Quoted from MisterScappy:This bums me out.
When I first tried having custom cards printed, I sent them to Walmart’s photo center. When I came to pick them up, they wouldn’t give them to me without a release form because they had a copyright symbol on them. Funny thing is that CVS’s photo center printed them with no issues, but their quality sucked and they zoomed in on the image. After that, I started printing them myself. There’s another thread here on Pinside where someone was posting custom cards that he created and the OP went silent in that thread. One can only assume that he got a C&D from PPS aa well.
I hope you can work something out with PPS, maybe producing cards for them?
I have dealt with copyright infridgement for most of my career. Its a funny thing, the holder of the copyright is under no obligation to monetize or really do anything with their Intellectual property, but they own it and must demonstrate the defense of it to hold up in court. That said, the holders can usually be enticed to 'license' it if they can can make a revenue stream out of it, or they can own the entire process and merely sub-contract the production. If someone wanted to talk with PPS and offer to "revenue-share" with some mechnism to audit/authorize, then the discussion would be different. PPS would need to be 'reminded' that their is a ton of creative that goes into each piece, and that creative needs to be paid for as part of the revenue-share plan.
So two options/avenues which would benefit everyone:
1) PPS licenses their IP to someone or some company with some audit/revenue details worked out to cut them in. Licensee takes care of the creative part, the production and the shipping. PPS doesn't have to do anything but collect their license fees. (Money flows to PPS)
2) PPS remains the exclusive exclusive license holder and card SELLER and promotes these cards on their website and then simply 'sub-contracts' EACH ORDER they receive at a fee the production to a third party which could also be drop-shipped to the buyer. No licensing required. (Money flows to Third-Party Producer).