posted on February 2, 2002 02:10:46 AM new
Borrowing pictures is fine if you save them as a file on your hard drive. Linking them isn't very cool and also leaves the linker in a vulnerable position. At least half of the images on the internet seem to be borrowed from somewhere else. It really goes on in a grand scale on porn sites. Computer or camera auction images on eBay are almost all borrowed from retail sites along with the descriptions/specifications.
I can not see the big deal of it except for this case where the links were used and a seller got billed by a third party auction site ( and refunded ) that had an odd billing glitch.
posted on February 2, 2002 06:10:45 AM newBorrowing pictures is fine if you save them as a file on your hard drive
bidsbids I am SO glad that you condone stealing property.
Could you please e-mail me your address? That way I can go to your house and take some of your DVDs. I can then bring them back to my house so that I can play them in my machine.
D'ya think that would that be OK? Probably not.
Theft is NOT fine. I really don't like that it happens, nor do I care on how wide a scale; it's still wrong!
And if you don't see it as a big deal, something's wrong somewhere...
posted on February 2, 2002 06:40:12 AM new
OK you two-knock it off!!! READMOND is correct and comiccollection you are wrong. If you own a business the responsibility is yours and yours alone to see to it that the company is being operated in a fair and legal manner. Your company was caught on 1-31-02 stealing images. By your own admission you have 300+ auctions going-it actually takes you this long to get through 300 auctions? What about the employee who swiped the images in the first place? What is he/she doing? Sitting on a beach earning 20%? Your responsibility was to cancel any and all suspect auctions immediately and relist them at your expense. This is your company-your employee-your responsibility. Stop taking the time to sign up with AW, get on this board and make excuses. The time could be better spent fixing the auctions involved. One other point-if your employee is computer savvy enough to know how to swipe photos from unsuspecting owners than he/she is savvy enough to know that this practice is theft. Not a mistake-not a blunder-but pure theft. I also am not interested in what others are doing. If someone is stealing images they will eventually get caught. Stop using other peoples' actions as an excuse for your own. Fix the auctions and be done with it!!!
posted on February 2, 2002 06:48:52 AM new
I have to say that I have also been in the position to have had my images off of AW stolen and used by another seller......and it is very frustrating.......but I also have to say that even though "comiccollection" is ultimately responsible for what he or his employee's do.......I have to admire him for coming on the board and making a "public" apology with the willingness to rectify by paying any fee's incurred by him or his employee's mistake......I think the boards can be very helpful and entertaining at times but they can also be most unforgiving a lot of times also...when someone initiates an apology and attempts to rectify then I think they should be given the benefit of the doubt and given the opportunity to make it right........I hope when we all make mistakes, we are judged how we would hope to be judged....
posted on February 2, 2002 06:57:07 AM new
Nanasturtles I agree with you. An honest mistake should be forgiven. This was theft-there's a huge difference between the two.
posted on February 2, 2002 07:07:16 AM new
I do agree "Capolady" there is a hugh difference between theft and a mistake.......I think theft would be if he admitted that he himself had stolen the images......but I find it to be a mistake when one of his employee's took the images and he as the employer has taken responsiblity for his employee and is trying to make it right.....so I still see this as a mistake because he has admitted wrong and is trying to rectify it.....I still stand behind my comments.
posted on February 2, 2002 08:24:06 AM new
I must be missing something here. I do ebay part time and on a very small scale. I try to keep my cost down in every way. I wasn't too sure if I really beleived comiccollection on what he said. So I did some quick checking. Here's what I found.
From the first 100 auctions ending from 1-8-2002, to 1-15-2002, involving the sales of comics, this dealer grossed $200.86. If you divide the number of items sold into the amount of gross sales, this comes out to $2.01 per item. Please figure in the cost of the items, ebay fees, Auction Watch fee, (opps, he didn't have any), the cost of the temp employee. How does a person make any money on these transactions when they have to pay all those costs? The cost of the labor would be the most expensive here. Did you really have a temp employee?
Comiccollection registered on ebay on January 5, 1999, which is 37 months ago. If you divide his 370 positive feedback into 37 months, that's 10 feedback a month.
Comiccollection says, [b]I have over 300 positive feedbacks after years on ebay. You don't get that for nothing and quite
frankly I stand to lose it now.[/b] It seems that he really enjoy the feedback he has. But if you look at how many he's received from others and how many he's given, you will find a deficit. 278 Feedback Comments Left by comiccollection 323.
