Pirating: How Deck Creators Can Help Prevent Piracy

[Joan Marie]

Pirating fake versions of all kinds of things is a problem everywhere and as long as there is determination on the part of the manufacturers of fakes and a willing public to purchase sub-par products, it will never be completely wiped out.

I wrote in another post some information for buyers and collectors about the perils of purchasing pirated tarot decks and some tips to avoid buying them by mistake.

But what steps can deck creators take to keep their work from falling into the hands of thieves?

The first and most easy to control is taking care with how you display your work.
Everyone wants to give people a good look at the work, but posting high-res images of individual cards makes them pretty easy to snatch.

Here are some ways you can proudly display your work without making things easy for a pirate:

• Watermark your cards.

• Don't post single images, at least not of the whole deck. Photograph your cards in groups, fanned out, spread out, use strange angles, anything to make them look attractive to buyers but impossible for pirates to use them.

• Post very low-res images. A resolution of 72dpi will look fine on the web. An image saved smaller than tarot-sized dimensions will also look just fine on your web page (and will also load really fast!)
  But when a pirate tries to grab that image and re-size it, the result will be utterly unusable for print.

But what about the printers we choose to work with? How can we protect our work when we send off such beautiful hi-res images to them? How can we know it will be safe?

I recently had a conversation with the printer I work with, Ivy Feng at her company, Shenzhen XM Playing Cards Co., Ltd. about this topic. It is one that she and all reputable printers take very seriously. They have much at stake here also.

Ivy shared some information and some tips on what we as deck creators can do as we work with printers to help keep our work out of the hands of pirates.

The information she gave me is specific to working with Chinese companies, but much of it can still be used in some form when working with printers anywhere. But since so many cards are printed in China, it's good to know some things about how they operate.

First, every legitimate Chinese business has a Company Certificate. This is a very important government issued document that connects the company to an individual. Ask to see this document and the printer should have no trouble producing it for you on a moment's notice. NOTE: This document is only issued in Chinese language. If they show you an english one, it's a fake.

Here is a copy of Ivy's certificate:

Company Certificate

You'll notice on the bottom right hand side is a stamp. This is an official stamp also issued by the government with the company name. This stamp that appears here is also in Chinese, however, every business is also issued (by the Chinese government) an English language stamp which they use when working with non-Chinese customers. If any printer is not able to produce an English language stamp for you on documents, look out.

This stamp is also used on any non-disclosure agreement. Printers can provide you a signed and stamped NDA on request assuring that your artwork will only be used for the purposes you intend. I would imagine that it is also possible for you to also provide an NDA of your own for them to sign and stamp.

You may also see this stamp on invoices or contracts or any other documents you may exchange with your printer.

You should know also that any company who violates the trust of the client by faking any of these documents or stamps or ignoring an NDA is subject to very strict punishment under Chinese law.

Aside from that legal stuff, here are some other practical tips for working with any printer anywhere:

• Establish a good working relationship with your printer contact. Use Skype or Facetime chat features and Video. Communicating face-to-face helps a lot in establishing a friendly and trusting relationship. Not only that, it will improve your communications and help you discover and discuss more options.
  
  Your printer should understand your goals and help you achieve and exceed them by offering you ideas and new options. Face-to-face contact is invaluable in establishing this level of working relationship while building trust.

• Your printer should also have a social media presence. This kind of transparency goes a long way in helping you to have confidence in your printer's integrity. Social media can also be a great way to communicate via DMs and chat.

• And if and when you have the possibility, visit. Go see the operation for yourself.

There are other things that can be done. For example I would like to see anyone submitting artwork for printing be required to sign and verify they are the creator or have the creator's permission before any printer will accept their work. I would have a high amount of confidence in a company that did this.

I'm sure there are other ideas, but these are just a few things to know to help us become more aware of the part we play in preventing pirating.

It's in the best interest of every printer, distributer, and artist to do everything we can.

EDIT: Ivy just wrote and reminded me she has 2 companies. The second one if for her Tarot Card business (she also creates cards) Shenzhen The Wheel Of Fortune Spiritual Art Creation Co., Ltd. 深圳市命运之轮心灵艺术创作有限公司

She sent me this pic of the Company certificate for that which has the English language stamp as well as the Chinese one.

