LewisM
29-08-2014, 12:45 PM
I was perusing an Australian telescope retailer's site today, and came across what I consider rather unusual and somewhat deceptive.
2 particular telescopes were shown, each with their own respective sales page. Both identified as second hand items. No problem with that, but then examining the photographs, it became clear that besides showing a manufacturer advertising photo (of which this retailer is not an approved dealer), each subsequent photo showed SOMEONE else's scope - one I know to be a member here (who has resold the scope, and I seriously doubt the new owner has again resold it, considering we discussed it only a few days ago), and the other is a US owner who showed his on Cloudy Nights. Not a single photograph of the actual scope, even though the scope is claimed to be a one-of, second hand item.
The second scope I have not tracked down the origins of yet, but it SEEMS again to be Cloudy Nights.
I am troubled by this on a few levels. One point is since the ACTUAL telescope for sale is NOT shown, but rather OTHER'S scopes and manufacturer representative images, what recourse does one have apart from demanding actual photographs of the item in question? The second point is, is the use of non-approved images intellectual property theft? I know it is a serious issue in the USA, and display of someone else's images WITHOUT consent is an enforceable violation of copyright (implicit or implied) - I was recently asked by a Cloudy Nights admin to show consent of ownership of an image (which I duly did), and when I ran 2 US based internet forums, we had similar issues. Under Australian Law, does the posting of an image become "Public Domain"? Or is it still entirely enforceable copyright? Not even a reference to the original owner/photographer was annotated on the photos or description.
To me, it definitely calls into question the integrity of a dealer/retailer.
2 particular telescopes were shown, each with their own respective sales page. Both identified as second hand items. No problem with that, but then examining the photographs, it became clear that besides showing a manufacturer advertising photo (of which this retailer is not an approved dealer), each subsequent photo showed SOMEONE else's scope - one I know to be a member here (who has resold the scope, and I seriously doubt the new owner has again resold it, considering we discussed it only a few days ago), and the other is a US owner who showed his on Cloudy Nights. Not a single photograph of the actual scope, even though the scope is claimed to be a one-of, second hand item.
The second scope I have not tracked down the origins of yet, but it SEEMS again to be Cloudy Nights.
I am troubled by this on a few levels. One point is since the ACTUAL telescope for sale is NOT shown, but rather OTHER'S scopes and manufacturer representative images, what recourse does one have apart from demanding actual photographs of the item in question? The second point is, is the use of non-approved images intellectual property theft? I know it is a serious issue in the USA, and display of someone else's images WITHOUT consent is an enforceable violation of copyright (implicit or implied) - I was recently asked by a Cloudy Nights admin to show consent of ownership of an image (which I duly did), and when I ran 2 US based internet forums, we had similar issues. Under Australian Law, does the posting of an image become "Public Domain"? Or is it still entirely enforceable copyright? Not even a reference to the original owner/photographer was annotated on the photos or description.
To me, it definitely calls into question the integrity of a dealer/retailer.