It seems to me that one or two of our members may be outbidding each other for original WW2 photos of motorcycles. This week there was a nice war time photo of a G3WO Matchless on ebay that went for £57.20 including postage. Has the world gone mad, who would pay that sort of money for just a photo. A few yers ago you could buy a recon engine for that. Perhaps we should agree between us that we will not outbid each other and the winning bidder will then circulate high resolution copies to those that want them. Perhaps the first person to see the photo and register it on the forum should be the person who we agree will buy the photo? Is anyone here prepared to step forwards and admit they paid £57 for the photo? Cheers John

email (option): Tinley@btinternet.com

I totally agree with you but I guess the seller was quite happy.

Problem is that you can't see any more who has been bidding already. A few forum members (Lex, Jan, Rik, Rob, Henk etc) are already sharing photos of which quite a few are ebay photos and that works very well.

Henk.

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

£57.20 Was Marilyn Monroe draped over it?

However, a good idea John. One of the obvious problems would be that not all bidders are from the forum and a second would be that a bidding cartel arrangement, openly posted on the forum must break a rule or a law somewhere. I'm sure a corporate lawyer from ebay would be quick to tell you

email (option): cruiserchooser@hotmail.co.uk

I'll admit that I went to £15 on that photo and I thought that was a bit rich. It was nice that you could see the C Number and all the other detail very clearly. Just couldn't believe what it ended up on. I don't know why this has happened. I collect WW1 photos of tanks and 10 years ago I could pick them up for £1 or so each. A good one sold on ebay the other day for over £90!!I think the world has indeed gone mad.

Yes, was discussing this with John earlier this week, and seems the prices of pictures are going up a lot lately! have heard similar complaints on US forums too.

I'm sure Epay, cannot accuse anyone for not bidding on something!! there'll always be someone else. I have an agreement with John not to bid on Matchless stuff, so at least we're not biddng against each other, this works out fine.

Last week 2 Indian Mod. 340 pictures, went for over 100 pounds a piece, that is some serious money!

Could be someone is buying pictures for a book? and hopes to recuperate some money that way, you never know.

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

It's the law of supply and demand in action...the seller can't make someone pay that much. It's just a reflection of the degree of interest in the subject and the fact that people become obsessive about 'collecting'..More common photos on different subjects sell for pennies...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

I rarely bid on Ebay pictures, I assume Henk will buy them and share them with us anyway, I do look for them at shows and car boot sales but the prices are going up there too.

Another point, when you buy an original picture you are not buying the copyright, even if the original copyright has expired anyone who has copied the picture previously owns the copyright on their own scan or copy.

Rob

email (option): robmiller11@yahoo.co.uk

Copyright problems are a 'red herring' in my opinion, apart perhaps from the standpoint of multi national corporations where large amounts of money might be involved from the misuse of an image....There is simply not enough financial 'vested interest' for people to engage in costly litigation to prevent a pictures use elsewhere..particularly between individuals where no financial gain is being made..Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

As Ian says, Copyright is a bit pointless for most of us. If you have a copyright issue with someone, you have to pay to go through the courts and fight it. At the end of the day, the law is so loose and ill defined, especially on old images or those that have been copied many times before, you would be very unlikely to win and would have paid all that money for nothing. There are also many different types of copyright, intellectual, design, artistic and so on, it's a real minefield. There is also the argument that if a certain time has elapsed or the original owner/photographer is dead, the copyright is expired and is a free for all. There are actually copyright free images distributed to news agencies during both wars that certain folks are now claiming they have the copyright for. I have loaned original images to certain military institutions, from which that took copies. I know for a fact that they now claim copyright on these images and sell them to the public, but what can I do about it?

