Why is collecting Omega vintage watches an ever-growing phenomenon? Well, It's not surprising when you consider the breadth and quality of Omega's output, particularly during the halcyon post-war decades when mechanical watches ruled supreme.
To give you an idea of the amazing body of work produced by the Omega factory during the heyday of the mechanical watch, click on the video below. It offers a truly eye-gasmic experience! The video extracts pictures from John Goldberger's 'Omega Watches' book which is featured in the right-hand column of this blog.
The video would be nice except for the HUGE amount of intellectual property theft represented by the unlicensed use of hundreds of photos and unlicensed use of music.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a growing epidemic around the globe where people who write blogs or create web content don't consider intellectual property theft a crime. While most people wouldn't consider stealing valuable tangible goods, they don't seem to realize that stealing pictures, software, music and other valuable intellectual property is just as illegal.
If it is a worthwhile project to create a musical video montage of this sort, then it is worth paying the artists who did the work of creating the individual pictures and music.
Desmond, as someone who likes to hold sellers to high ethical standards for watch correctness and authenticity, I would expect you to also champion the rights of intellectual property owners and denounce this sort of illegal compilation.
To Anonymous:
DeleteBy the way at the end of the video it does give credit to Mr. Goldberger and the music credits were given to Moby.
Thanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate indeed the IP issues that you raised, having had one of my books, which had just beem published in Mandarin, 'knocked off' only days after the genuine version hit the shops in China.
Knowing the youtube policy on copyright, I assume that if the authors of the content (pics and music) asserted their rights in any way the video would be removed. The other option is that the authors dont have an objection or that the authors have decided for some reason not to assert ownership. Further the link to the video is published on my site and can be seen on my site but the feed is actually published by youtube
I have no evidence of any IP abuse as it stands. I can only assume one of two things - The owners permit the use of the pics and music, or the owners dont. I know that your position is that the owners dont and I am wondering if you have some information that I dont that supports that conclusion.
A thought on picture copyright: I know that pictures and indeed certain sections of books can be used for educational purposes as long as it can be shown that the material has not been used for specific gain. UNiversities, for example, do this all the time when they provide photocopied 'readings' to students.
In publications, and blogs are considered thus, The normal convention is to offer quotes, footnotes or acknowledgements. I sometimes rely on this convention, and normally I will acknowledge the IP owner if I cannot gain permission through the normal channels.
I think we must distinguish between IP theft or deliberate plagiarism and the use of freely available published materials on the web. The educational and not for profit conventions are, I agree, interpreted more loosely on the web, but I'm told by an American copyright lawyer who subscribes to my blog that they will normally stand up to scrutiny.
Finally, I am usually sympathetic to the work of professionals and where professional pics have been used by me I attempt to gain permission. If I cannot locate the owner but know who s/he is I attribute. For non-professional pics I still will seek permission or acknowledge, except where there is no indication of ownership.
On rare occasions I publish a pic as an instructional device to demonstrate skulduggery in description of watches by the owners of the pic. In those cases I just publish.
I have seen your comments on some of the forums and my feeling is that you have some solid points as far as professionally produced materials are concerned, but I think you need to acknowledge there are instances where materials can be used for educational or instructional purposes that do not constitute IP breaches.
Desmond,
ReplyDeleteYou've applied flawed reasoning to arrive at the conclusion that the copyright owners must implicitly have agreed to the use of their copyrighted works simply because the video hasn't already been removed by YouTube. That conclusion presupposes that the IP owners even know about the use of their copyrighted pictures or music used to create the video. Most people who's intellectual property rights are infringed don't realize that their work has been stolen until they stumble upon it in the marketplace... like you did with your book.
With regards to your question about how I determined the pictures and music are copyrighted works that are being infringed: it's not that difficult. Surely you recognize those pictures as being scans taken straight out of John Goldberger's book "Omega Watches"? Instead of recommending that readers watch this illegal video and pointing them to the infringing content with your blog, why not just recommend Mr. Goldberger's book to readers so he is fairly compensated for his efforts? Also, unless the creator of the montage is paying ASCAP and BMI fees for the use of the song tracks, this is another copyright violation.
Your mention of allowable uses of copyrighted materials for educational purposes refers to what is known as the "fair use" clause in copyright law. This provision is broadly misunderstood and misapplied by most people who claim immunity under fair use. The provision for fair use for educational purposes is actually quite narrow and has specific requirements that are not met by this video montage.
