Perluna Pearls - Ripped Me Off

[Kevin Canning]

well I was just surfing around and came across Perluna's website and found this page:
http://www.perlunapearls.com/why-buy-from-us.html

2 out of 3 of those pictures were taken with my camera and the one on the right is actually my hand!!:mad: On their "why buy from us" page no less.

Needless to say, I would not suggest dealing with a company that makes theft part of their company policy.

[AdamLasVegas]

just curious, did you call them? Not surprised its China based. Nothing you can do but give us the heads up. Not going to buy from them ever.

[Caitlin]

I think someone from here bought from them........

[Sueki]

I think (underline "think") these are not the same people as the Pearllunar who I have bought from.
The people I have bought from on ebay spell their name slightly differently and are located in Suzhou. Which (again I think) is not the same location ?
Gosh, I hope so......:(

[knotty panda]

Sueki: These are NOT the same places.

Kevin is talking about

PERLUNA

I don't mean to shout, but you know me and spelling the name right so no one -- least of all me -- gets confused.

[Sueki]

Phew !
Cheers, Knotty.
Now I can sleep easy.
Was worried that I may have praised a shyster in other posts.

[jshepherd]

I do not see the pictures. Did they drop from the site that quiickly after Kevin's post? That is some serious monitoring.

Is this Web site the same as that Shecy site? They have very similar styles.

[Caitlin]

Ha!

I looked earlier, so I KNOW they took it down. Too bad I didn't capture the page, but google has a service that does that. Once it goes up, even if it comes down again, google has it arcchived, should Kevin want to get heavy.

[GemGeek]

Okay, that was creepy! :eek:

[Caitlin]

Today has been, by far, the weirdest day yet on the Pearl Forum. I hope tomorrow, it will be back to harmonious business as usual. :)

[john675]

I don't want to rock the boat any, but if you need the page containing the pictures, I have a JPG from the cache...

John

[nlerner]

Well done, john675 and thank you from all of us.

[Raisondetre]

Wow, seriously dodgy. Glad it's not pearllunar on ebay. Would've been very upset if I inadvertently supported a dubious business. And yeah, thanks a bunch for the pics. By the time I looked it was already down.

[Ingykiz]

I went to the site and the pics were down. Thanks John for the shots. The internet is a wonderful thing but unfortunately people abuse it. I was a lurker when Z was around. I found her posts quite informative. It is a shame that behind an obvious bevy of information there was deception. I enjoy reading this forum and I have learned alot. I would never buy anything now without checking it out with pearl-guide members first. Thanks to everyone who exert much effort to keep the integrity of this forum intact.

[knotty panda]

Wow, seriously dodgy. Glad it's not pearllunar on ebay. Would've been very upset if I inadvertently supported a dubious business. And yeah, thanks a bunch for the pics. By the time I looked it was already down.

I love that word Dodgy! I'm going to incorporate it into my vocabularly. What does it mean anyway? Hmmmm.

Re: dubious business. You can take what someone has to say about their experiences with a business and filter it in to your own experience. I don't believe anyone should ever take someone else's opinion to form their own. If I absolutely loved a vendor everyone else hated, I would have no problem whatsoever recommending them. My opinion is as valuable as everyone else's.

Don't pictures have to be copyrighted before unauthorized use can be considered stealing? I think that's why Pearllunar (here we go with the names again!) has their logo ghosted over the product picture. E-law is a quickly evolving field. I agree, using someone else's pictures is a questionable practice, but I'm not up on my copyright law so I don't know if it's considered stealing or not.
---------------
I did some more thinking. Isn't it interesting that their site is copyrighted? I wonder what that covers. Does that cover pictures and text? I need to go back and inspect that copyright again to see if it's a US copyright. Are there copyright laws in China? It's really an interesting scenario, lots of different ways it could play out. None of which are worth the time and money to pursue.

[Slraep]

I love that word Dodgy! I'm going to incorporate it into my vocabularly. What does it mean anyway? Hmmmm.



That very quick and cunning and person on the other team you just couldn't hit with a dodgeball in High School.

Slraep

[Sueki]

Over here, Dodgy = dubious, underhand.
And Iffy, which is also slang for dubious. :D

[Kevin Canning]

Don't pictures have to be copyrighted before unauthorized use can be considered stealing?

Pictures and all forms of art for that matter are instantly covered by copyright law the moment they are created.

Perluna puts a watermark on their pictures to help guard from others stealing them - I guess thieves watch their wallets the closest.

As for them taking it down so fast, well goes to show how powerful the old Pearl-guide.com really is. To put it simply "They're watching us ;)"

[Sueki]

"I guess thieves watch their wallets the closest."
You'd be right there, Kevin.
Trouble is, they watch ours as well..... :(

[Kevin Canning]

aww cheer up Sueki - we won't let the bad men take your wallet :p

[Caitlin]

As for them taking it down so fast, well goes to show how powerful the old Pearl-guide.com really is. To put it simply "They're watching us ;)"


Another toast to the most watched pearl site in the world and its positive influence on not only business ethics in the pearl world, but the latest in pearl education and facts...........I bow to this awesome forum!!!



.

[Sueki]

Cheers, Kevin,
That's good to know - I need the wallet to buy from you guys....:)

Caitlin, I echo your purple comment - how'd you do that ?

[Raisondetre]

I have no problem supporting a business I think has good business ethics and provides good customer service. However, for a business that owns a pearl farm supposedly, ripping off pics is unacceptable in my opinion and I would not support them even if they provided the best customer services. I take my own pics with a point and shoot digicam. Any idiot can do that. There have also been instances where questions have been raised about certain businesses (including but not limited to ripping off pictures from other sites, specific terms coined by their companies), and the owner of the company barges in defensive and rude (the latest one would include an attorney letter no less), rather than explaining their stance on a purported "misunderstanding". I wouldn't buy from these businesses either even if their designs were the best in the world. I've been snubbed by real life vendors in the past for minor things merely asking a few more questions about their merchandise. It is not acceptable in my book for someone to do any of the above when it's my money they want.

