Isn't this copyright infringement?

I was surfing various websites, mainly different artists and came across a website of someone selling on Ebay. Since I am thinking about putting my artwork on Ebay, I clicked and saw these tiles for sale.

Here's a link for one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/MT-TC2-The-High...18975883QQihZ007QQcategoryZ4174QQcmdZViewItem

Isn't the Rider Waite copyrighted? How does one get away with doing something like this?

Is it just me or are people becoming more and more dishonest every day?

I am not 100% sure.... but....
Given the fact that it has been more than 50 years since the artist's death and that the image is clearly belonging to the deck, it is widely known and that the artist is not claiming the subject matter for their own, it may be allowable - assuming nobody owns the rights exclusively such as U.S. Games, etc.

I can go out and copy a Van Gogh - but so long as I don't claim the idea was mine or that is an original - I can reproduce one of his paintings and sell it.

Fine line, I think on this one....:bugeyes:

It's a lot easier to get around copyright laws than you might imagine. As long as what you have created is original, unique, and in tangible form you can claim your own copyright on that creation. If you started printing and selling Rider-Waite decks with blue plaid backs you might have a problem.

Yeah, I agree, I think it's a problem. If US Games had a good intellectual property attorney, they should be all over it.

More importantly, however, reading that listing shows the sellers aren't really very knowledgeable about Tarot and its history. They don't really seem to understand what they are doing and thus I personally would distrust 'em. Just my 2 cents.

we've had this discussion many times, there are previous threads on this..
Waite-Colman deck is 1909, anyone could copy that, recolor it, anything..

a link about copyright law..

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/faq.htm#US1909

"Any work published prior to 1922, regardless of the country of publication, the citizenship of the author, whether it was registered or not, is in the public domain in the United States. No further copyright claims can be made on that work, and any attempt to prosecute someone for use of that work would be thrown out of a copyright court.

Works published in the US today have a copyright term of life + 70. This is not retroactive, so US books previously in the public domain in the US did not get their copyrights restored when the new term of copyright was enacted.

The RWS cards and the Pictorial Key to the Tarot are in the public domain in
the United States, any other statements notwithstanding.

...of course this is opinion.. and anyone can sue anyone costing $$$$$ to defend , right or wrong

Honestly, like the art on the Waite deck is really that...art-like. It's about what's represented and not so much the image itself. And besides, Tarot images are so archetypal and these fixed things that...I dunno, you're selling the piece to someone because they like the concept of, say, The Priestess and want it in their kitchen. You just happened to supply the medium. You're not necessarily saying you're the originator of the image, you just took the time to transfer it elsewhere. Taking someone else's rendition of The Priestess in a more recent deck (let's say, Robin Wood) and transferring it to a painting, for example, might prove a bit tricksier.

Never mind the previous post about copyright law and public domain applies, too.