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California Assembly Continues To Confuse and Confound Marketplace with New Legislative “Fixes” to Autograph Law

The Original Prop Blog is more confused than ever with the ever evolving and changing law in California pertaining to the sale and purchase of autographed memorabilia.  Governor Jerry Brown signed new changes into law in October, and rather than starting over with a new law that makes sense, they continue to tinker with the existing one which is just a terribly written (though well-intended) piece of legislation.  Honestly, it’s gotten to the point where reading these bills and referencing back to the previous laws that the new fixes are supposed to… fix…  just continue to make things more and more confusing.  Confusing isn’t a strong enough word.  Confounding?  [Read more…]

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California Assembly & Senate Continue To Confuse Marketplace with New Legislative “Fixes” to Autograph Law

In early 2016, I wrote a lengthy critique of the then proposed new “autograph anti-fraud legislation” introduced to the California Assembly.  That bill was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, and sustained vocal opposition to the law continues, along with confusion in the marketplace in California.  Government being government, there are now two different legislative “fixes” in the works that don’t address the myriad of problems that the terrible law put into effect.  Additionally, Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of Book Passage and Bill Petrocelli back in May, with the suit intended to challenge the “law that made the sale of autographed books unconscionably difficult”. [Read more…]

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Mark Hamill & Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang Working on Autograph Anti-Fraud Legislation (California Assembly Bill AB 1570)

Mark-Hamill-Ling-Ling-Chang-Autograph-Anti-Fraud-Legislation-California-Assembly-Bill-AB-1570

Following Mark Hamill‘s “hands on” approach to combating autograph fraud last month (see Revenge of the Jedi: Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) Uses Twitter To Strike Down Memorabilia Fraud), the actor has now teamed up with California Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar), who had already begun work on AB 1570, which would require certificates of authenticity (COAs) for autographed memorabilia sold in California and/or to Californians.  I’m particularly interested in these developments as I’ve been writing about the mechanics about COAs and issues regarding guarantees and warranties as well, and of course the rampant fraud in the marketplace as a result of criminals using worthless COAs as a tool to sell fraudulent memorabilia. [Read more…]

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Revenge of the Jedi: Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) Uses Twitter To Strike Down Memorabilia Fraud

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Following a wave of interest in Star Wars memorabilia with the release of the new film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mark Hamill has started using Twitter as an authentication tool in an effort to help prevent fans from being defrauded in purchasing autographed memorabilia.  I don’t recall an actor ever taking such a “hands on” approach to helping fans with authentication in such a manner, so it is a pretty interesting development. [Read more…]