[Groop] Mark's call

[Tone]

	It amazes me how blatant a seller of illegal merchandise will
be. If you look at the seller's feedback history you can see how many
illegal comic compilation DVDs this dude has been selling. ...AND is
still selling! Just take a look at his eBay store!

	A couple of months ago on the Groop there was that "scandal"
over some guy selling something Sergio supposedly drew. I forget all the
details, but I seem to recall the seller genuinely not realizing the
authenticity of the piece. I think it had something to do with Mark
doing a signing at a book store and possibly a bookstore employee making
a drawing of theirs as a promo. Later on the seller got hold of the work
and thought it had been done by Sergio, but had gotten confused due to
Mark's presence.
	Anyway I bring this up because that seller quickly made
corrections to his one-time mistaken auction. This seller however has
clearly been selling bootleg crap for some time now. Again, if you look
back at his feedback you can see a couple of buyers left negative
feedback and specifically pointed out the illegal copying. Sadly that
still means hundreds of buyers did not seem to care.
	I also bring that earlier situation up because a few of us, me
included, wrote to the buyer to notify him of his error in order to help
protect Mark and Sergio's interests. Later on it became apparent to me
Mark was handling the situation very well on his own. If anything, in
situations like these I think it is much better to let Mark deal with it
alone. That last occurrence was an honest mistake from what I
understand, but this "komic_kapers" guy on eBay is a blatantly breaking
the law.
	Maybe it might be obvious to some, but for those of you who may
want to come to the defense of copyrights I think you should back off. I
say this because I am pretty sure once Mark is informed of the
situation, Mark can take it on with the best legal course of action. If
a few of us Groopies warned the guy, he might retract stuff and go hide
for a while. However if Mark contacts some lawyers and/or the
authorities, Mark, Sergio, and possibly Marvel might have a great
easily-won lawsuit on their hands and the seller would most likely be
royally screwed. I say royally because he seems to be in England. :)

	As a personal side note though I must admit, I think it would be
terrific to have all of the Groo stories collected on a DVD for viewing.
It would make it so much easier and convenient to have it in a viewable
digital format. Keep in mind this opinion of mine is coming from
someone, who already has every Groo publication in his collection. For
the most part my collection is kept safe in storage, but I would love to
have it accessible to re-read on my computer screen when ever the time
permits.
	While I would never really financially support an A$$-@
bootlegger like "komic_kapers", a part of me thinks such a DVD would be
enjoyable enough to buy and have along side my actual Groo collection.
Of course there would be some guilt too, which I would try to remedy by
sending at least an equivalent "donation" to Mark & Sergio.
	Either way, maybe this note of mine might spur Mark & Sergio
into thinking about the digital market, perhaps even a limited-edition
Groo Movie DVD with a second DVD of all the comics in a similar format??
Heck, why wait until after the movie. This IS the 25th anniversary. Put
it all on DVD now! Whatever comes out though, I might be very well
buying two of each. Sergio & Mark have SOME racket going on over us,
huh? I must have been that one sucker born in my birth-minute. ;)
_TONE_