Pokemon Announces Legal Action Against Counterfeit Cards on Auction Platforms

[Frost]

Maybe they should examine why specific cards have fan-made replicas. I've purchased a few of those myself (advertised as custom cards openly) because the cost to buy a real one is absurd: cards that are very old that will not receive reprints probably ever, cards we simply never got outside of Japan at all, cards that feature female trainers because that's an even bigger problem in Japan than here, etc. Throwing a lawsuit in Japan over the ugly gold plated cards everyone should know are fake and are made due to Pokemon's poor pull rates isn't solving anything.

 

[pato]

The fact that people still can't tell the difference between fake & real cards in 2023 baffles me lollll

Thats pretty common, speacially with young kids and their parents and happens SPECIALLY in 2023, that the card prices spiked and the bootleg cards are getting better and better. I hate intellectual property, and i love the fan made cards, but i think its a fair measure against prints that can destroy collectibles market and the rare cards value. I think that tpci should implement a security system in cards, just like in money bills.

 

[chris.n7]

Let's hope it won't affect artists, like people on Etsy trying to sell their art. They're not trying to deceive people, just sharing fanarts.

They're not just sharing fan art though, they're profiting on it. The IP holder is within their rights to shut this down, like it or not.

 

[Ambassador]

Maybe they should examine why specific cards have fan-made replicas. I've purchased a few of those myself (advertised as custom cards openly) because the cost to buy a real one is absurd: cards that are very old that will not receive reprints probably ever, cards we simply never got outside of Japan at all, cards that feature female trainers because that's an even bigger problem in Japan than here, etc. Throwing a lawsuit in Japan over the ugly gold plated cards everyone should know are fake and are made due to Pokemon's poor pull rates isn't solving anything.

This would be the most correct way of looking at it that I've seen in this thread.

It's worth noting that in both of the example screenshots in this article, it is clearly stated that the cards on sale are for display purposes only and are not legal cards that can be used in sanctioned tournaments. The market is openly and transparently looking to fill a demand in the market created by the current way the Pokémon Card Game is sold – essentially, lottery-esque, with certain cards paywalled behind pull rates. For those who believe that these pull rates imbibe cards with 'value', the real thing will always be available to them; for those who simply want to own some physical form of the card and aren't necessarily concerned about the value, the free market has organically filled that demand.

Copyright is a joke and ultimately unenforceable in the minds of people with sense – it would make more sense for Creatures to look to fill this void themselves. Sell cards with a different back on an open marketplace? Master binders for a 'bulk' rate? There are those who would argue that this would reduce the 'value' of some cards to take this approach, but that's an aftermarket concern and primarily for cards where the apparent "value" is disproportionately higher than the pull rate would ascribe to it. There is little you can do to preserve that non-equilibria forever – someone will always recognize that as a problem for which they may be financially incentivized to offer a solution.

As far as this business of fan art being appropriated, we can mention that TPCI considers all Pokémon fan art to immediately be their intellectual property;

Distribution in any form and any channels now known or in the future of derivative works based on the copyrighted property trademarks, service marks, trade names and other proprietary property (Fan Art) of The Pokémon Company International, Inc., its affiliates and licensors (Pokémon) constitutes a royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license from the Fan Art's creator to Pokémon to use, transmit, copy, modify, and display Fan Art (and its derivatives) for any purpose. No further consideration or compensation of any kind will be given for any Fan Art. Fan Art creator gives up any claims that the use of the Fan Art violates any of their rights, including moral rights, privacy rights, proprietary rights publicity rights, rights to credit for material or ideas or any other right, including the right to approve the way such material is used. In no uncertain terms, does Pokémon's use of Fan Art constitute a grant to Fan Art's creator to use the Pokémon intellectual property or Fan Art beyond a personal, noncommercial home use.

- source

The art isn't "being stolen from the fan"; rather, TPCI considers that the art is being used outside of the license someone automatically enters into on creation of a Fan Art. I'd invite those who figure this is standard fare and boilerplate legal copy they "have to" put there to consider how other companies/groups have approached derivative works – Touhou would be nothing without the doujin scene propping it up (and the doujin scene is likely larger than the central work), and even corporate examples can be readily found, with SEGA actively nourishing the Sonic fan game community.

All of Nintendo/GAME FREAK's issues here can be addressed without any need to involve litigation, and fan communities should be very critical of organizations when they do choose to take that route.

It's already obvious Nintendo is an incredibly litigious and therefore pathetic company, and I wouldn't expect anything else from GAME FREAK but to follow their lead. However, Creatures has historically been a very business-savvy corporation with a lot of creative people in their employ who could and would know better. I'm very disappointed to see Creatures following on the same track, and can't help but point out the company had a major change to the population of its senior corporate structure this year. It seems worth asking if the old guard has been replaced with morons.

 

[tenkarasu]

I recently did a Pokemon "How To" at a local library. It kind of devolved (I'm doing an actual How To Play in November), and let me tell you: the faces of the kids and their parents when I explained to each and every one of them that they had counterfeit cards. The despair, the defeat, the depression. Some of those families had spent decent money on those cards.

(Also I explicitly told the kids NOT to trade...and what did one kid do? I knew he was going to be a problem child, and it actually became a legal problem, as the kid traded his fake Charizard to another kid, claiming it was real. It's no longer my problem but I hope that other kid got his cards back...)

 

[Nintenfreak]

Man maybe don't price your fancy pants cards so expensive. Better hurry and get the Pikachu BW77 and Raichu BW78 replicas I want then, hate that hole in my binder.

 

[Nintenfreak]

I sure hope it does

What if I want a custom card of my fan art or my girlfriend/boyfriend's fan art as a custom gift from Etsy?

 

[leetic]

While I have no sympathy for people selling the cheap crap in farmer's markets, TPCI has to realize that they are responsible for a lot of this problem by artificially limiting supply and doing little to stop (and sometimes even encouraging) scalping. There's a reason why people are rising up to take advantage of the demand, and while the dishonest ones should be punished I don't see anything wrong with people selling "replicas" as long as these problems persist.