Copyright Theft
Perhaps we should be flattered by the number of people including dealers who continually infringe our IP (Intellectual Property) rights by using our copyright images, but we do not find it amusing, and will take legal action against any copyright thieves.
Sovereign Gold Coins
Sovereign Gold Coins, of (somewhere), are just one of the many coin dealers bloggers & websites worldwide who commit copyright theft by using our copyright images without our permission. On the Victoria Gold Sovereigns page of their website, a page of which we reproduce here, they are clearly using our 1899 Melbourne Mint Victoria Old Head Gold Sovereign Obverse photograph.
The photograph of the 1842 sovereign is the copyright property of CNG who stipulate it can only be used if a credit is included, which it is not.
The Victoria old head sovereign photograph on the Victoria Old Head page is the property of Cruzis Coins, who have not given their permission for its use to the best of our knowledge.
The George V obverse sovereign on their George V page is ours, as are a number of images on their Elizabeth II page.
The 1821 sovereigns shown on their George IV Gold Sovereigns page has been taken from CNG who stipulate:
Credit the source as "CNG coins (http://www.cngcoins.com)".
Sovereign Gold Coins "About Us" Page
We can't find any "About Us" page, which is a bad sign.
What's the guy got to hide, and why does he not tell us why he is hiding it?
Contact Page
There is no "Contact Us Page", only a post comments box.
Domain Name Lookup
We had to use a domain name lookup to find more about Sovereign Gold Coins :
Registration Service Provided By: NameCheap.com
Contact:
Domain name: sovereigngoldcoins.com
Registrant Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected ()
Fax:
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd. #110 - 732
Westchester, CA 90045
US
Administrative Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected ()
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd. #110 - 732
Westchester, CA 90045
US
Technical Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected ()
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd. #110 - 732
Westchester, CA 90045
US
Status: Locked
Name Servers:
ns201.hostgator.com
ns202.hostgator.com
Creation date: 22 Aug 2009 15:55:01
Expiration date: 22 Aug 2010 15:55:01
WhoisGuard?
Who or what is Who Is Guard?, you may well ask:
What is WhoisGuard?
Everyday domain owner's information is harvested by spammers from publicly available whois to send spam. WhoisGuard avoids this issues by placing our information in whois and provides an option to redirect email and regular mail to the customer's real address. During the process of transferring the email, we try to avoid obvious junk email and regular mail, thus relieving the customer from junk.
Rather like Domains by Proxy, its yet another registration site which allows anybody, from ordinary citizens through to muggers, rapists, terrorists, copyright thieves, and other assorted criminals and undesirables, to register a domain name without revealing their identity.
What's Wrong?
It is dishonest and unethical to pirate and steal other people's work by using high quality copyright photographs without the owner's consent. To do so in competition with them is doubly devious. We can partially understand why they do it; it is quick and easy (but then so is robbing people).
Advertising Shites
Sovereign Gold Coins has used a significant number of our high quality gold coin and bar photographs on its sovereigngoldcoins.com website, presumably to make it look professional and attractive, however this is dishonest, and Sovereign Gold Coins is creating an illusion of expertise and professionalism using the fruits of our hard work.
Sovereign Gold Coins appears to be one of the hundreds and pseudo-experts who are now making an income from writing expert advice sites. Their graphic content is usually pirated from other websites, and much of the written material on these sites is also, we guess, taken from sites like our own, written from experience by real experts and specialists, then re-hashed and re-served as original material. Most of it is actually crapware.
The income from these sites comes from selling advertising, often using Google sponsored links, and by directing buyers to eBay.
We strongly suspect that this gives most of these hack writers an incentive to be kind to eBay.
We believe eBay encourage this, and provide programming support to help anybody to do the same. We believe that this kind of viral marketing, and paid for placement on these websites is unethical. Site owners could and should provide a clear and readily findable page stating how their sites are financed. This might alert their more astute readers to the reason the site exists, and alert them to the very strong possibility of biased advice.
Our Conclusions & Advice
Avoid dealing with dishonest companies and individuals. If sites like Sovereign Gold Coins, who tries to create the impression on his website of himself having knowledge and expertise about sovereigns, but one who is dishonest enough to steal our photographs, should you trust him when buying or selling valuable gold or silver coins or bullion? We think not!
Also, should you take any notice of their advice. Again, we would advise against it.
Copyright Notice
Please see our "Copyright" page for further information.
Copyright Infringements Remedies
Our suggested draft remedies for copyright abusers dependent on category - competitors, bloggers, pseudo-expert & advice sites acting as eBay & Google portals, eBay & other auction site sellers.
Other Copyright Abuse
Other Copyright Abuse
Other Web Sites
All comments about copyright also cover content of all our other websites including, but not limited to:-
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Sovereign Gold Coins - Victoria Gold Sovereigns Page
Our Images
Obverse of 1899 Melbourne Mint Victoria Old Head Gold Sovereign
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