I have been thinking over this for a while, and it was about something the person said - that he is one of hundreds if not thousands that are taking advantage of this unregulated and illegal situation. Tarot is big business - as a creative artist and as a professional reader - Tarot generates money, and if it didn't it wouldnt have escalated as it has over the years.
I wonder then how much money has been lost from the pocket of the creator of Tarot (and even Oracles) in illegal dealings from the internet?
I would estimate it would be considerable to some, and less to others, but still I think it would be calculable.
Over the course of 10 years it maybe the cost of producing another deck.
To give an example, there are 2 major industrys which are now aware of the cost from downloading copied material - one is the publishing industry (which recently has some of the major publishers putting their pubications on their own ebook sites) and the other is SAG - the Screen Actors Guild (threatening to strike over re-runs and DVD percentage rights). The redistribution of creative works
without payment to the creator and/or copyright holder is out of control. Money is being lost, and it is vast enough sums for the big guns to take action.
Here at AT, someone gives the heads up about an illegally used deck (most related issues are copyright) and the amount of work which goes into contacting the creators and those who are vulnerable to this illegal activity is huge.
I am wondering then, when, how, or will there ever be something like an Alliance of Tarot Creators which, as a group, can confront any issues which come up as a copyright concern with the internet and pirated CD's?
Most of the decks I have seen being used or distributed illegally which infringe copyright basically come from a reasonably small pool of people and business'.
Would it not be better to voice your concerns as a collective instead of having to individually tackle each and every heads-up which comes to your attention?
As far as I can see, this is situation is getting worse, and without some form of semi-official warning, these pirates will keep doing this. This thread is a classic example of the sophisticated programming which allows this to take place. Though there is no sophistication about the person selling it
Is it a cause worth considering?
Or is it all just too hard?
Just some thoughts
Cheers
Elven x