eBay Counterfeit Navionics Chart Cards

All conjecture so far ?
Would appear that unusually no one on the forum with any actual knowlege with regard to the legal situation has been prepared to comment .
The observation that some of the chart cards being sold on Ebay must surely be "naughty" is as relevant as any.
Would be interesting to know why a company the size of Garmin has not taken action to stop a company the size of Ebay permitting the charts to be advertised, cards have been on Ebay least a couple of years.
Looking at the numbers sold, doubt that Garmin are trembling in their boots and may have come to the conclusion that its either not worth the trouble or its going to be more trouble than its worth ?
 
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DiscoVolante said:
It's not conjecture - it's simple copyright theft:

End User License Agreement
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Yup read that ages ago , yet the cards are still on sale , why would that be if the T&Cs were enforcable in this specific case.
Garmin generated 4.86 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2022 and probably employs a building full of legal eagles all vs a couple blokes on Ebay.
Perhaps some action of which we are not aware is underway or mebbe to T&Cs cannot not apply to legacy charts ?
 
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Garmin chart cards have been on Ebay for as long as they have been produced, always been easy to pirate. Back in the day before Bluecharts (Mapsource) the chart card images could be downloaded from the internet and copied to blank cards or even used on PCs.

I have two Garmin chart cards and i can legitimately make 10 (if i remember correctly) copies of them, for my own use. At £50 a go on Ebay that's not a bad result on its own. Putting them on Ebay would still be a breach of T&Cs, of course.
 
Garmin charts are different to Navionics. Navionics specifically have copy protection which use the individual CID for each card meaning you can't copy them without hacking the original software which writes the charts.
 
DiscoVolante said:
Garmin charts are different to Navionics. Navionics specifically have copy protection which use the individual CID for each card meaning you can't copy them without hacking the original software which writes the charts.
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Doesn't stop the pirates though. Mapsource had basically the same protection, was easy for the pirates to get around, code generators were created to hack the protections.
 
DiscoVolante said:
Garmin charts are different to Navionics. Navionics specifically have copy protection which use the individual CID for each card meaning you can't copy them without hacking the original software which writes the charts.
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If anybody would actually read the adverts it says they are not compatible with any Garmin products, they are just copies of open sourced Navionics charts that can work in some other makes of Plotter as listed in the descriptions.
 
Chris_d said:
If anybody would actually read the adverts it says they are not compatible with any Garmin products, they are just copies of open sourced Navionics charts that can work in some other makes of Plotter as listed in the descriptions.
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No chance of 2023 Navionicscharts being "open sourced".

Navionics cards were made to work with the listed plotters, not Garmin. A Garmin plotter needs Garmin charts or in some cases (newer plotters) "Garmin Navionics"
 
PaulRainbow said:
No chance of 2023 Navionicscharts being "open sourced".

Navionics cards were made to work with the listed plotters, not Garmin. A Garmin plotter needs Garmin charts or in some cases (newer plotters) "Garmin Navionics"
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You can however make charts that work on a Garmin plotter from the Open Sea Chart database.

Obviously, buyer beware as this is user generated from tracks recorded by volunteers, so is ok in frequently passed areas, but not in quieter areas, and obviously has gaps. Karten für Garmin-Geräte erstellen – open-boat-projects.org
 
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