I suppose if I have had no problems with any suspected vendors I'd be less inclined to believe any of that, but it's more a matter of principle rather than anything.

[Kevin Canning]

Oh and I forgot to thank John for posting the screen shot of my pics, nice to have that to backup my accusation.

[Caitlin]

how'd you do that ?
First I thnik you have to have the editor set for html.....I am not sure about that part....
When you first make a post, there are two rows of symbols above the text box. they represent many options.
The top left allows you to change the font,
then one notch to the right is the size. 2 is the default but if you highlight the text and pick another number, it will change the size.
To the right of that is an A with an arrow. Click on the arrow and a number of colors show up. You can then pick one for your highlighted text.
I usually skip the others on the top line.
On the bottom line you can make bold underline or italics. To the right of that is bullets or list numbers. I haven't tried that either, but this post would lend itself to that format.
Then the world with a link will bring up a box where you can put the address of a link and it will only show in the text as a green word (http://www.triallink.com/)or phrase.(the liink I just put in doesn't go anywhere) Like val 101 does it
I haven't used any of the others except the balloon with the tail. That is for putting a highlighted section into a
text box.
In the far right upper corner is a spellcheck- which I always forget to use! and two more symbols I have never tried either.

Enjoy

[Slraep]

Another toast to the most watched pearl site in the world and its positive influence on not only business ethics in the pearl world, but the latest in pearl education and facts...........I bow to this awesome forum!!!




I love this forum. It has taught me so, so much. I too, bow to its awesomeness.

Slraep

[Slraep]

I have no problem supporting a business I think has good business ethics and provides good customer service. However, for a business that owns a pearl farm supposedly, ripping off pics is unacceptable in my opinion and I would not support them even if they provided the best customer services. I take my own pics with a point and shoot digicam. Any idiot can do that. There have also been instances where questions have been raised about certain businesses (including but not limited to ripping off pictures from other sites, specific terms coined by their companies), and the owner of the company barges in defensive and rude (the latest one would include an attorney letter no less), rather than explaining their stance on a purported "misunderstanding". I wouldn't buy from these businesses either even if their designs were the best in the world. I've been snubbed by real life vendors in the past for minor things merely asking a few more questions about their merchandise. It is not acceptable in my book for someone to do any of the above when it's my money they want.

I suppose if I have had no problems with any suspected vendors I'd be less inclined to believe any of that, but it's more a matter of principle rather than anything.

Hi Raisondetre,

You got it!!!!! With every cent we spend, we send a direct message---do not lie, cheat, swindle...etc. just because YOU want to make a dollar, Mr./Ms. Vendor, or we will shun you because you deserve it for thinking we are CHUMPS.

We have the power to change things. And not just how pearls are sold either. We have the power to change everything with how we purchase and from whom.

Slraep

[Caitlin]

I just got this from one of my freinds. It came in a bigger package, but this part shows how powerful our meager buying power really is.....

If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world's wealthy

[Satine De La Courcel]

Another toast to the most watched pearl site in the world and its positive influence on not only business ethics in the pearl world, but the latest in pearl education and facts...........I bow to this awesome forum!!!

.

HOOBAH!!!!!

[john675]

Oh and I forgot to thank John for posting the screen shot of my pics, nice to have that to backup my accusation.

You are most welcome, Kevin. I was sad to hear that your pictures were purloined and wanted to see if I could find them for you.
John

[Kevin Canning]

Well the plot thickens....

By looking at the website and the actual product photos it appears that ShecypearlJewelry.com and Perlunapearls.com are one and the same.

Just take a look at these 2 pages:

http://www.shecypearljewelry.com/about-shecypearljewelry/awards-and-honors.html

http://www.perlunapearls.com/pearl-honour.html

The first pic on perluna and last pic on shecy page are the same.

So either its another pic Perlunapearls.com has stolen or they are the same company.:mad:

[Caitlin]

Good work! Now that is a good expose. One name gets too stinky-business-wise- just go pick another..........but be sure to use the same stinking business policies, including stealing photos!:p

[Kevin Canning]

Actually they MUST be one and the same. The pictures I pointed out are of the same wall but taken at different times, you can tell because there is a different number of gold plaques. Also the gold plaque pics are the same but from different photographs, so its not just a case of stolen pics.

[Casey.R]

How sleazy of them. I'm glad they took them down.

[jshepherd]

Look what I just found today!
pearl-guide.net

I wonder what comes next, a forum? With all the word combinations available why would they choose pearl guide?

At least the information does not originate from pearl-guide. No, they ripped that off from KariPearls.com


Compare these two pages, paragraphs 'blister', 'half', and 'keshi'. They are taken word for word from Kari's.

pearl-guide.net/pearl-type.html
http://www.karipearls.com/types-of-pearls.html

Perluna! Why do you keep stealing other Web site's content? Don't you realize you are being unethical AND breaking the law. Do yourself a favor and read this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property) Wiki page. Intellectual property rights are something we take pretty seriously over here. By infringing on these rights you are only hurting your own business.

PS
The site is owned by perluna pearls. All the links point to them anyway.

[Satine De La Courcel]

Sounds like they are trying to "strike back" and be deceptive so anyone looking for THIS forum will think they get here when its actually not.. very deceptive and underhanded! wow just to make a buck.. shesh...

Ash