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AZUL-TRADING RIPS-OFF OKINAWA_SOBA (And MANY OTHERS) on eBay


Image by Okinawa Soba
IT IS NOW MID-JUNE, 2009. I NOTICE THAT THE AZUL-TRADING COMPANY IS INACTIVE UNDER THAT NAME, AND HAS NO ITEMS UP FOR SALE. THEREFORE, AS AN "ACTIVE CASE", THE BELOW CAPTION IS NOW A "MOOT ITEM". HOWEVER, FOR HISTORICAL DOCUMENTATION OF A SOCIAL MISFIT AND UNREPENTANT PHOTO PIRATE, I LEAVE THE BELOW CAPTION AND COMMENTS UNTOUCHED FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT AND RESEARCH PURPOSES. THANK YOU.

BE CAREFUL TO NOTE THAT NO PRIVATE INFORMATION OF A CORPORATE OR PERSONAL NATURE IS EVER GIVEN, AND THAT THE REAL NAMES AND LOCATIONS OF THOSE PIRATES WHO VIOLATED FLICKr POLICY ARE NEVER GIVEN, AS WELL.

FRUSTRATIONS AND MOCK "HARASSMENT" VENTED IN THE CAPTIONS AND COMMENTS BY SEVERAL POSTERS IS DIRECTED AT COPYRIGHT VIOLATORS AND FLICKr ABUSERS WHO REMAIN ANONYMOUS CYBERSPACE ENTITIES WITH NO LEGALLY KNOWN OR ESTABLISHED NAMES OR CORPORATE LOCALES.

OKINAWA_SOBA TAKES FLICKr’S RULES AGAINST INTIMIDATING OR HARASSING OTHER MEMBERS SERIOUSLY, AND YOU WILL NOT FIND THAT HERE.

PLEASE DO NOT CONFUSE A FEW "TESTY" EXCHANGES IN THE COMMENTS SECTION WITH WHAT FLICKr COMMUNITY GUIDELINES CALL "THREATS, INTIMIDATION, OR HARASSMENT" OF ANOTHER MEMBER.

THANK YOU.

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[The following link which had an image posted in violation of flickr policy has since been removed from eBay]:
cgi.ebay.com/JAPAN-japon-photograph-JAPANESE-SAMURAI_W0QQ…

The following post mocks an un-repentant company on eBay that continues to flagrantly violate flickr guidelines and terms of service, as well as the copyrights of both private individuals and incorporated publishing entities.

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HELLO AZUL-TRADING on eBay ! STILL LOCATED IN YOUR MOTHER’S BASEMENT ???

Yeah. I thought so.

Let me just say, on a positive note, I’m glad you like my photos so much.

Not to mention how much you seem to like the modern photographs taken by others, whose copyright ownership is beyond dispute.

With that ray of sunshine out of the way, allow me to rain on your parade…..

STOP SQUEALING ABOUT "PUBLIC DOMAIN". YOU HAVE OTHER PROBLEMS TO WORRY ABOUT, AZUL !!!

BESIDE THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE RIPPED A HUGE AMOUNT OF MY MODIFIED AND CROPPED SCANS DIRECTLY FROM MY FLICKr POSTS WITHOUT LINKING BACK TO FLICKr, YOU ALSO ARE FACED WITH THE TOKYOBALONEY MULTIPLE-COMMENT THREAD CONTAINING VIABLE LINKS TO YOUR THEFT FILES AND COPYRIGHT VIOLATIONS OF MODERN IMAGES.

YOUR SORRY LITTLE ASS GETS THE DIAPERS PULLED OFF STARTING RIGHT HERE, AND CONTINUES DOWN FOR SEVERAL ENTRIES : www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/3344776539/#comment721…

ORDER IN THE COURT….. ALL OF YOU PHOTO PIRATES LISTEN UP !

