CIRO MARCHETTI IS SICK OF PIRACY

[Papageno]

and apparently considering cessation of creating and publishing new decks.

He states:

".....I will probabably not design anymore decks, and certainly not license the remaining one's I've self published. Because I simply can't deal or compete with the pirates. Who are pretty much sitting there waiting for whatever my next deck might be so they can get to work and steal it"

This is the originating message from Ciro at this link:

https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/ar ... ould-care?

I have permission from "gregory" to post the following communication, which she received from Ciro Marchetti.

This was originally posted on The Cartomancy Forum, and gregory also requested that a link be provided to that specific thread, which I think is only fair.

https://cartomancy.forumotion.com/t1479 ... it-matters

"Previously pirated decks were produced by small opportunistic outfits or even individuals, who scanned a real physical deck and then reproduced it. This was irritating but not drastic as the numbers produced and the quality was not of great concern, it was the more the principal.

However over the last six to eight months, this has changed. The sheer quantity of pirated decks being offered has increased significantly. They are offered at extremely low prices, and offered repeatedly with minor difference to wording and pricing in the ads. This is to circumvent the inevitable “take down” notices they expect to receive, yet will still be offering the same goods on the same platform, Alibaba, Wish, Etsy, even Amazon. This indicates a far more sophisticated activity. The decks themselves may be slightly different in size and card stock (usually cheaper and thinner) but the imagery itself is reasonable....why, because the printing files themselves have been obtained from the printers of the original legal deck. Wether they are stolen and sold by an individual employee or as inside job, is up for debate...

This is happening principally to mass produced deck that are licensed to and then published by the major publishers, so I don’t believe that Battersby and Thornsjo are effected who only self publish. In my case I do both I self publish and still keep some titles as special editions just from my web site, but of all the titles I have licensed to Llewellyn and USG they have ALL been pirated. If you were to go to Amazon on any given day, and type in Lenormand, Gilded Reverie, you would find several on offer at different prices. For every legit one going for around $20, you will usually find another 6 Illegal ones going for under $10.

Beyond the financial hit this may or may not have on my royalties. There is another factor. The reason this piracy issue is growing, is because it makes money, why? Because people buy them, why ? Because they are cheap. In some cases innocently thinking they are simply getting a bargain. But I no longer believe that naïveté , how many people seriously don’t realize that there is something “iffy” when any given deck is that much cheaper. So if they buy such decks, what does that say about the morals and ethics of this supposedly spiritual community. One that would screw the official publishers and artists out an income, so they can save about $10 to $15 on a deck, yet probably charge about four times that amount on just one professional reading.

So my motivation for investing between 9 months and a year to produce another deck, just so it can at some point be ripped off?? No i don’t have that motivation any more. My wife tells to to take it as a compliment that I’m apparently the top target for the pirates...I’m not that chirpy about it...

To add insult to injury I periodically get requests to provide the companion document because that cheap deck someone bought didn’t come with one......hmmmmm, I wonder why."

[BlueStar]

I'm so sorry to hear about this. Piracy is indeed a nightmare these days (and I don't know what the solution is). I really do hope Ciro changes his mind at some time in the future. I have a couple of his decks and they are wonderful, a perfect fit for me. I would be terribly sad if they were no longer available one day:(

[Papageno]

I'm so sorry to hear about this. Piracy is indeed a nightmare these days (and I don't know what the solution is). I really do hope Ciro changes his mind at some time in the future. I have a couple of his decks and they are wonderful, a perfect fit for me. I would be terribly sad if they were no longer available one day:(

We can only hope that he will find a viable alternative within the publishing industry that possibly offers more protection, however, I don't really see how that can be achieved, although I don't know the intricacies of that business.

I also don't know how the licensing agreement is set up between him, U.S. Games Systems and Llewellyn.

So if you want to be assured that you will receive authentic copies of his existing decks, purchase them now directly through his publishers, U.S. Games Systems and Llewellyn, and if you go through Amazon, make sure you DO NOT purchase from a third party seller, even if an offering says "fulfilled by Amazon".

The caption must read: "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com."