Wholesale dilemma

    From a web designer point of view the best solution is to put
in a watermark 

You don’t have to get watermark software if you have jpeg editing
software that handles layers, just create a semi-transparent layer
and put it on top of the layer containing your image. Any attempts
to Copy and Save As will pick up the mark. If you use tables to
organize the images on your web page you can make the image you’re
trying to protect the background of the TD and a transparent or
semi-transparent image on top in the same cell.

For those of you who have used embedded watermarks, just an FYI that
there’s software out there that will strip the watermark code from
the jpeg and resave it. Aren’t we clever?

No one’s mentioned the lawyer approach yet. If the “not really a
wholesaler” that you are dealing with doesn’t agree to remove the
images, you might have to go this route. It’s not fun, and can get
expensive, but if you, at any time in the future, decide that you
don’t want someone to re-use your images (or designs) without your
permission you’ll have to be able to show that you’ve done
everything you can to protect them. If you leave them out there, the
re-user can claim that you implied consent to use by not doing
anything. I’m not a lawyer but went through a similar issue a few
years ago with some software I wrote.

Here’s hoping that “the not really a wholesaler” is nice and just
didn’t know any better rather than the other more nefarious
possibilities. Good luck!

Nora
(I just got a bag of pumice for soldering- who thought I’d ever pay
for a box o’rocks!)

Hi all,

Well, my crisis seems to be resolved - I sent a firmly but
diplomatically worded e-mail to the reseller explaining that I could
not function as a drop-shipper, and asked that she remove the items
from her site. She did so immediately, and without argument, so
hopefully that’s the end of that. (I will be stopping by the site
occasionally to make sure that no familiar-looking amulets appear on
it!)

This has been one of those learning experiences (geez, don’t you hate
those?) in which Orchid has been an indispensable source of support
and advice - a donation-worthy one! :slight_smile:

Thanks to you all,
Jessee Smith
www.silverspotstudio.com
Cincinnati, Ohio

 Once someone buys your product, they can do whatever they want
with it.

Thank goodness, this is not entirely true. They can’t, for example,
resell it as their own work. They can’t use it as the basis of a
direct copy, even in another medium. Anybody remember the story of
the big-time “sculptor” who bought a postcard of an old man and a kid
with a row of puppies on a bench, sent it to Asia to be made into a
life-size resin sculpture, and sold a “limited series” of these
(without ever putting his hand to them, except maybe to sign)? He got
sued by the guy who took the photo, and had to hand over all the
money.

We have intellectual property laws in the US. They may not be easy or
cheap to enforce, but we have them.

Nonetheless, the original poster’s point was correct (as far as I
know) – you can’t control whether someone resells your work or for
how much. You can ask them to sign an agreement, but I’m not sure you
could enforce it if they chose to disregard it. But then, I’m a
jeweler, not a lawyer!

–Noel