THIS POST CONTAINS NEITHER LIBEL, NOR PERSONAL ATTACK, NOR DEFAMATION OF ANYONE’S PERSONAL CHARACTER. I AM DEBUNKING A NEBULOUS OUTFIT CALLED "AZUL-TRADING" — A CYBERSPACE ENTITY CONTROLLED BY UNKNOWN PERSONS IN AN UNVERIFIED LOCATION USING A "CORPORATE-SOUNDING" HANDLE ON eBay.

Of course, by implication I am talking directly about the TREE STUMP who runs "AZUL-TRADING" — and all others like them (with apologies to all other tree stumps who play by the rules) .

"TREE STUMP" ? He should be happy that’s all I call him ! Other posters have called him a JOKER, a MORON, an IDIOT, a DAMN THIEF, a BASTARD, a BOTTOM FEEDER, a PIECE OF POND LIFE, a THIEVING TOAD, and DOG CRAP ON A SHOE.

However, even though others have used those words, I would NEVER say such things.

In fact, Okinawa_Soba (formerly known as Mr_Cream_Puff) is too kind and gentle to resort to such inflammatory monikers and incendiary name calling against these eBay-using, UN-CIVILIZED, CRETIN PIN-HEADS, and un-evolved PRIMATES who live by the dictates of their OXYGEN-STARVED, lower CROCADILLIAN brain stems, formed from the DNA of a JELLY-FISH, and having an IQ less than a TOMATO. Not to mention being SOCIAL MISFITS functioning on HALF A BRAIN CELL.

Like I said, I would never say such things.

Therefore, I think I’ll stick with TREE STUMP to describe this little eBay perp.

Or…….BLACK BEARD THE PIRATE…….on his RUBBER DUCKY POOP DECK ???

Whatever.

IF A GUY ROBS A BANK, AND YOU CALL HIM A BANK ROBBER, CAN HE SUE YOU FOR DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER? LET HIM TRY ! IF A GUY BREAKS FLICKr RULES WHILE PUBLICLY FLAUNTING HIMSELF ON eBAY, AND YOU PUBLICLY CALL HIM OUT ON IT, CAN HE SUE FOR LIBEL ?

Yeah. If you live on the MOON ! (Or, he can meet me in JAPAN…..SAME THING !)

"AZUL-TRADING" trying to sue me for posting this would be like the BOOGIE MAN trying to sue my CAT. And I don’t even have a cat !!!

Even if he tried, he’d have to make it a reverse CLASS ACTION SUIT against his detractors, as there are more than just one who have a bone to pick with this eBay seller. See what another photographer has to say — after his copyright photos were also ripped off by AZUL-TRADING (whom he calls a "Bottom Feeder") : sushicam.com/2009/03/09/bottom-feeders-need-love-too/

Note that the legal terms "he" and "him" used throughout this post represent the nebulous cyberspace entity known as "AZUL-TRADING" on eBay, and by inescapable implication, the INVISIBLE piece of DRIFT WOOD (formerly known as TREE STUMP) who is hiding behind the eBay operation of the same name.

And further….. is this entity a "HE", a "SHE"..or an "IT" ??? NOBODY KNOWS. So of course, NO ACTUAL PERSON is named in the below complaint. eBay gives the "company’s" location as SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA. Did AZUL-TRADING even pirate their eBay name ? A Web search shows a "namesake company" based in CANADA…. and also one in CHINA. As far as the eBay version is concerned, they’re way out in LEFT FIELD.

LIBEL : "….. a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt….."

Refer to this link : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation and make your own legal judgment in the tentative case of AZUL-TRADING vs OKINAWA_SOBA !!!

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"……YOUR HONOR, MAY I APPROACH THE BENCH….."

Beside the above eBay seller ripping off almost 50 images from my photostream that are personally modified, corrected, marked, and cropped specifically for flickr use from original "public domain" images in my posession, AZUL-TRADING has also flagrantly stolen the modern copyright images of others here on flickr, as well as from copyright image sources outside of flickr ! [Actually, as I post this, from 30 to 50 of my own flickr posts appear on any given day as the seller's auctions recycle]

As some have pointed out in the viewer comments below, this type of thing is widespread in the world at large. Okinawa_Soba is under no illusion that this post will change the world, or even bring a halt to the eBay seller who I am hanging out to dry. I simply post it as a graphic demonstration, using a real-time screen grab (of which I have many more), and concrete links for those that want to make a quick "study" of this incurable disease. I have no plans to devote any new time to becoming a "Pirate Hunter".