Fair Use (section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act) sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:
1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
3) amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
In this particular instance, the original work that was copied is a picture book of Omega watches with very few words at all. The sole value of the book is its pictures and the infringer who made the video seems to have copied every single one of them. The use thus fails tests 3 & 4 above (at the very least) and would not be considered "fair use" under U.S. copyright law. The music used in the background of the video is likewise used in its entirety and clearly violates copyright.
I disagree that the assumptions I made are flawed. Firstly I offered two options - breach or not. I simply dont know and nor do you, I suspect, although you were fiairly insistent that a "huge amount of intellectual property theft" had taken place.
ReplyDeleteYou are basing your comments on the assumption that a breach has occurred, whereas I am saying I don't know. As you know, at the beginning of the video the only titles that appear are "Omega Watches" and "John Goldberger" and it is conceivable that he knows, although let me repeat I do not know either way.
In making the comments about general use of copyrighted material for educational and not for profit purposes I was referring to my publishing activities on this blog and not the Goldberger book. I agree with your interpretation and you'll notice that in general my postings and essays stay on the reasonable side of the Fair Use provisions.
As YouTube is the publisher of this material, and I am simply posting an embedded link that relays from the YouTube site, I believe the questions you pose are probably best put to YouTube or the original poster of the video.
As I said before, I am sympathetic to your points and generally have no issue with the thrust of your position, but I believe that I am not a central party to the issue of whether permission has been granted for use of music and pictures.
I feature his book on this site, and also in the bookshop on horological titles, so, if anything, I could have repeated that the pics are from his book and pointed to the ad on the right hand column as a means of acknowledging his work. But that's about the limit of what I believe is my responsiblity.
Cheers
Desmond
This is a great video thank you for posting it!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching it thanks again.
Long time lurker & first time poster. That was an amazing video of the brand I must say. I had no idea of the depth & breadth of Omega and they are an amazing company indeed.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the video I really appreciated seeing it. The music was really appropriate as well.
Thanks for your post.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed it. Yes Omega has a rich inventory of vintage watches - makes one want to collect them all eh? :)
Cheers
Desmond
Oy Vey. Will 'anon' just lighten the heck up already. We live in a word of ever expanding sources of high speed information. Adhering to the letter of the law the way anon complains about is going to be a near impossible and I might say "orwellian" task (can I say that w/o the permission of orwells estate) to try an enforce. Why-? because the younger generation behind most of us old vintage watch nuts is use to getting their information fast or not at all. In fact while anon bemoans the fact that your not compensating goldbeger for displaying the utube video I would say he might just as well be thanking you for the exposure his book gains through your link. I would never have known about him or his book otherwise and its highly doubtful I would have remembered to go out and find the book. The whole experience of youtube is instantaneous information. I now know about the book and may very well look it up the next time I'm in the book shop. In the future a youtube video like this may be linked to a downloadable version of the book to computer and/or ipads. But nobody s going to purchase a picture book online or in the store w.o glancing through it first.
ReplyDeleteSo-am I advocating a certain type of lawlessness? I guess I can not argue that I am not. I'm not a big fan of the record companies destroying the lives of those college kids and don;t feel like it accomplished ANY of their goals and feel the 'fair use' doctrine is too narrow.
But really I wanted to thank you not only for this particular video and the music which is available as a youtube clip from the movie "The Beach". But also for all the info on gold capped connies, cal 751,s 1011s integrated bracelets and so on and so forth. I must have read for 3 hrs last night. whew! I'm tapped out now but my new '69 gold 751 with silver guilloche dial is keeping to within 1sec after 17hrs so i'm a happy connie guy tonight. Now-if I could only source a g.p. brick mesh for under $200
Good points - the times they are a changing!
ReplyDeleteBut Anon's assumption of vast copyright theft was rendered superflous when John Goldberger confirmed to me that he produced the video. Assumptions and pre-suppositions are the enemy of our search for the true-ish, and we both wasted time and energy on debating something that was based on a false premise of the 'proponent'.
Good marketing technique methinks, fitting well into your reconception of "try before you buy".
Great to hear that you have been infected by the Connie virus, and your purchase of a 751 with guilloche dial warms my heart, as the 751s for some reason or other are still very much a 'sleeper'.
Thanks for your post.
