Person claims he wants pictures of my Amiga 1000 to use in a book

[techie]

Hi all,
I just received a rather peculiar email from a guy named Michael (from Germany) asking for high resolution images of my Amiga 1000 for a book he's writing :inquisitive:  
Now call me paranoid, but I can't help but think this might just be a scam to get images to use on eBay or Craig's list  :-?

Has anyone else here received an email from this person? Is he really legit? or just another in a long list of Amiga scammers  :-(

Thanks,
Techie

[weirdami]

Why you?

[techie]

Not sure exactly :-?
He just says that he saw the picture of my A1000 here in the gallery.

[Matt_H]

Yeah, surely someone from a1k.org would be easier, as it's a German forum and the A1000 part is in the title of the site. Right?

Sign an NDA with him to get a copy of the manuscript to see if it's legit! :-)

EDIT: Now that I see your photos, it could be because it's the closest he'll get to a cosmetically stock machine these days.

[Plaz]

Odd request. I'd think he could get his own A1000 off ebay cheap enough and take his own pictures. Or is he looking for free time and media from you to complete his commercial venture?

Plaz

[techie]

Matt_H wrote:
Yeah, surely someone from a1k.org would be easier, as it's a German forum and the A1000 part is in the title of the site. Right?

Yeah I have to agree with you a1k.org would seem to be the more logical choice.

Sign an NDA with him to get a copy of the manuscript to see if it's legit! :-)

 :lol: the sad thing is that's probably a really good idea :-)

[huronking]

Besides, it's difficult to imagine a worthwhile book even mentioning the A1000 in 2007, much less devoting printed page to illustrate one.

I'm as big an classic Amiga fan as anyone, but I don't see it.

[DonnyEMU]

Why doesn't he just get permission to use one off of someone's ebay auction?

[amiga92570]

oh, send him the pics. He might be a historian or Bill, Hahahahahahahhahahahhahahahh!


Probably a scammer if they got your name. Nobody has my name.  :rtfm:

[amigakid]

Don't do it, he can google images of an A1000 just like any other regular joe and find tons of A1000 images.  All he'd have to do then is ask for permission from the website to use it.  Pretty much easier than trying to find someone with one, ask them to take thier time to take a pic, send it (if he contacted you here that'll give him your Email address that he can use to setup an account somewhere or spam from).  Always be cautious of something that just doesn't sit right.  Cheers.

[robo-ant]

Hey, the guy could be for real.

I received a similar e-mail three years ago about getting high-res photos of my Magnavox Odyssey, to be printed in a book.  I foolishly ignored the request because I'm lazy :-D , but a Google search finds that a book was published in 2005, with the name mentioned in the e-mail ("Collectable Technology") from the company the e-mail came from (Carlton Books Ltd.).

The requested resolution was "300 dpi", but dimensions weren't mentioned.  I'm not certain I would have been able to supply what was needed.

It's possible that the person who contacted you is looking for a picture of a pristine machine in an original configuration, at high enough resolution to print in a picture book.  That's not what one usually finds on web pages.

[McVenco]

I too received a message from this guy Michael, asking if he could use the image of my (now BinoX's) A2000 from this site. For whatever reason he might want to use it, I still find it very cool that someone ASKS for permission these days. Usually people do a google search these days and grab what they can find without giving a cr*p about copyrights..

From the sound of the message he seems completely for real, so I happily gave permission to use my image. It's not that I could have made a lot of money with it anyway

Matt_H wrote:

Now that I see your photos, it could be because it's the closest he'll get to a cosmetically stock machine these days.

The A2000 in my picture looks pretty crisp as well, though the resolution/quality could have been better.


Actually, I'm pretty curious about this book, if it actually proves to be any good maybe I'll buy a copy. He said it would be ready around christmas. (let's just hope it's not vapourware like so many other things Amiga).

[techie]

McVenco wrote:
I too received a message from this guy Michael, asking if he could use the image of my (now BinoX's) A2000 from this site. For whatever reason he might want to use it, I still find it very cool that someone ASKS for permission these days. Usually people do a google search these days and grab what they can find without giving a cr*p about copyrights..

From the sound of the message he seems completely for real, so I happily gave permission to use my image. It's not that I could have made a lot of money with it anyway

That is true, I mean if he really was a scammer you'd think he could come up with something better to ask for then pictures of an A1000.

I mean come on, how much could he really get off eBay for it? Maybe a hundred bucks or so? Multiplied by however many times a person could get away with never really shipping it before people caught on I suppose...

Hmm, I'll have to think about it some more now.

Thanks for all the input so far guys :-)

[spirantho]

I think you're all being waaay too paranoid.

Getting a really nice A1000 is no mean feat these days, it'd cost a lot to get one good enough for a book.

Secondly, if he wanted it for a scam like on eBay then he'd just get one off eBay wouldn't he?

If he's writing a book then when he says "high-resolution" he means it! In other words, not compressed JPGs or anything, but full resolution TIFs which are large and completely unsuitable for eBay and the like. Also he may not know about any other Amiga sites!

I don't see he's got anything to gain at all by asking unless he's genuine, I severely doubt he's anything other than a kosher bloke trying to get the best quality pics for his book.

[guru-666]

I agree, what kind of scam would require a 300 dpi picture? Just say , yes or no and save the drama!