PLEASE…..DON’T immediately jump down and leave a comment below telling me that Azul owns all rights to my photos since they are supposedly "in the Public Domain", and that he can do what he wants, when he wants, and as he pleases. That argument has been worn out on many other of my posts.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Read the 5 points below, and THEN make your comments. Thanks.

NOTICE THE FOLLOWING :

(1) Azul-Trading doesn’t tell the buyer that his so-called "photo" for sale is actually just a copy reprint. The descriptive text (not shown here) tells the buyer that it’s a REAL 8 x 10 PHOTO on PHOTOGRAPHIC PAPER. (Note to Azul : A printout of a scan copied from a flickr post is not a "real photo" — no matter what resolution you print it out as. I happen to have the "real photo" in my possession !)

(2) He has placed a COPYRIGHT "C" in a circle, and added his own watermark claiming personal copyright on my flickr SCAN — and by extension, on the ORIGINAL IMAGE which I have in my possession !!! (Note to Azul : If you want to claim that my posted scans are in the "Public Domain", and that you have the right to copy and sell them, then why are you watermarking and copyrighting the eBay scans you copied from my posts? Are you saying these are NOT in the public domain ? Why are you trying to prevent others from copying "your own" scans — after you freely copied them from my flickr photostream ? NOTE TO SELF : Send Azul a copy of the book HOW TO BE A PIRATE AND A HYPOCRITE ALL AT THE SAME TIME )

(3) He’s charging 18 bucks for a cheap quality, pixelated injet copy, when anyone here can download CC version for free right here — or ask me for a larger file if needed. (A French buyer gave Azul-Trading NEGATIVE FEEDBACK, complaining about the pixels !)

(4) Flickr policy dictates that if anyone uses a flickr scan on another website (like eBay), the user of the image MUST PROVIDE A LINK FOR THAT IMAGE BACK TO FLICKr. The seller has failed to do this, thus violating flickr’s terms of image use. (Note to Azul : Do you know how to read English?)

(5) He has changed the actual description of the image content, claiming that the dressed up photographer in the photo (T. ENAMI) is an ACTUAL SAMURAI (which T. Enami is not), thus defrauding the buyer by knowingly selling a miss-labeled item, and not telling the buyers the true story behind the image, and the man modeling the armor. (Note to Azul : Look up the phrase "Scam Artist" in the Dictionary…..if you can read English, that is…) Of course, if Azul cannot read English, I suppose he did not "knowingly" misrepresent his knowingly-pirated merchandise !

The seller has also sent e-mails to a photographer friend of mine, threatening him with legal action if my friend attempts to stop his piracy activities on eBay !

(Obviously, this eBay seller can write English — even if he can’t read it !)

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AZUL-TRADING’S PROBABLY DEFENSE STRATEGY :

"………Your Honor, if it please the court, I thought all of these photos were like POTATO CHIPS, and since none of them were ‘REGISTERED, PENNA. DEPT. of AGRICULTURE’……Well, I just thought if I sprinkled a little bit of garlic salt on them it would be OK to put them on eBay and….. blah blah blah…….."

Holy Mother of God.

PLEASE NOTE THAT, IN SPITE OF THE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK FROM FRANCE LAMENTING THE POOR QUALITY OF HIS COPY-PRINTS, MOST OF HIS BUYERS GAVE HIM POSITIVE FEEDBACK FOR SPEEDY SERVICE, WITH A FEW COMPLIMENTING HIM ON THE HIGH QUALITY OF HIS IMAGES. Commentor PBY gives some interesting links in the comment section below concerning feedback scams. Check them out, you might be surprised. Thanks, PBY.

In any case, a Pirate is still a Pirate, even if he does have a mouth full of gold teeth.

