Good grief . . .

Reading the esty forums this morning I found multiple threads of people complaining about receiving infringement notices and/or having their shops shuttered "for no reason". (as if, there is Always a reason) 

I find myself rather annoyed with these people because when you look at their shops and realize that : 

One of them was reproducing stolen art. Literally found a picture of a painting, copied it without permission, and had them re-printed through some print on demand service and drop-shipped from god knows where. The "Seller" didn't do a darned thing they didn't create the artwork, they didn't print the repro, they aren't even seeing or shipping the product. 😡  This pisses me off, as someone who spends hours actually painting one of a kind artworks, I hope this fraud gets more than one notice and has their shop closed and is permanently banned from etsy. Lucky for them none of the stolen art they have listed is mine. (But I have seen POD people in my etsy stats, so I keep an eye out for my stuff.)

Second infringer example, "fan art" selling art based on very obviously trademarked and/or copyrighted characters. Their defense they draw and paint them themselves, never mind that it is someone else's original creation and famous cartoon characters are and should be completely off limits. Draw your own characters not copy Sailor Moon, the lack of creativity and originality is really troubling considering the art actually looks really good, the person has some talent just no morals or ethics or understanding of "Intellectual Property" rights. 😕  

Final prime example of what not to do, reselling junk.  No joke, not a single thing in that shop is handmade. Honestly, I do not believe that any of it is even qualified as vintage. New brand name make-up and commercially produced jewelry that looks so shiny and new, it's like the person decided since the wedding is off they should sell their engagement ring. Half way thru the comments the seller admitted they finally just read the seller handbook and if they had read it to begin with they never would have started on etsy. 😶  

Seriously why don't people read the "Terms of Service" or Handbook rules or anything really. ~sigh~