Originally Posted by
Bneighbor
Be very careful, just because it is from a Russian site, does not make it legal. It is still a copy written design. Many Designs sold on the net through eBay and such sites are bootleg and are copy write infringements. Disney owns their designs and are sold only through their distributors, so if you see design cd's advertised as "4000 Disney designs for $29.00" ( or any other too-good-to-be-true price) you can guess they are more than likely bootleg, and illegal.
just don't want anyone to find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
The reason there are so many people selling licensed designs and getting away with it now is because they are stretching the meaning of the First Sale Doctrination. Making copies of the design cards or disks and selling them is technically the illegal part, but it's sort of splitting hairs. Selling a licensed product you've bought, or selling a hand made item you've made using a licensed design or fabric, is not illegal, no matter what copyright holders say any longer. This went all the way to the supreme court. Justice Stevens handed down the ruling saying this-
"The whole point of the First Sale Doctrination is that once the copyright owner puts a copyrighted item into the stream of commerce by selling it, he has exhausted his exclusive statutory rights to control it's distribution."
Of course Disney and other manufacturers of licensed products don't want this ruling to be widely known to the public, but there it is. I've had this discussion several times at my LQS when someone over hears us talking about the sports themed items I make and sell.
Cari