(And yes, I have complained to eBay. I suppose they are investigating…..)

For those PUBLIC DOMAIN advocates who feel that you have all the answers, and for those who would defend AZUL-TRADING’S alleged "right" to rip any and all pre-1923 original photos and works of art from anywhere he can find them, please read my comments at these two links below, then get back to me with your honest, well-though-out opinions on the matter :

www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/3344776539/#comment721…

and

www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/3344776539/#comment721…

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ORIGINAL FLICKr SCAN POSTED BY ME, THE OWNER OF THE ORIGINAL IMAGE : www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/2383039735/ (includes eBay links)

For a clear cut case of modern day photography copyright violation by this eBay seller, please see this link, where some of AZUL-TRADING’s alleged replies to complainers are posted in the COMMENTS section : www.flickr.com/photos/sushicam/3321736003/in/set-72157614…

NOTE TO AZUL-TRADING : Does the above post piss you off ? Good ! Now you know how the rest of us feel when we see you ripping off our photostreams. REPENT !!!

MARCH 10TH, 2009 SCREEN SHOT FROM MY MONITOR. All Logo Marks and Design content copyright eBay and PayPal. Posted for non-profit, instructional use only.

Elias Ashomole, antiquary, whose collection was the basis for the Ashmolean Museum


Image by lisby1
Elias Ashmole (23 May 1617 – 18 May 1692), was a celebrated English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he was rewarded with several lucrative offices.

Ashmole was an antiquary with a strong Baconian bent for the study of nature.[1] His library reflects his intellectual outlook, including works on English history, law, numismatics, chorography, alchemy, astrology, astronomy, and botany. Although he was one of the founding members of the Royal Society, a key institution in the development of experimental science, his interests were antiquarian and mystical as well as scientific. He was an early Freemason, although the extent of his involvement and commitment is unclear.

Throughout his life he was an avid collector of curiosities and other artifacts. Many of these he acquired from the traveller, botanist, and collector John Tradescant the younger. Ashmole donated most of his collection, his antiquarian library and priceless manuscripts to the University of Oxford to create the Ashmolean Museum.

Ashmole was born in Breadmarket Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire.[2] His family had been prominent, but its fortunes had declined by the time of Ashmole’s birth. His mother, Anne, was the daughter of a wealthy Coventry draper, Anthony Bowyer, and a relative of James Pagit, a Baron of the Exchequer. His father, Simon Ashmole (1589–1634), was a saddler, who had served as a soldier in Ireland and Europe. Elias Ashmole attended Lichfield Grammar School and became a chorister at Lichfield Cathedral. In 1633, he went to live in London as companion to Pagit’s sons, and in 1638, with the help of Pagit, he became a solicitor. He enjoyed a successful practice in London, and married Eleanor Mainwaring (1603–1641), a member of a poor but aristocratic family, who died, while pregnant,[3] only three years later on 6 December 1641.[4] Still in his early twenties, Ashmole had taken the first steps towards status and wealth.

Ashmole supported the side of Charles I in the Civil War. At the outbreak of fighting in 1642, he left London for the house of his father-in-law, Peter Mainwaring, at Smallwood in Cheshire. There he lived a retired life until 1644, when he was appointed King’s Commissioner of Excise at Lichfield.[5] Soon afterwards, at the suggestion of George Wharton, a leading astrologer with strong court connections, Ashmole was given a military post at Oxford, where he served as an ordnance officer for the King’s forces. In his spare time, he studied mathematics and physics at his lodgings, Brasenose College.[6] There he acquired a deep interest in astronomy, astrology, and magic. In late 1645, he left Oxford to accept the position of Commissioner of Excise at Worcester. Ashmole was given the additional military post of Captain in Lord Astley’s Regiment of Foot, part of the Royalist Infantry, though as a mathematician, he was appointed to artillery positions. He seems never to have participated in any actual fighting.

