POLICY ON KNOCK-OFFS, PIRACY and PROTECTING CREATORS

Since our beginnings we have witnessed heated discussions and pointed accusations made regarding the selling of what is commonly called "knock-off" effects. We have heard a lot of opinions and experienced quite a lot of pressure to somehow assert some standard of enforcement and act as an authority to protect the creators of effects from being wrongfully undermined. We will continue to do what we can to guard against the outright and willful sale of counterfeit effects in our sales areas. We just cannot hold the role of casting judgement on specific items without evidence of intentional wrong doing or documentation that an item is illegal to sell.

The issue for MXN sales venues is that our spaces are primarily designed for non-commercial private sales of items. These items are posted by people who have purchased them from countless places. Many times they are not even the first purchaser of an item but may have acquired the item innocently enough through a swap meet, estate sale, or magic shop.

SME Groups operate on the rule of law

We DO NOT allow items that are illegal reproductions, patent infringements or copyright infringements to be sold in our spaces.

Surplus Magic Exchange groups have assumed the policy that the rule of law applies to all trades on our sales spaces.  This means that if an item is legal to sell in a private transaction between both buyer and seller in a free market then it is also legal to sell in our spaces. All trades are private exchanges. All parties are individually accountable for their role in those exchanges respectively as buyers or sellers.

Enforcement Claims for Removal

Claims for removal of items being posted that do infringe upon copyrighted or patented items must be made by the holder of the copyright or patent only. We will not remove items that are speculated by independent third parties. We respectfully ask that only those who have a vested and direct ownership and are legal victims in the infringement contact us to review an item. Please present any proof of ownership of copyright or proof of infringement of patent.

If a creator of an item can show us that their specific rights of design have been infringed upon to the degree that the law was broken, then we will act to remove that item from our sales wall and will consider deeply the implications of wrong doing by the seller and will pursue action relative to our rules.

If you feel an item posted in one of our spaces is an infringement of YOUR intellectual property in copyright or patent then please contact us here.

Related Notes

Personal opinions are overridden by law

Opinions vary but the law is an absolute. Certainly personal opinions will always be present however the definition of "infringement" in opinion may differ greatly from how international law defines infringement.  We are not charged with the job of assessing the legitimacy of any item beyond the rule of law as they pertain to copyright or patent design rights.  We cannot and will not act upon allegations by third parties on the authenticity of any item posted in our spaces. We do feel it is the individual's responsibility and risk to investigate if they are buying or selling an item that infringes upon a copyright or patent.

Authenticity

We cannot act as officiant in determining the authenticity of any item being posted for sale in our spaces. We do want to know if any item sold through our venue is found to be a counterfeit of an original brand or maker and an official inquiry will be made to the seller of the item. Any refund or return of these items should be handled through the buyer, seller and the payment provider. We can in no way authenticate firsthand even the most authentic of items. We do not wish to have that role nor do we intend to be swayed to any specific agenda regarding public opinion.

When do we get involved?

We can only take involvement on ILLEGAL SALES of COUNTERFEIT ITEMS that have been posted and are posing as legitimate items. We leave the individual ethics of selling and purchasing items to the individual and encourage everyone to hold a standard that the rule of law outweighs the rule of public opinion.

Full disclosure

All sellers are required to provide full disclosure of the maker of the item if known. If an item is similar to another product then they may say "this item is similar to but should not be confused with ___________" If the maker is unknown then the seller may also let that be known and buyers purchase these items knowing this information fully.

1. SME Groups and its owners are not lawyers. The above is written based on our common reading of of copyright and patent understanding.

2. Though we stringently monitor items; i.e., DVDs, CDs, print material, pictures, links, mp3s, effects and posted materials on all SME sites, we are not responsible for third-party use or misuse of said items.