This post first appeared on Regretsy on July 4th, 2011

I can’t think of anything more American than shameless copyright infringement; except maybe making the customer wait 5 weeks for shipping.

Happy 4th!

Edi has had a store on Etsy for three years. Her store is called I Love Trash, and she sells vintage clothing and odd finds.

Recently, she listed this old record:

The record is vintage and in good shape, and doesn’t violate the TOS. So naturally, Etsy sent her the following notice:

Now, copyright law is complicated, and there are areas that can be a little murky. But I’m pretty sure you can sell a 30-year old, out-of-print album without written permission from the record label.

But let’s just say I’m wrong about that, and you do have to get authorization from the copyright holder to sell vintage records. Let’s just say that all those hours of Law & Order were wasted, and I know nothing about the legal system.

Chuck Norris is not the copyright holder of Mr. T’s Commandments. Chuck Norris isn’t even on this album. Mr. T is doing all the heavy lifting with the Jesus stuff, and Carlos is doing karate moves and sending strongly-worded letters to Etsy sellers.

At this point, Edi thought it might be helpful to explain the misunderstanding to Etsy.

And this was their reply:

MEANWHILE, IN WILLIAMSBURG…

One of the greatest things about Etsy is that it allows every woman – no matter what her size or shape – to look like a fucking idiot for about $100.