Company certificate with both English and Chinese stamps.

[HRU's Muse]

I think the key is with the printing companies. If we could only get them to actually VERIFY that a work is owned by the person printing it, say by producing a legitimate copyright number that is tied to the name and legal address of the person and work. Something a bit more stringent than a pirate just checking a box saying they certify they own the work. Because of course they will!

This would create a few hassles for artists and printers, yeah, but it would be one more step pirates would have to take to steal something.

If printers would only become aware that they could be printing stolen works and do even a little due diligence it would help. If only there was a way to make it a standard in the print industry.

[HRU's Muse]

Maybe we need a thread "how printing companies can prevent piracy" that we can all point our printers too. Because they need to be aware they could be held liable too.

Because the prevention onus cannot just be on creators. Even if we don't post high res images, apps can be hacked, and a single deck sold can be scanned - scanners can scan cards at high enough resolution now to get decent enough print quality to pass even if it isn't as good as the original.

We (in the US) can also write our congress people. Because the way the DMCA law currently stands, an artist has to provide proof of infringement, but all an accused infringer (aka lying thief, in most cases) has to do is sign a statement that they disagree "in good faith" (!) and then they are allowed to continue unless the artist gets a court order. That puts all of the onerous burden on on the artist. The infringers don't have to provide ANY counter proof at all? That has to change. That law is outdated, and no longer provides any sort of protection in today's global online world.

So I intend to write, and once I get a good draft I will post it here, so that anyone who wants to can copy and send it.

[Joan Marie]

Maybe we need a thread "how printing companies can prevent piracy" that we can all point our printers too.

I agree. Printers have a lot to lose too if they get caught up in pirating. I think in China especially, penalty-wise.

So I intend to write, and once I get a good draft I will post it here, so that anyone who wants to can copy and send it.

This will be really helpful. We can just direct people ongoing to this thread as a resource. Or maybe eventually consolidate all this into a nice neat one.

Would probably also be helpful to show creators how to get copyright numbers.

[Joan Marie]

To Mel's point that the printers ought to be on the front lines of this issue, I am putting together a very short questionnaire that I want to send to printers.

This would be just a first step. I get the feeling that at this point in time, there is no system in place between printers and people submitting art to verify the person presenting it owns it, created it or has permission to print it. The Pirates play it off as their own and the printers don't ask questions.

Please note: I am not implying the printers are necessarily knowingly complicit. However, by ignoring the issue it does create a permissive atmosphere for pirates.

To open this conversation with printers I'd like to ask:

1. Are you aware of or concerned about the issue of pirating tarot and other cards?
Pirating definition: the stealing and unauthorised printing of someone else's art

2. Have you taken any measures to prevent pirating?

3. Do you require your customers to verify the art they are submitting for print belongs to them?
If yes, how do you do that?

4. If the art belongs to someone other than your customer, do you require the customer to provide proof they have permission to print it?
If yes, how do you do that?

I have a lot more questions, but to get the conversation started at all with printers will be tricky.

[HRU's Muse]

These questions for printing companies are great, Joan Marie!
I wonder if there is some sort of international guild of printers, as if so that might be a way to bring awareness to the industry in general - they must have trade newsletters or something. Some way of getting them as a group to consider the implications of this, rather than having to email every printer in the world individually. Or at least the biggest most widely used ones.

I think there are three key areas to come at this from, in order to better protect artists:

1) as mentioned, bring awareness to printers worldwide
2) petition lawmakers to get the current DMCA laws updated, to put the onus of court filings on the accused, not the accuser, or at least of providing support to those who hold proofs regarding legitimate copyright
3) also change the laws to hold the biggest worldwide online marketplaces more accountable, as currently they are aiding and abetting this behavior

These three pillars would go a long way to at least curb a good chunk of this

[Joan Marie]

I meant to post this a while back but forgot about it in world events and all.

COVR (Coalition of Visionary Resources) published an article I wrote about the pirating of tarot decks.
You can read it here:
There Be Pirates I Say