After the surrender of Worcester to Parliamentary forces in July 1646, he retired again to Cheshire.[8] Passing through Lichfield on his way there, he learnt that his mother had died just three weeks before of the plague.[9] During this period, he was admitted as a Freemason. His diary entry for 16 October 1646 reads in part: "I was made a Free Mason at Warrington in Lancashire, with Coll: Henry Mainwaring of Karincham in Cheshire."[10][11] Although there is only one other mention of Masonic activity in his diary he seems to have remained in good standing and well-connected with the fraternity as he was still attending meetings in 1682. On 10 March that year he wrote: "About 5 H: P.M. I received a Sumons to appeare at a Lodge to held the next day, at Masons Hall London." The following day, 11 March 1682, he wrote: "Accordingly, I went … I was the Senior Fellow among them (it being 35 yeares since I was admitted) … We all dyned at the halfe Moone Taverne in Cheapeside, at a Noble Dinner prepaired at the charge of the New-accepted Masons."[12] Ashmole’s notes are one of the earliest references to Freemasonry known in England,[13] but apart from these entries in his autobiographical notes, there are no further details about Ashmole’s involvement.

In 1646–47, Ashmole made several simultaneous approaches to rich widows in the hope of securing a good marriage.[15] In 1649, he married Mary, Lady Mainwaring (daughter of Sir William Forster of Aldermaston), a wealthy thrice-widowed woman twenty years his senior.[16] She may have been a relative by marriage of his first wife’s family and was the mother of grown children. The marriage took place over the opposition of the bride’s family, and it did not prove to be harmonious: Lady Mainwaring filed suit for separation and alimony but it was dismissed by the courts in 1657. The match did, however, provide Ashmole with her first husband’s estates centred on Bradfield in Berkshire which left him wealthy enough to pursue his interests, now including botany and alchemy, without concern for his livelihood. He arranged for his friend Wharton to be released from prison and appointed him to manage the estates.

During the 1650s, Ashmole devoted a great deal of energy to the study of alchemy. In 1650, he published Fasciculus Chemicus under the anagrammatic pseudonym James Hasholle. This work was an English translation of two Latin alchemical works, one by Arthur Dee, the son of John Dee. In 1652, he published his most important alchemical work, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, an extensively annotated compilation of metaphysical poems in English. The book preserved and made available many works that had previously existed only in privately held manuscripts. There is little evidence that Ashmole conducted his own alchemical experiments. He appears to have been a collector of alchemical writings and a student of alchemy rather than an active practitioner, and refers to himself as a pupil of William Backhouse. His final alchemical publication was The Way to Bliss in 1658, but thereafter his interest seems to wane in favour of his other pursuits.[4] Ashmole promoted the use of therapeutic remedies drawing on both Galenic and Paracelsian principles, and his works attempt to merge the two schools. The Way to Bliss recommends ways to prevent illness: a balanced diet, moderate exercise and enough sleep.[17] His works were avidly studied by other natural philosophers, such as Isaac Newton.[18]

Ashmole met the botanist and collector John Tradescant the younger around 1650. Tradescant had, with his father, built up a vast and renowned collection of exotic plants, mineral specimens and other curiosities from around the world at their house in Lambeth. Ashmole helped Tradescant catalogue his collection in 1652, and, in 1656, he financed the publication of the catalogue, the Musaeum Tradescantianum. In 1659, Tradescant, who had lost his only son seven years earlier, legally deeded his collection to Ashmole. Under the agreement, Ashmole would take possession at Tradescant’s death. When Tradescant died in 1662, his widow, Hester, contested the deed, claiming her husband had signed it when drunk without knowing its contents, but the matter was settled in Chancery in Ashmole’s favour two years later. Hester was to hold the collection in trust for Ashmole until her death. Ashmole’s determined aggressiveness in obtaining the Tradescant collection for himself has led some scholars to consider that Ashmole was an ambitious, ingratiating social climber who stole a hero’s legacy for his own glorification.

