We do it because it's insulting to us to see some fucknut trying to turn a quick buck in a shady manner by using something we all spend a lot of time and effort collecting and researching legitimately. It has nothing to do with illegality; we all know someone who has done something illegal, and we don't go rushing to the police.
It's no different than what an art vendor or curator would do if he saw someone selling art copies.

No, not at all.  If this the line you want to assume, maybe we should move this to another thread and put up a poll question.  Part of the issue for me is that the seller is trying to make money without doing any work and the other part is that most sellers push them as being completely legal and sometimes Wotc/TSR authorized products (i.e. they are completely misleading the buyer).

If someone was selling DVDs of old games such as a complete Atari 2600 collection or the manuals, I would probably report them too.  However, here we do not try and police all of Ebay.  Even by limiting ourselves to the small area we deal with, I'm sure we miss most offenders.

Copyrights are asserted, not registered. I suppose one is breaking the law by copying the product but the copyright holder, even if notified, has to come forth and actually bring a lawsuit against him to cease the activity, destroy the copied documents, or whatever. The police just don't show up.

I would think it is highly unlikely for WOTC to care about the copying of a document 30 years old, particularly if one is not using it to generate revenue, or deprive the firm of it's own revenue. While the possibility of issuing replicas for profit exists, it seems unlikely to motivate the copyright holder to enforce their rights because it does them no noticeable harm. In fact, such an infringement may be beneficial for them. Moreover, even should WOTC bring this suit, and the defendant is found guilty, compensatory damages would likely be zero. It is even more unlikely that a court would actually dish out punitive damages on such a defendant unless there is some sizable theft at work.

I'm not endorsing the activity but, so long as the copyright isn't being enforced and likely bringing a very small penalty even if it was, copying these products is more akin to j-walking.

deimos3428 wrote:This is where cheap/free PDFs come in.  While a serious collector will not be interested or directly affected by them, I suggest to you that their internal valuations are affected by other people's opinion.  For many the PDF is enough.  If they lose interest in bidding on the original because of an affordable reasonable fascimile, the result is less tension in the auctions, resulting in a lower final auction price than if those bids were present.

I'd argue for each person that considers the PDF enough, there is another (or more) person who gets excited about a product they didn't know about because of the PDF and becomes a new prospective bidder that never would have existed before.

Pennfarms wrote:Lets not fool ourselves...the underlying concern here is to protect the (your) collector value rather than to report illegal activity.   

"Let's not fool ourselves"

You say this as if there is something wrong with reporting illegal activity to protect the value of our property, like that is "greedy."

Anyone posting illegal items, or forgeries, copies, etc. on EBay hurts that overall market.  They are an unethical seller, quite likely to be screwing people over in other ways.  That drives away buyers and hurts other ethical sellers, many of whom are members here.  I have no problem being a "cop" and protecting my interests by reporting illegal activity.

Pennfarms wrote:If I didnt know you were such a moral soldier, I might think youre threatening me.  But luckily I can see you are just using it as a very poor example.

First off and foremost, I don't typically threaten people on-line as its childish and it really means nothing.  However, if I was going to threaten you here, there wouldn't be any doubt, I don't typically have any difficulty conveying myself and my feelings in any particular format.

Now with that out of the way, lets move on to the rest of the crap you just posted:

Pennfarms wrote:If you cant see the difference between someone breaking and entering and stealing shit and some douchbag selling illegal PDFs on EBAY, then theres no reason continuing.

Do you mean other than the fact that A) Both are illegal to do B) Both are about property rights and people making themselves "at home" to other people's things without the owner's permission or without paying for the items themselves.  Yeah, huge difference there.

Pennfarms wrote:I am going to stop making coments because I can see its a volitile subject, and people are prone to getting their loincloths in a bunch.

 
Please do then.  Your, "its okay to break the law, take stuff that isn't yours and anyone who disagrees with me is either "greedy" or has some sort of 'cop complex'" speech wasn't very compelling anyway.

Pennfarms wrote:I own exactly ZERO pdfs.  as as I said earlier in this thread computer files are poor substitutes for the real thing.

Somehow, I would find this very hard to believe that you either don't own any illegal pdfs or any other types of bootlegged material, whether its songs, computer programs, etc. that you were so quick to point out earlier on in this thread. Call me EXTREMELY skeptical.

::calling::

"bclarkie, you're EXTREMELY skeptical."

This is for X

ShaneG.

jasonw1239 wrote:Hmmm....mellmorranth, not the first time I have seen you sparring with bclarkie.

viewtopic.php?p=106908&highlight=#106908

That was the portion of the thread where you refused to disclose you ebay ID.

Most people here are honest and straightforward enough that they are not afraid of letting people know who they are.

I don't know why you jumped into the thread and are so instantly hostile towards a long time poster on the forum, and I don't really give a rat's ass, but you obviously have a problem.

Agreed.  Poking and goading for the sake of such is unnecessary.  It's an assumption, but likely from where I am sitting.  

bclarkie is passionate and quite good at investigating shenanigans, of which I am appreciative.  He speaks freely, a quality under-appreciated in too many circles.

mellmorranth wrote:
that's bclarkie. he likes to jump to conclusions. as long as we're all making wild accusations , it sounds like Pennfarms is onto something with the cop complex. i've got a vote in for bclarkie being a cop or a guy who wanted to be a cop but couldn't pass the test.

let's put it to our cop lithus test

tries to indimidate and enjoys confrontation rather than treating anyone like a human. [yeah]

baseless accusations and assumption of everyone's guilt. [it has come up]

but with the accuracy of a skud missile or my weatherman. [oh hell yeah]

equates downloading mp3s with breaking and entering, and probably traffic violations with child mollestation. [yep]

knows like nine actual laws. [generous, but yep]

holds a productive job with the intention of protecting society. [well five out of six isn't bad]

 

Is this really the best you have?  You need to work on your trolling, its not very good. Then again, judging by your other failures, I can't say that I am all that surprised.

Seriously, is there anything in this world that is really much more pathetic than a lowly message board troll? Does your life really suck that bad you need to troll a forum to get attention? I guess so.