I saw a photo of my own bike, taken at Weymouth Veterans Weekend, on the internet for purchase by the copyright holder (the creator of the image)...How fair is that when an individual can create an image of my property without my permission and then I have to pay for it if I want to use the image?... ....Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Did you appear it in the picture? that may alter the value somewhat Rob

email (option): robmiller11@yahoo.co.uk

Up or Down?... ... ...Ian (don't forget I've got your Big 4 engine)

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Yes there are several pictures of my vehicles at the tank museum taken by their own photographer (Roland Groom) that I haven't got the right to own or reproduce??......Strange. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

The copyright issue got me scared enough.
I have a nice number of pictures, but do not put many of them on the website for fear of the copyright issue.

On one hand there is not much to get here but as this is a hobby, I do not want to pay fines in any way, or be dragged into such a legal clash.
Its definitly a limiting factor on my website.

I once had an email from an angry Indian who told me to remove a B4 picture because I had no right to sell it!!!!!!
It was a picture I had found on the internet and shown without any details on its whereabouts or such. I removed it immediately as I have no wish to annoy people. Peculiar experience that was! (Hello Yoda)

Cheers,

Rob

email (option): wd16h@telfort.nl

I like to buy photos of a certain city I visited in the 1970s-especially when they feature places where I was. Back in October, I bought three prints on ebay-they were cheap, "buy it now", and I clicked on them. The seller was in Scotland, I seem to remember.
Lately, the negatives have popped up on ebay, from a seller here in the US.I have already incorporated them into a page i have on the web, so I was more than a bit irritated to see the negatives for sale. My favorites are slides-then I'm pretty sure of having the rights to a photo-I've paid more that $200 for a single slide before. There are a couple of other bidders out there that I can count on to try to outbid me.

email (option): m20wc51@yahoo.com

Alright Doug...You've got me...which city?...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

I sometimes bid 'silly' money for a photo but it generally has to be of a BEF Norton with legible census and/or formation markings. I generally refer other makes to the interested parties who coincidentally also frequent this forum, although I might make an exception if it was with 2nd Infantry Division.

One of the things that attracts me is that most books are showing the same old photos, mostly those which were wartime-syndicated. A 'new' photo that I can enlarge and examine closely for contract-specific details is worth more to me than most books would be. I also bear in mind what I have to pay to the various archives and publishers if I want a high-res image.

Posting a live auction on open forum is a risk. It will be seen by more than just the half-a-dozen who are prepared to share which could push the price up more than keeping silent.

I posted a picture on here some time ago and somebody complained that I had copied it from their website, I did not have the heart to tell him that it had been replicated many times on the net and I had got it from a totally different site from his. I only collect pictures to share with you guys, not for profit of any kind.

Ian Wright

Alright Doug...You've got me...which city?...Ian

email (option): m20wc51@yahoo.com

If you feature in a photograph and its sold or used for commercial purposes then you need to have signed a release form for your image to be used.

A friend of mine had his picture taken without him knowing, it was of the back of his head on the phone on a trading floor which was used in a poster, he made a few grand out of it as they used the image without his permission.

Copy right on these old images for personal use is a red herring, unless the image is owned by say Getty Images or other commercial picture libries and can be proven, they have a department for that, I know as I worked there. They will only fine you if you are re-selling the image, if its on the shed wall or we share them around, no-one cares really, but if the image is say used for the forum photo then they can ask for a fee for its usage as they own the image.

The photograph resellers on ebay are playing a bit of a cat and mouse game, if they are grabbing images from the internet, photoshopping etc and then re-selling them on they can get fined, its basically teh same as walking into a cinema with a video camera and selling copies of the film of course.

You could of course always sell original images to these commercial companies.

Some of the ww2 photo albums are crazy money, you should see original U-Boat pics and items now. I suppose if you collect originals then thats your thing right, but bidding out each other I'm with Joe, some of the images are just too great not to share and I'm glad we do.

email (option): kit247@hotmail.com

Working on that theory Kit, the Tank Museum must owe me millions £ . I'm in lots of pictures that have been taken by their photographer over the years of some of my vehicles/motorcycles with me clearly as the driver. Loads of other people with their vehicles also for sale at the Museum with "Copyright the Tank Museum" stated Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

It's the price of fame Ron...You're a Leg end in your own lunchtime.. ...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com