It's good or bad to earn from copyrighted stuff?

[Enov]

Hi,

I built an anime merch store year ago, and I earn pretty well from it.
I sell almost anything related to anime : clothing, figures, posters, phone cases...

But I have always this question in my mind, I'm doing something bad? I steal or I help stealing someone else's work?
I'm doing just dropshipping, I don't create or sell products really, and I know those companies don't care about me as they are already millionaire, but just sharing my thoughts with you.

What do you think? those days everything is about copyright!

 

[Mika]

I would be worried about ability to process payments as all payment processors states very clearly that selling unlicensed copyrighted goods is strictly forbidden. Sooner or later they will find it out and close account(s). There is also risk to get sued by copyright holder. Companies care, especially multimillion/billion brands. Some of them will send first notices, some will sue right away. They could also ask your hosting company/payment processors/marketing channels/even domain registrar etc. to terminate any business with you. I would not touch on copyrighted items without license, especially if you are building long term business.

 

[Enov]

Even if we are dropshipping only?
I mean those products we can find them in Amazon, Ebay and Aliexpress sellers, somehow we are just linking to them. Maybe also those sellers have authorization to use copyrighted images in their products.

 

[absimp]

somehow we are just linking to them.

As a dropshipper you are not "linking" to them, you are (re)selling them.

 

[EfraimDiveroli]

Definitely a bad idea and please be aware of the risk involved with copyright stuff. You may lose your domain, your house, etc.. Depends on how aggressive the company is at protecting their trademark.

 

[Enov]

Why then there is many anime merch in ebay, amazon, aliexpress/alibaba and no one talk to them?

 

[EfraimDiveroli]

Often times its too much trouble for large companies to go after them. But some are quite aggressive such as the case of Gerber and onesies at Etsy few years back. They do have to protect their brand and trademark. As with the case of onesies if the word onesies gets too common then they could potentially lose the trademark. Although that is subject for debate. Bottom line is you are asking for trouble selling this kind of stuff. Yaros' worldofharry got into some problems too as I remember.

 

[Enov]

I remember, you can't even use the name onesie in your listing or store info in Etsy.
Yaros have also anime merch store, very popular and it seems he doesn't have any issues with it.

 

[kevgl]

I remember, you can't even use the name onesie in your listing or store info in Etsy.
Yaros have also anime merch store, very popular and it seems he doesn't have any issues with it.

Question is, does Yaros use this for demo purpose or actually processing payments. I have had some copyrighted things also, i was asked for licenses about selling. It was an inactive store so i put it down immediatly. Somehow i think 80% of the products do have copyright infringement, but on some you can notice the difference and some not. It confuses me on choosing my next nice though..