I fowarded the list you provided Gregory.
I got the impression he intended to cooperate. So I tuned down the rhetoric as well, and provided some advise. (Some carrot to follow the stick)
Here is a copy of my last communications
--------More advice if you are interested.
You might not have much success in getting permission to use published decks, as they tend to be the copyright of major companies. However there are lots of decks created (and some very beautiful ones) that for any number of reasons were not selected by these companies. In some cases the artists were left with the option of self publishing. If you contact those artists, they might be interested in coming to an agreement with you to have their images included in your product, as they may consider that a means of promoting their deck.
Think about it.
Ciro Marchetti.-----------
So far our collective efforts have born fruit. And I agree with Elven's suggestion of creating a more formal alliance of some kind, that would would be able to respond to future occurrences with a common voice. As a group we can spread the word quite rapidly, to other tarot sites, organizations, groups etc. I think that would be an effective tool. While I personally don't have time to create or organize such a organization , I would certainly actively support one if it were created.
To be honest when it comes to decks such as the Gilded, its not such a big deal. Its a deck thats reasonably well known, it has the backing of a major publisher. And when all is said it done, its also been out long enough that any damage to sales by pirating would be negligible. But there is still a principal involved.
The real danger of these pirated deck images, is more to an individual artist, who after years of work finally finishes their cherished deck. They then have a dilemma. They need to show the images in order to attract customers, but in doing so leave themselves vulnerable to those images being taken by others, maybe even before they are published. That would be a tragedy.
