APMEX (American Precious Metals Exchange or A.P.M.E.X.) of Edmond Oklahoma is yet another dishonest dealer who has used our copyright images without permission.
Copyright Theft is Dishonest - Can You Trust This Dealer? Using other people's copyright images is illegal, it is dishonest, and it is unethical. Using the hard work of a fellow dealer to sell the same goods in competition with him demonstrates an extremely low standard of ethics. We would not recommend anybody to transact business with this person or company.
Thick as Thieves
Actually, we first noticed the offending image on eBay, which we regularly monitor for copyright theft.
About a week later, we noticed yet another eBay vendor and PowerSeller, alma_banuelos
using the same image. This crooked eBay PowerSeller will probably not be the last to steal this particular montage.
If you look for the picture on our websites, you will not find it, because APMEX modified it.
So why are we interested...
Altered Images
The grandly titled American dealer APMEX (American Precious Metals Exchange) has the offending image on its website (apmex.com). Nothing wrong with that, you might think, but for the fact that the Credit Suisse gold bar
shown in the montage of three is taken from one of our high quality copyright photographs, as is the Engelhard
bar. In order to alter or combine an image, it is first necessary to make a copy of it, and copying is prohibited under copyright law, therefore all derived images are also in breach of copyright.
It is quite highly probable that the other gold kilo bar image was also stolen from somebody else's website, therefore APMEX could be in breach of multiple different lots of copyright, as could alma_banuelos.
Note that alma_banuelos would not be in breach of any rights belonging to APMEX, as APMEX almost certainly have no rights in the matter.
At the bottom of each page of their website, APMEX have the line:-
© 2009. All rights reserved.So they are clearly aware of copyright law, and cannot claim ignorance. In our opinion, this makes their offence worse, because they are trying to pass themselves off as originators of all the material on their website, and claiming they own the Intellectual Property Rights in it. Effectively they are stealing our property, possibly along with that belonging to others.
They also have lots of marketing spiel on their "About Us" page, including:
Quality of our productsWho would have thought such an honest (although they do not claim this) reputable company would resort to stealing images from their competitors?
We purchase only the highest quality precious metals available. Our expert staff inspects every piece and decides if it meets our strict buying standards...
Therefore, you will be sure to only receive the highest quality products at very competitive prices. Give us a try today!
Reliability
We are efficient in processing your order promptly, packaging it securely and delivering it safely so it arrives on time as promised.
Reputation
Much of our business is repeat business and referrals from our satisfied customers. We do very little advertising. Many of our clients have referred their family, friends and business associates to us. We hope,once satisfied, you will too.
Memberships
We are active members of The American Numismatic Association and ICTA, The Industry Council on Tangible Assets. Both organizations help to protect the rights and serve the members of the numismatic profession and investing public for coins and tangible assets.
We are also active member dealers of PCGS & NGC Grading services. These companies help to bring consistency in grading to the numismatic industry.
Update - January 2011
We have recently noticed that this 'reputable' company has also stolen our 1972 Krugerrand
image.
Domain Lookup
Registrant:
American Precious Metals Exchange
3409 South Broadway
Edmond, Oklahoma 73013
United States
Domain Name: APMEX.COM
Created on: 16-Feb-04
Expires on: 16-Feb-19
Last Updated on: 29-May-09
Administrative Contact:
Thomas, Scott domains@apmex.com
American Precious Metals Exchange
3409 S Broadway
Suite 650
Edmond, Oklahoma 73013
United States
14053304222 Fax -- 14058440008
Technical Contact:
Garrison, Courtney
American Precious Metals Exchange
3409 S Broadway
Suite 650
Edmond, Oklahoma 73013
United States
14053304222 Fax -- 14058440008
Domain servers in listed order:
DNS1.COXINET.NET
DNS2.COXINET.NET
domains@apmex.com is associated with about 209 domains
Copyright Notice Please see our "Copyright" page for further information.
Copyright Infringements Remedies Our suggested draft remedies for copyright abusers dependent on category - competitors, bloggers, pseudo-expert & advice sites acting as eBay & Google portals, eBay & other auction site sellers.
Buying Gold Coins & Bars on eBay
Selling Gold Coins & Bars on eBay
Copyright Thieves on eBay We already have a page naming and shaming dealers using our images without permission. It's time we did the same for eBay, although if we include them all, this could be a very long page.
Alphabetical Listing of Other Copyright Theft Sites
Other Web Sites All comments about copyright also cover content of all our other websites including, but not limited to:-
- Chards
www.chards.co.uk - Investment Gold Bars & Coins (This Site)
taxfreegold.co.uk - General Coins & Jewellery:
www.24carat.co.uk - Gold Sovereigns:
goldsovereigns.co.uk - 18 Carat Gold Jewellery:
www.18carat.co.uk - 9 Carat Gold Jewellery:
www.9carat.co.uk
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APMEX's One Kilo Gold Bar Page
APMEX's Kilo Gold Bar Image
Our Images
Our Credit Suisse One Kilo Gold Bar Photo
Our 1972 Gold Krugerrand Photo
32 - 36 Harrowside, Blackpool, Lancashire, FY4 1RJ, England. Telephone (44) - (0) 1253 - 343081; Fax 408058;
E-mail: Contact Us The URL for our main page is: taxfreegold.co.uk