If you are the honest, hard working, ebayer you claim to be, then you would take part in your other responibilities and give out the proper feedback to your buyers. You owe 45.
This alone says alot about you!
spelling edit only
[ edited by yeager on Feb 2, 2002 08:27 AM ]
posted on February 2, 2002 08:33:29 AM new
Oh one more thing.
I agree with the others on the character and definition of a thieve. It doesn't matter if it's 1.00 or 100.00 if still stealing.
I'm not in any way perfect and will be the first to make a mistake now and then. Most people will forgive an honest mistake, even the people here on AW. However, I have been on this board long enough to know the 98 pecent of the people here HATE LIARS AND CHEATERS. After a while, they become easy to spot.
Most people who make a mistake will own up to it, if it's truly a mistake. Some others will hide behind an excuse they beleive others will fall for. Sometimes they wear sunglasses to hide.
Why did johnnynomad change change his ebay id to comiccollecion the same day he apoligied for his "mistake"?.
[ edited by yeager on Feb 2, 2002 08:57 AM ]
posted on February 2, 2002 08:54:24 AM new
Me here - the one originally bothered by this whole thing.
I just checked. About 10% of comiccollection's auctions were cancelled late yesterday and have been corrected and rescheduled. But that still leaves a ton more that are out there with no bids and links to others images. For example: (http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1069498634 which uses http://www.darksites.net/comicsnuff/nov00/cm111400a.jpg).
Clearly comiccollection has a weekend (or more) of work ahead of him.
Now, I accepted the first apology because I believed that it was offered sincerely. The offending image >>was<< removed. I turned down the offer of reimbursement because AW should credit my account; but I told him that I appreciated the offer.
But on to the issue: You hired a "temp" - fine! If I had to do that, I would have given the person some instructions (here, scan these books and launch these auctions). But I still would have reviewed the work. I would have checked some of the listings to make sure the images were up to my standards.
Somehow the person you hired had enough time to link and load enough images for 300+ auctions. Some of the auctions from which he got these images closed months ago! So this person had enough time to scan eBay for pics, but not enough time to physically scan them? That just doesn't work, somehow.
Back to the point. I don't know if the "temp" is real or not (point READMOND). But comiccollection - you have a business, your name is on it, you are responsible.
And capolady is right - you found out that something was wrong, you should have taken all measures completely investigate it, to stop it, and to correct it. It may take you all weekend to re-do the work - that's your headache. Business here is tough for every one - especially now.
I really don't want "a pound of flesh." I just want you to stay the hell away from my auctions and my images.
So far eBay has not responded to either of my e-mails, but if they do, I will direct them (and AW) to this thread for all sides of this issue.
posted on February 2, 2002 10:21:34 AM new
Ok..one more response before I call it quits.
Yeager...stop playing armchair detective.
You and the rest of the users here that think they can gleen the truths of the universe or how much I make off comics need
to go home. Ebay is one of several outlets...its very profitable, but not the only one. Conventions are another. Bottom line..I have one full time employee and three temps that do different tasks.
The outcome of my employee is no concern of yours. I have dealt with him and that is that. capolady...I understand your position, but quite frankly...I'm not cancelling
every auction when I don't know what is mine and what is not. I'm going through them one by one and replacing pics with my own scans when they are not mine.
Finally..Reamond...you don't deal in facts
mister..just your own opinion. If you dealt in facts you wouldn't conclude that I don't
have a scanner. Your just another low forehead trying to act intelligent. Leave it be pal.
posted on February 2, 2002 11:23:34 AM new
What if comiccollection's temp had saved the 300 AW hosted images to his hard drive and got a freebie web site and hosted then there and linked them into the auctions? Kahaml would have had his images stolen and never even known about it. If you want to thwart image theft you have to make your images more difficult to borrow, even if they are on a web site and not at AW. In the comic book covers instance many eBay seller make a clear transparency that has the sellers name on it and place that on the scanner or object before it gets scanned. It's possible to remove it with photo imaging software but it's a lot of work. It's a shame that a seller has to do that but it's either that or just accept the fact that sellers constantly rob from each other. I never steal anyone's images ( maybe an occassional huge website's music CD image if I'm not in the mood to fire up the flatbed scanner ) but if someone borrows my scanned image I am flattered that they thought there were were borrowing.
posted on February 2, 2002 12:49:02 PM new
No I am not trying to act intellegent, I am intellegent.
Low forehead ? Who is the low forehead that got caught stealing images and hosting and has to re-list auctions and was reported to eBay ? LOL !! I think even the low foreheaded people are laughing at you.
