Can someone tell me why this is allowed to be advertised here?

[DougB]

https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/germa...41/#post978800

This twit sells this garbage, including decals he has ripped off of helmets where I have posted decal close-ups on various fora and have written said twit to cease and desist.

As well his decals appear on helmets fakers use and re-enactors use then sold to the unsuspecting. We see them on some of the witless wonderboy one post wonder threads "is it real and what's it worth". Now they are being sold here via an eBay link. What's the point of working to help educate collectors here if this is allowed to happen?

Or am I being impolite?

[DougB]

Looking at that entire section for the first time (believe it or not, now that it has my attention) --- why may I ask is it even here? It is crap fake helmet after crap relic helmet after crap restored helmet via what looks like auto-eBay links posted here. What is the point of this junk advertised here? It's bad enough junk from eBay, kajiji and ioffer is posted here with regularity on useless "is it real what's it worth" threads that waste everyone's time. But it seems to me we are propagating it with eBay links direct to door?

[kiwiwreckdiver]

Agreed, its hard to get started without consulting guys that have been in the game for a while or buying 100 reference books to start with then these shit heads come along with high quality replicas. I think I will have to stick to just relics in the future, its about as original as I get these days

[MD Helmets]

Awesome. I have to agree. Isnt there a place for this kind of thing, ebay, which is where it already is? Correct me if I'm wrong but arent most members here interested in genuine articles, not where to buy a repro decal. We all know where to find one if we need one.

[Gunny Hartmann]

Looking at that entire section for the first time (believe it or not, now that it has my attention) --- why may I ask is it even here? It is crap fake helmet after crap relic helmet after crap restored helmet via what looks like auto-eBay links posted here. What is the point of this junk advertised here? It's bad enough junk from eBay, kajiji and ioffer is posted here with regularity on useless "is it real what's it worth" threads that waste everyone's time. But it seems to me we are propagating it with eBay links direct to door?

Indeed, i've noticed lot's of junk!...

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Doug, these are simply E Bay feeds. They are not advertised for sale on the forum per se. It is a scource of revenue for the forum. Members have the option not to see these. I don't view them.

Cheers, Ade.

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Hi Doug , I can't get the link to work but if it refers to the "restored" helmets here in our classified section I most definatly agree! I personally always thought it a bit off to have these amongst the genuine helmets , it hardly inspires confidence in the forums market place to have fakes advertised with the original items(even if they are sold as restored!!) Leon.

[Walkwolf]

There is a section in the Classifieds for re-enactment/repro stuff.
Refurbished and restored helmets should go there, not in the
'Third Reich German Steel Helmet' section.........

[DougB]

Hi Doug, these are simply E Bay feeds. They are not advertised for sale on the forum per se. It is a scource of revenue for the forum. Members have the option not to see these. I don't view them.

Cheers, Ade.

Hi Ade,

I fully respect the forums requirement for revenue. However having a clown I have locked swords with over his stealing my real decal photos and replicating them for his own profit by way of selling them to assist those who want to steal even further from collectors who I spend time helping show up here option or not is not very palatable to me.

I get my work ripped off and then get to spend my time assisting those who are being ripped off further from said original rip off. Hmmm. Time stand still in other words. Seeing this ad - option or not - here on this forum, does not sit well at all with me, sorry to say.

I am certain if other collectors had their items replicated out there from stolen photos and sold to fakers, to make more fakes, they would agree with my rather hard line approach to this?

May I respectfully ask; At what point does the need for revenue override the need to protect collectors from further damage done by rip off artists and fakers?

Doug

[slados28]

I certainly see both Doug and the mod/Adrian side of things here. Revenue is of course important when running a larger site -- I also have to note that I recently got myself a really cool Ortsgruppe sign on ebay due to me accidentally noticing the ebay link on the right hand forum index. Then again I have years of experience dealing on there so I know what to look out for...
But I can also see that it might be not so beneficial for the more inexperienced collectors and that it may perhaps even be taken as an "official" site endorsement of the articles being sold via those links -- maybe a disclaimer should be put up to make the newer and more inexperienced members aware of the fact that the links are not screened and may contain, well--- crap, as well as genuine articles? Just a thought.

Regarding photos being stolen I have become convinced that the only way to have any kind of reasonable protection against this online is to watermark properly -- if you do it right it's not as easy as one might think to crop/edit them out again. A good watermarking program allows one to add, imo, pretty non-intrusive nice looking watermarks without ruining the whole viewing experience for those you are sharing with and, at the same time, it gives you a good enough protection against most shady re-use of your work --
But, indeed, let's face it --- given enough time, skill and (ill) will most anything can be removed and then re-used when it comes to protective measures added to copyrighted/private material. Sharing online is always a double-edged sword, I have experienced this in other collecting fields more than once.