posted on August 1, 2001 09:12:11 PM
I have been keeping an eye on a Seller who has been posting there Auctions by going into the past Auctions and using other
Sellers Pictures, Does E-bay have any rules against this? It doesn't seem right, the seller does all the work in taking the pictures. Anyone out there know if this person is breaking any rules on E-bay?
posted on August 1, 2001 09:17:26 PM
I had a scum seller's auction pulled since they stold my auction description and directly linked to my web host for the pictures. After I caught them again, eBay sent me this nice letter when I asked them to pull the auction again:
Hello,
Thank you for your response.
The first auction you reported for using your picture was linking directly to the image on your web space. Under eBay policy, auctions containing unauthorized links to another member's web space will be removed.
In the case of copied images or text, our policy is to send the seller a warning to let them know that this is against eBay policy. If the owner of the image or text wishes to see the auction in question removed, they will need to file a legal Notice of Infringement.
We are providing you with a Notice of Infringement form and explanatory
materials. Please read the material thoroughly and send the Notice back
to us via fax (408) 558-7468.
For your convenience, you can download a copy of our notice of infringement form by clicking the following link
to view and print a copy of our Notice of Infringement). Please sign and send it back to us by fax at (408) 558-7468.
Remember, time is of the essence because auctions last for a limited duration. Once we have received your Notice of Infringement in proper form, we can end the referenced auction(s). Be sure to identify the
specific auctions by number; the user's screen name or user I.D. is not sufficient.
We look forward to receiving from you a completed VeRO Program Notice of
Infringement and working with you in the future as an eBay Customer VeRO
member.
Regards,
Aisling
eBay Community Watch Team
______________________________
eBay
Your Personal Trading Community (tm)
* ~ * ~ * ~ * http://techgems.net
posted on August 1, 2001 09:25:18 PM
I had someone using and reusing my picture.
I first wrote him and politely told him it was my picture. He replied that 'his employee did it, and it would be taken care of' it wasn't he relisted with the same picture, so I wrote to [email protected] and this is what happened:
(took out auction number(s)
Hello,
Thanks for the inquiry.
We received your report that another user's auction listing contains
text, html, and/or photos that you own and that the user was not
authorized by you to use them. We have sent the user the message below,
inviting them to review our copyright and trademark guidelines, and to
make any changes to their auction listing if they believe it to be
appropriate. We are hopeful that any problems that may exist will be
resolved without the need for further involvement by eBay.
If you still wish to request the removal of the particular auction,
please email us at [email protected] and we will send you a Notice of
Infringement form. That form will require you to state under penalty of
perjury that you own or control the content and that you have a good
faith belief that the material you identified violates your copyright or
trademark rights.
Thank you for using eBay.
***********
[email sent by eBay to user]
We have received a report from another user that your auction listing
#XXXXXXXXXX
contains photos which you are not authorized to use. If this claim is
true, such use could be a copyright or trademark violation. Since we are
not in a position to judge whether these claims are true we have not
ended your auction. However, we invite you to review our Copyrights,
Trademarks & Your Listing guidelines found at
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-copyrights.html. This page
provides helpful information regarding the laws regarding your auction
listing. If after reviewing these guidelines, you believe changes to
your listing may be appropriate, we encourage you to:
1. edit the listing to remove any objectionable material, if no bids
have not yet been received;
2. end the auction early yourself; or
3. remove any links to any unauthorized photos.
The complaining party may request a Notice of Infringement as part of
our Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program. If objectionable material is
not removed, they have the right to submit the Notice of Infringement,
under penalty of perjury, and request to have your auction ended. If we
were to end your auction, you would, of course, have the right to appeal
their request. Keep in mind that your account can be suspended for
violations of eBay policies.
We understand that the laws governing use of materials found on the
internet often are confusing and unclear. We trust that our guidelines
along with this email will assist you in evaluating your auction
listing. If you have any questions, please write us at [email protected].
Thank you for using eBay.
eBay Customer Support
He did eventually take it out, but the warning from ebay he got was hardly threatening.
posted on August 2, 2001 05:47:41 AM
I have seen people replace the picture on their server, with one that was totally different from the one the "other" seller was stealing. Was actually very amusing to see them selling a high end purse & have a picture of a litter box on their auction.
I put my seller ID name on my picture, so it's mine & mine alone.
posted on August 2, 2001 08:45:01 AM
I would also look into having all pictures for your auctions that start on say 080201 in a directory called 080201, those starting on 080301, in 080301, and so on. So after the 10 days you just rename the directory something else, and then if somebody tries to link to them they won't get anything. Making sure that your user id is in the picture is also a good idea but they can always crop it out. You might put the user id in multiple places so that the picture will look very odd if they were to remove your user id.
"In pioneer days they used oxenfor heavy pulling, and when one ox couldn't budge a log, they didn't try to grow a larger ox. We shouldn't be trying for bigger computers, but for more systems of computers." - Grace Hopper