In 1669, Ashmole received a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Oxford. He maintained his links with the University and, in 1677, Ashmole made a gift of the Tradescant Collection, together with material he had collected independently, to the University on the condition that a suitable home be built to house the materials and make them available to the public. Ashmole had already moved into the house adjacent to the Tradescants’ property in 1674 and had already removed some items from their house into his. In 1678, in the midst of further legal wrangling over the Tradescant collection, Hester was found drowned in a garden pond. By early 1679, Ashmole had taken over the lease of the Tradescant property and began merging his and their collections into one.[31] The Ashmolean Museum was completed in 1683, and is considered by some to be the first truly public museum in Europe.[32] According to Anthony Wood, the collection filled twelve wagons when it was transferred to Oxford. It would have been more, but a large part of Ashmole’s own collection, destined for the museum, including antiquities, books, manuscripts, prints, and 9000 coins and medals, was destroyed in a disastrous fire in the Middle Temple on 26 January 1679.[33] As a result of the fire, the proportion of the collection derived from the Tradescants was larger than originally anticipated and in the opinion of Professor Michael Hunter this misfortune has contributed to criticisms that Ashmole took an unfair share of the credit in assembling the collection at the expense of the Tradescants.[4]

In 1678, Ashmole stood as a candidate in a by-election for the Lichfield borough parliamentary constituency caused by the death of one of the two incumbent members. During Ashmole’s campaign his cousin, Thomas Smalridge, who was acting as a kind of campaign manager, fell ill and died. Ashmole did not visit the constituency, and, as Ashmole’s own horoscope had predicted, he lost the election.[34] He also put himself forward as a candidate in the general election of 1685. Surviving documents indicate that he was the most popular candidate, but after King James II requested he stand down (in an age when monarchs were likely to interfere with parliamentary elections), Ashmole did so. On election day, all the votes cast for Ashmole, instead of being declared invalid, were declared as votes for the King’s candidate, and only as a result of this ruse was the candidate favoured by the Court (Richard Leveson) elected.[35]

Ashmole’s health began to deteriorate in the 1680s and, though he would hold his excise office throughout the reign of James II and retained it after the Glorious Revolution until his death, he became much less active in affairs. His home cures included hanging three spiders around his neck which "drove my Ague away".[36] He began to collect notes on his life in diary form to serve as source material for a biography; although the biography was never written, these notes are a rich source of information on Ashmole and his times.[15] He died at his house in Lambeth on 18 May 1692,[37] and was buried at St. Mary’s Church, Lambeth on 26 May. Ashmole bequeathed the remainder of his collection and library to Oxford for the Ashmolean Museum. Two-thirds of his library now resides in the Bodleian at Oxford; its separation from the museum collection in the Victorian era[38][39] contributed to the belief that Ashmole designed the museum around the Tradescant collection, rather than his own.[40] Ashmole’s widow, Elizabeth, married a stonemason, John Reynolds, on 15 March 1694. They had no children and on her death seven years later the house and lands in Lambeth passed into Reynolds’s hands.[41]

Michael Hunter, in his entry on Ashmole for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, concluded that the most salient points of Ashmole’s character were his ambition and his hierarchical vision of the world—a vision that unified his royalism and his interests in heraldry, genealogy, ceremony, and even astrology and magic. He was as successful in his legal, business and political affairs as he was in his collecting and scholarly pursuits.[4] His antiquarian work is still considered valuable, and his alchemical publications, especially the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, preserved many works that might otherwise have been lost. He formed several close and long-lasting friendships, with the astrologer William Lilly for example,[42] but, as Richard Garnett observed, "acquisitiveness was his master passion".

combray


Image by Lance McCord
Much of my free time this weekend was spent rediscovering the joys of books and cigars. During the afternoon, when sitting on the porch in the humid, 90° Florida weather wasn’t so pleasant, I hit the bed for a read that turned into a nap. Old? Maybe. Delightful? Certainly.

One of the books I’m reading is David Foster Wallace’s "Consider the Lobster," a collection of essays. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to learn that DFW holds Mr. Bryan Garner in very high regard. KS brought Garner in to speak on usage and legal writing last summer, and it was my great pleasure to attend. (DFW fails to mention that Garner is the editor of "Black’s Law Dictionary.")