If you lived in Waco, would you frequent her cookie bakery? When someone behaves like this online, don't you think it will spill over into her local life? What sane potential customer would want to associate themselves with someone like that? Who would even want to live next door to her? ugh

"First sale" means that when someone owns an object in which there is an underlying copyright in the subject matter, that person can sell the object without violating copyright. For example, if I own a CD of a Beatles album, I am welcome to sell that CD (the physical object). Copyright in the music is not transferred (obviously) and the Beatles (or whoever owns the copyright) can't say that I have violated their copyright for selling a physical CD. If I had an oil painting, I can sell the physical painting without transferring copyright and all of its privileges, too.

Now, if I tell everyone that I wrote the songs on the Beatles CD or painted the oil painting when I really didn't, that's fraud, but not a copyright violation (meaning: a violation of a copyright holder's exclusive rights).

The woman in the bead situation exercised her ability to sell the physical object of a copyrighted subject matter that she owned. She misrepresented where it came from. It's fraud, not a copyright violation.

Maybe I shouldn't have brought up first sale. It was the only thing I could think of when johnva mentioned the copyright violations.

That sounds like that book written by that crazy religious woman that is in all caps, the one she was selling on Amazon for $100. I looked at that on their site and it burned my eyeballs.

That's really, really cool. :)

Actually she was reselling them and claiming SHE had made them. Anyone is free to resell someone's handmade beads, it's just not nice to claim YOU made them when you didn't. That was what ruffled everyone's feathers.

She's still prowling. She just added yet another person to her ridiculous blog. This is seriously WRONG. She and HER MOTHER used to buy from Ginny too. I put emphasis on HER MOTHER because I have every reason to believe that her mom is very much involved in this.

That is fucked up. What a filthy scammer bitch.

Thanks for the tip! There's gotta be glass blowing SOMEWHERE in SD, what with all the surfers and what not ;)

care to share? i'm in SF, and that seems like a fun thing to do.

So sellers, if you find a purchase from Waco or Woodway Texas, be VERY VERY suspicious.

Ullja Kuntz / Melek Kuntz unstable fraudulent and wacko apparently runs in the family.

I do work with other artists who want small editions of work bound, but those would be for sale via those artists.

Maybe I really just want someone to slap her.
Yeah, I might settle for that.

Nothing happened. Well, until two years later when it turned out that "Donna," who used the handle "femfirechief," was actually a man who had adopted a woman's identity and apparently started a pissing match with the nearest fire department... which was about three blocks away. [www.firegeezer.com] ... this is where the shit gets scary. "Donna" would go out on runs though she had no background in firefighting. And she was collecting license plates and personal information about various personnel and threatening them.

So... seriously... people who know this bead lady, start recording her harassment, and encourage local law enforcement to start collecting materials. It's the only way to stop creepy people like that.

I'm sorry that it's impacted your creativity. That's the awful part. Best of luck pursuing your rightly earned remedies!

Is it knowing they have no creative ability of their own? Is it getting caught? Or is it a combination of both that sends them over the edge?

Fortunatly for me "stupid" already listed MY beads in her shop. Yes, those beads she didn't receive... she was selling them during her paypal claim against me.

Off course paypal ruled in my favor. She sold many of my beads claiming they were made by her, and after paypal refunded me my hard earned money I got a nice little message from Ullja telling me she hoped I had to spend the money on the illness of my kids.

This woman is a bad baked fruitcake.

Suzanne

...the soap's actually really good though.

@floraposte: exactly I what I responded to another comment with. She is committing fraud by having the beads seem to be a higher quality/higher cachet product by saying it was made it in a "private glass studio in Milan Italy".

@kateblack: She is also committing fraud by having them seem to be a higher quality/higher cachet product by saying it was made it in a "private glass studio in Milan Italy".

I think some sellers are offering a discount if you find their store through her "investigations" and mention that "Ullja is nuts" at checkout.

For those so inclined, here's a small sampling of this lunatic:

[annaliisa.vox.com] read the comments

[moreglassmusings.blogspot.com]

[subeeds.wordpress.com]

[www.artfire.com] Artfire current

[www.artfire.com] artfire current

[etsynews.com]

[themermaidtale.blogspot.com]

[dancingwinddesigns.wordpress.com]

[etsybitch.blogspot.com]

But really, it's the craziness that makes it art.

Sounds like the stuff written all over the Dr. Bronner's label.

@juri squared:
Thank you Jury. I hope so too. I'm definitely working on it. Whoever reported this deserves as big a hug as Chris does!

Anyway, as a fan of Etsy and handmade, I'm glad to see this brought to light, as she's been trying the best she could to ruin other people's legitimate businesses with her "investigations".

@futuresuperbowlMVPJayCutler: Do you own said moderately large island? If so, I will find you good beads to trade. As far as the "respect" for beads, once they're yours, you can do what you want with them.

@Trance1861: Me 10. I initially thought, "Jesus, remind me not to f*ck with those breadmakers." Then again, that may still be true. Breadmakers could be the toughest SOB's in the Flour Economy.

As someone who is being tortured and stalked by this woman, I can honestly say that my day has suddenly got SO much better!

I need to clean my eyeballs. >.<

I think that's the idea here. Also, claiming that they were her own creations when they weren't.. probably so people wouldn't just go straight to the original seller for cheaper.

I also am very interested in glass blowing. Always thought it'd be cool. They had a class at my local community college but it was always instantly full.

1) Consumer fraud, in that she was passing off other people's products as being made by herself. Even if reselling would be fine if she were up front about it, what she was doing is fraudulent because to some buyers the product might have higher value if it's bought directly from the original artist. Some people are willing to pay more for something original than for something mass marketed by a distributor.

2) Violating artist copyrights, again by lying about the origin of her products rather than acting as a simple and honest distributor.

3) Possibly violating ToS on various sites. You've got the right to resell, but not necessarily everywhere if their terms of service indicate that it has to be original.

4) The unethical/harassing behavior described here.

All in all, she sounds like a winner.

@Trance1861: I definitely read it as "breadmaker" as well, and did a "baroo?" because the photo was not a loaf of cinnamon raisin.

If you buy from an artist, you're allowed to resell their work. You do not have a right to commit fraud to your buyers (and against the original artisan) by claiming that you created the work.

@Trance1861: Lol

We are 3

I was like "Buying bread over the internet ... ewe!"

@kateblack: So she was buying stuff from people on Etsy, or wherever, then turn around and selling them on her own store for a higher price?

Hmmm. Probably against Etsy's rules and all, but I love capitalism.

You can't buy books and then say you wrote them. You can't buy paintings and say you painted them and you can't by artisan beads and say you made them.

Looks like someone's found a way to bead her at her own game.

@Trance1861: Yay! I am not alone.

I have no idea what is going on in this story.

What the hell is Etsy?

But that doesn't excuse fraud -- which is what we're looking at when someone is buying and reselling the handmade work of someone else and claiming that they made it. I sell handcrafted books, and my buyers are welcome to purchase them for personal use or to resell. They're not welcome to tell others that they made them. I made them.

I read "beadmaker" as "breadmaker" and was really confused.

Man, I need more caffiene.

That will teach me to watch when I'm drinking things, even when reading Consumerist.

Her husband Harry could not be reached for comment.

In a related note, I find Glass Blowing to be a very cool.