posted on April 2, 2001 07:31:58 AM
He's bid on a few of my sheet music items, but they have gone, and are likely to go, for more than he can pay (he says he's just interested in the music, not the art).
He wants me to photocopy the music and pay me for the trouble (it's antique music, probably no copyright law in effect after 100 years or so. Public Domain after 25 years?).
He offered .50 cents a page plus copy machine costs and postage and I told him no thanks. Somehow .50 cents per page seems hardly worth it (worth it for him, not for me).
Now, he said "I could offer considerably more". I don't want to offend him because he's a bidder of mine, but...
I'm also worried about the pieces getting damaged.
Would you accomodate this person or politely tell him no?
posted on April 2, 2001 07:41:10 AM
I had this happen a few months ago on an old knitting loom from the 30's that came with an instructional book. Several women just wanted the book [some were bidders] & asked me to copy it for them. I forget what they offered to pay, but IMO & felt it wasn't fair to the high bidder.
You could tell them you don't have easy access to a photocopier, and that it would involve a great deal of time to get to one & copy the pages. You could also tell them that you don't want to risk damaging the pages by copying them. In my case the offers came near the end of the auction & the buyer paid with a CC so I told them it was already packed & was going to the PO that day.
posted on April 2, 2001 07:59:17 AM
Wouldn't copies of that be avaialable elsewhere. Books or whatever?
If he is a good customer, then I would accodate him. Are they really so fragile that they can't be copied then of course to ploitley refuse him is approipriate. But if they are that fragil, how are you going to ship them??
posted on April 2, 2001 08:06:45 AM
I'm going to put them in plastic sheet and then sandwich them between two stiff pieces of cardboard, then put in a Tyvek envelope...or something. One went high enough I may use 4 pieces of cardboard.
I don't know about the pieces being available elsewhere, unless it's the Library of Congress. They are about 100 years old and probably scarce.
And yes, any 100 year old paper item has to be handled with care. Even new paper is fragile, old paper more so.
posted on April 2, 2001 03:54:09 PM
It would probably be considered unethical, improper and really, really rude to the high bidder. Maybe he only wants the music also. However, maybe the high bidder would like to get in touch with the person who wants the copy. You would have a clear conscience, and possibly two customers for life......
posted on April 2, 2001 04:05:10 PM
I'd do it unless there was a good risk of damage to the sheet music.
As for copyright law, I think anything before 1923 is in the public domain. Pre-1964 items are in the public domain unless the copyrights were renewed within the required time period, and copyrihgts on post-1964 items are automatically renewed for a really long time.
posted on April 2, 2001 08:27:39 PM
Hypothetical: if you were selling an out of print CD which was up to $40. Someone emailed to say they couldn't afford that and asked you to make a CD-R of it and offered to pay you $10 for it. Should the seller do it?
(Assume you had a CD-RW drive and media readily available.)
posted on April 2, 2001 08:42:58 PM
Photocopying the sheet music would be different than copying a CD because the materials on the CD would be copyrighted; the sheet music fell into the public domain long ago.
It is NOT a valid comparison. A CD copy is essentially the SAME as the original. The quality of the product is the EXACT same--unlike a photocopy of a paper item--which is of completely different quality--especially for an older collectible type paper item.
posted on April 2, 2001 08:56:57 PM
When I was asked to copy some out-of-circulation cross stitch patterns, I politely replied that the buyer would be getting the exclusivity of the patterns, that's why the bidding had gone so high, and it would be wrong of me to sell replica's to other bidders. I offered to let the buyer know that others were interested in obtaining copies, but the one who asked didn't follow up.
posted on April 2, 2001 08:58:09 PM
Hmm, well that's true. OK, how about comparing it to copying a record album onto tape? Those copies were always pretty crappy when I did it a long time ago.
