posted on September 13, 2000 06:19:25 AM
Well, in spite of the gazillion dollars that eBay has made and continues to make by knowingly allowing criminal activity to occur on their site, I don't think they are going to beat the MPAA guys when it reaches the lawsuit stage. MPAA has a much bigger 'legal stick' and when the smoke clears, it will be very interesting to see who is still standing.
Here's a hint - don't put your money on eBay. MPAA and their associates have won copyright issue battles with much larger and more professional companies
posted on September 13, 2000 09:11:52 AM
And no one to check, copyrights, trademarks, tradenames etc. A good intellectual property lawyer could make a trillion....
posted on September 13, 2000 09:22:39 AM
RB, I don't sell video tapes and the like and rarely venture into the category - but I was wondering, when you go to list one of these tapes do you get the same type of screen that you do when you list a designer handbag - which essentially states "don't be selling no fakes here or we'll shut you down".?
posted on September 13, 2000 09:48:14 AM
noteye ... yep, you sure do! The thing that rips me is that eBay (and the law) are both very specific about the illegality of Emmy Consideration tapes, yet they allow them to continue unmolested. The item that I listed, and that subsequently got me NARU'd falls into a 'grey area' with respect to copyright. I offered to provide proof to eBay that I did have the OK from the copyright owner to sell the item, but it doesn't matter. I could even include a written affadavit from the copyright owner in the listing and eBay will still cancel it based on hearsay coming from another user. They don't actually 'investigate' anything as I am proving with my Emmy tape war. It's the bucks, or lack of potential bucks if they cancel these illegal auctions, that really drives eBay.