Cheers
desmond
I am not the same anonymous that posted the critique of Desmond. Please don't confuse me with him. I'm new to the site and don't have my information on hand to log in under my username at the moment.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, I feel as though it was rather cowardly and unsportsmanlike for the other anonymous poster to offer his comments without at least leaving a name at the end of his post.
Cheers,
Chris
Dear Desmond,
ReplyDeleteAfter a few months of internet-search, I came across this watch.
http://www.chrono24.nl/omega/constellation-chronometer-ca-1961--id1569721.htm?caseMaterials=3&dosearch=true&goal_email=1&manufacturerIds=187&maxAgeInDays=0&merchantId=-1&modelId=60&models=60&movementTypes=1&picnum=1&query=constellation&resultview=list&searchResultIndex=20&searchexplain=false&sortorder=0&tab=details&urlSubpath=%2Fomega%2Findex.htm&watchTypes=U
Really everything seems to add up, except that the case refno in the Omega archives only state is as a stainless steel one.
Could it by any chanche be a DeLuxe watch?
Hope to hear from you,
Best regards
Willem
Hi Well,
ReplyDeleteYes this is the 14382 deluxe model with the 18k gold dial.
Agree with your assessment, but just to be sure about the dial I would ask the seller to send you a close up high res pic of the dial just to check the Constellation lettering and uppercase script.
2470 Euro which equals a little over 3500 USD seems a little too expensive. There is around 1600 dollars worth of gold in the case and dial and so I would expect to pay around 2800 USD for a domed dial version of the deluxe.
I realise however that prices in Europe are more expensive than in US and other places, so you would need to factor this in. But I would certainly wish to haggle with the seller over price.
Regards
Desmond
Desmond,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your time (and your quick response)! Already try to bargain the price down to app E2200,- see if they will bite my head off...;-)
I will keep you posted.
BTW: do you know you are inflicting a serious Connie illness to much of your followers....
Thanks again!
Willem
I am Peace Brother Jerome Watkins 3,- well Respected Rapper & Poet, known worldwide. To Mr. Anonymous, are you a Copyright Lawyer? or some pompous Timex wearing pain in the ass, trying to give Desmond & everybody else a hard time!? Well guess what, I aint havin it, so get the hell off this Blog, becaude it's for serious Omega & Vintage Watch Collectors like myself.
ReplyDeletePeace Out -"Brutha J"
LOL
Delete:)
I am looking to purchase my first vintage watch and feel a Connie is the best . I have seen one stated as a 60s Automatic 14c 564.Gold face Is has a bracelet but not gold,and that leather strap was probably on it.The asking price is £900 which to me seems very steep and a number of questions need to be asked and I do not wish to buy a pup.
ReplyDeleteAs a novice can you give me an guidelines for looking. Thank you John M.
Hmmm
DeleteJohn, my suggestion is that you bone up further on Connies until you get to the point that you can make a very clear choice on the actual model you want. (e.g. I want a cal 354 model 2699 pie pan in 18k, or the like)
900 pounds for a gold capped model (USD 1425.00) would be around tops if the watch was pristine and original; if it was a 168.005 gold cap and if it was a pie pan.
Click on the about me and then on the email link and we can have a conversation about this.
Cheers
Desmond
Hi Desmond,
ReplyDeleteSo I have had the correct crown fitted to my recently acquired 2852 and finaly got some pics taken. The caseback is subject to a little overpolishing and the dial has been repainted but I just could not resist this little gem. It has joined my 168.018 and Constellation Manhattan.
[URL=http://s1335.photobucket.com/user/regnimelf3717/media/Omega/IMG_2874_zps97600106.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w680/regnimelf3717/Omega/IMG_2874_zps97600106.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=http://s1335.photobucket.com/user/regnimelf3717/media/Omega/IMG_2880_zps6d5464fa.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w680/regnimelf3717/Omega/IMG_2880_zps6d5464fa.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Best Regards as Always
Mark
Hi Mark.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your acquisition. I tried to access the pics but maybe I copied too little or too much of the urls above
Regards
Desmond
Hi Desmond, I emailed clean links to you. Strange, images were visible when I previewed the post.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Mark
Thanks Mark
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how can I find my fathers 1956-57 Constellation 501 chronometer?
ReplyDeleteYou will need to open up the case back to see the model number. Once you have the model number you can either check the Omega Vintage Database for details or do a Google image search to see other examples
ReplyDeleteCheers
Desmond