks like that? This was a one of a kind pre war belgian. If i could have reprints made.. i might sell them, too... cha-ching!

Jeff

Good to see you here, Jeff

That's why anyone with interest in original film posters should avoid uploading to movieposterDB website, which is where they got your Belgian poster from. MPDB was harmless enough initially but that's no longer true. Movigoods now feeds heavily on movieposterDB.

Moviegoods pays a token fee for "download credits" then they download crap quality photos and scans of user submitted "poster pictures" from MPDD. Then Moviegoods stores those .jpg images on a hard drive and advertises them on eBay and their website as "MOVIE POSTERS".

As kovacs eluded to, much of their very business model is to exploit the uniformed and new collector.

[Carson]

And that's what so many buyers still don't grasp.

Moviegoods does not keep physical poster inventory of prints. The point is to "print on demand" so they are never out ink or paper cost. They do not have a print of Holiday's Kill Bill banner on a shelf or in a tube.  They store nicked image files from the internet (.jpgs .tiffs and .pngs) on a computer no different than yours or mine. A buyer pays for a print advertised as a "MOVIE POSTER" then Moviegoods clicks "print" and mails it to you. The posters are printed on a per-sucker basis, one by one. Larger items require ink dry time which is why they require "5 to 7 days handling".

Moviegoods moto should literally be: "Disappointing uniformed buyers with trash quality ink-jet prints since 1998!"

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

Disney and Fox have sued MovieGoods and its officers for copyright infringement of their posters.  Attached are the Complaint and Answer.  They're fairly legalistic.  The interesting part of the Answer is the laundry list of affirmative defenses that the defendants assert.  Apparently they don't have any licensing agreement to print or sell these.  

The parties have a mandatory settlement conference soon before a lower-level("magistrate") judge, which is routine in federal courts.

[ddilts399]

If they would have kept their base of operations in Canada this never would have happened. I highly doubt the studios wanted to mess with international laws.



This is going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I am actually hoping moviegoods comes through a winner.

[brude]

In a similar vein, I reported this one

[/url]http://stores.ebay.com/Epic-Comic-Shop[url]

to Ebay Australia last week because they have all of their forgeries categorized as "originals."  Evidently, Ebay is letting them ride.  As a copyright owner myself, I am disgusted at the blatant way these guys rip off the studios and their customers and... get away with it.

[ddilts399]

Let me clarify, I am not a proponent of their forgery business. This law suit also encompasses authentic material they are selling.

[Ari]

and I dont think they are forgeries, they sell as reproductions, or am I wrong? different kettle of fish

[brude]

'Reproductions' sounds studio sanctioned.  I don't have a problem with licensed reprints, I just prefer not to buy them unless they are from titles that are way out of my league -- Frankenstein, King Kong, etc.

When you advertise something original and then sell a fake...

for·ger·y  (fôrj-r, fr-)
n. pl. for·ger·ies
1. The act of forging, especially the illegal production of something counterfeit.
2. Something counterfeit, forged, or fraudulent.

We've all gotten stung, haven't we? I have a couple of 'originals' in the closet.
 :

[guest8]

As far as Ebay is concerned you have to be the VeRO to have have an item pulled .. and if the VeRO says to pull an item they do it no questions asked.

Here is EBay's response to my recent run in with VeRO related issues ...

*******

When VeRO participants ask us to remove a listing, they must sign a
legal document stating under penalty of perjury that they own the rights
to the copyright or trademark used in the listing, and that the items
listed infringe their rights.

We don't know exactly why the request to end the listing was made or how
to avoid having the listing ended again at the request of the rights
owner. The owner is not required to provide any specific information
about how the listing infringes. Often, the listing may seem fine to us.
However, when we receive a properly documented Notice of Claimed
Infringement, we are required by federal law to end the listing.

That's why we recommend that you contact the VeRO participant directly
with your questions and concerns.

[acidburn]

i followed the rules on this website and got my auction reinstated

http://www.rickdrew.com/fighting_ebay_VERO_DMCA_takedown.htm

[Carson]

In searching I'm starting to recognize recent high res emovieposter auction-photos Moviegoods has snagged from running actions, photoshopped to cover the emovieposter watermark, then chucking the image on eBay advertising an unprinted print for $19.99. One of which they didn't realize the linen border wasn't part of the poster. Will send you examples if interested, Bruce.

So, nothing can be done about this? Is that right?

[Carson]

You know, I'm shopping around and whoever you ass horns are who are uploading photoshopped emovieposter photos to moveposterDB really could do with a swift kick in the shorts. They're watermarked for a reason.

I was actually a movieposterDB apologist for a short while but as it turns out Archie Leach was precisely right, as usual, as I'm finding.

[kovacs01]

Wow, who would put in the time necessary to do that.  i just dont see it being that rewarding.

[Carson]

Wow, who would put in the time necessary to do that.  i just dont see it being that rewarding.

Me either. As to the reward sytem; the owner of the site, Jayeff (Jonas Frei) grants mpdb users "download credits" in exchange for uploading their high res photos and scans they find. If you do not upload you have to PayPal Jayeff for "download credits" in order to download the high res images.

in other words -- they're taking the time to photoshop emovieposter auction photos so they can, in turn, download other images for free.

[holiday]

that's just sad.  get a camera and takes your own pictures. 

I use digimarc to digitally watermark my photos in addition to the elephant logo that I put on them.  I can go to digimarc's site and track where my photos are anywhere on the net.  It's next to impossible to remove the embedded ditigal mark, even with many changes, resizes, etc.  It's not free, but it's worth it.  Folks like Bruce and Heritage should do more like this to ensure that the deadbeats at moviegoods aren't doing what they're doing as easily as they do it.

[eatbrie]

Has anyone actually bought one of their 27x40in reprints?  I'd love to know how they look.  It is a good quality reprint, at least?

T

[eatbrie]

Did you guys notice that Impawards dropped Moviegoods from its links?  Sorry if it has been talked about before, I just noticed.

T

[kauaitx]

I've hated Moviegoods since I was a newbie.  As a newbie, even I knew that the Revenge of the Sith one-sheets printed by ZigZag were not original posters.  The manager on the other end of the phone tried to tell me that they only sell original movie posters.  I had to explain to this manager why an original Star Wars movie poster would not come from any company called ZigZag.

What is not commonly known is how some dealers buy their supply of supposedly original posters wholesale from Moviegoods. 


Jeannie

[kovacs01]

Did you guys notice that Impawards dropped Moviegoods from its links?  Sorry if it has been talked about before, I just noticed.

T

I did not notice, but word is they owe a lot of their affiliates a lot of money for link hits, and they are not paying.  It appears that even the crooks over at movieposterdb.com have dropped them.

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

I bought three Moviegoods posters a year ago when I first started collecting.  The art area looks pretty good but the text is VERY blurry.  They wouldn't fool anybody on this board - or really even the greenest newbie.  It's obvious they took a photograph of the original and made no real effort to produce a "perfect" copy.  Later I bought a few digital reprints from a movie poster shop that were closer to the originals - see this thread for my pics.  But those still had moderately blurry text, which would alert any collector they were probably reprints.

[Dr Hackenbush]

What is not commonly known is how some dealers buy their supply of supposedly original posters wholesale from Moviegoods

Somehow this doesn't surprise me