Possible copyright infringment on eBay??

deman

I bought "The Complete Will Hay Collection" on 6 DVDs last week and had them arrive today in the post. To my surprise, they were copied onto blank DVDs. There is no attempt to make them look authentic with the name of the disc "Will 1", "Will 2"...etc scribbled on with a marker. I checked out the original item and, yes, it does mention that they are on DVDr and that it is all perfectly legal.

"This DVD'r does not encourage or facilitate the infringement of copyrights, trade marks, or other intellectual property rights on Ebay. All contents on this DVD'r are in the public domain and in no way breach any of Ebays policies or guidelines"

Can this be right? I'm worried that I have bought illegal pirate movies from the net. The item number is 270041121121.

Thanks

nava

deman wrote:

"This DVD'r does not encourage or facilitate the infringement of copyrights, trade marks, or other intellectual property rights on Ebay. All contents on this DVD'r are in the public domain and in no way breach any of Ebays policies or guidelines"

Can this be right? I'm worried that I have bought illegal pirate movies from the net. The item number is 270041121121.

Thanks

It does look like you got copies and will be illegal, that the seller wrote that disclaimer doesn't mean is legal.

Probably if you contact e-bay they will confirm the same.

Regards

monkeyfudge

Will Hay? Wasn't he around in the 1930's? There's a good chance the material is in the public domain by now.

deman

monkeyfudge wrote:

Will Hay? Wasn't he around in the 1930's? There's a good chance the material is in the public domain by now.

Here's a list of the movies I received and date thanks to IMDB. So are these public domain? How do I find out if they are or not?

# My Learned Friend (1943) .... William Fitch
# The Goose Steps Out (1942) .... William Potts/Muller
# The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942) .... Davis
# Go to Blazes (1942) .... Father
# The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941) .... William Lamb
# The Big Blockade (1940) .... Skipper
# Where's That Fire? (1940) .... Captain Viking
# Ask a Policeman (1938) .... Sergeant Samuel Dudfoot
# Convict 99 (1938) .... Dr. Benjamin Twist
# Hey! Hey! USA (1938) .... Dr. Benjamin Twist
# Old Bones of the River (1938) .... Prof. Benjamin Tibbetts
# Good Morning, Boys (1937) .... Dr. Benjamin Twist
# Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937) .... William Porter
# Where There's a Will (1936) .... Benjamin Stubbins
# Windbag the Sailor (1936) .... Captain Ben Cutlet
# Boys Will Be Boys (1935) .... Dr. Alec Smart
... aka Narkover (UK)
# Dandy Dick (1935) .... Vicar the Rev. Richard Jedd
# Those Were the Days (1934) .... Magistrate Brutus Poskett
# Radio Parade of 1935 (1934) .... William Garland

monkeyfudge

It all depends on the type of copyright that was applied to them.

For instance 'It's a Wonderful Life' was released after all those films and it's now in the public domain.

Other cases of the copyright lapsing could be 50 years after the films were made or 70 years after the copyright holders death.

Beano

Assuming that the copyright is held by a corporate body (in this case the film company) then is it 70 from date of creation.

Even if the copyright has expired that doesnt necessarily make your copies legal. If they were copied from retail DVDs then whomever sold you the copies has broken the terms of use of those DVDs.

deman

#Elites wrote:

price: £2.50

What where you expecting?

Legal DVDs?

j4vier

have to agree with elites
buy it now 2.50
quantity available 18

this at 99% should have made u realise they were copies

also some feedbacks although positive do mention they are copies ..

A Dub in Glasgo

Thread should be renamed to 'Possible genuine article on eBay??'

The place is overrun with illegal copies. The majority of which are people selling them as genuine discs. If you know your DVDs, you can spot most of them from the listing. Ebay do nothing about them.

rubadub

Anybody see watchdog last night. Had a section on fakes on ebay. Saying how ebay do feck all about it, even when reported. Had seemingly good fakes of timberland boots, addidas runners etc. I would presume most are fakes on ebay, unless the store had another site and was a proper powerseller.

Ideo

i think after 50 years all copyright material enters the public domain - thats why paul mccarthy wouldn't buy the beatles catalogue back off michael jackson - because they will be freely available in 2016+

irishproduce

Nice one, I love getting free stuff.

Roll on 2016