posted on August 3, 2001 02:04:08 PM
it comes to an illegal item going for top dollars? There is this seller who constantly sells videos that she claims is OOP BUT are screener/promo tapes, which is a violation of ebay TOS. When you sell videos, it says on the selling page that ebay prohibits sales of screeners.
I reported this seller once before, 3 days later (and a day after auction closed) they emailed me saying there was indeed a violation of TOS, and that the ended auction was cancelled and they contacted the bidders not to go through with the transaction.
wekll this seller than 24 hours later put the same bogus screeners back up again (note this seller has the same 10 films/screeners with a certain star every 3 days for the last 2 month!) and again I contacted ebays, but this time I gotten a canned response that had nothing to do with what the violation was! Something to do with copyright, which is different than selling a admitted promo/screeners! And I noticed one was going for 220.00, and one of the bogus tapes sold for 400.00!!!
Do I suspect if things are selling high, no matter if the violation is right in front of them or in the auction description they will play deaf dumb and blind if it sells high, even though soem one just got scamed? So bascially they are saying it is OK to violate their TOS right in front of them, and 24 hours later after their warning?
Should I contact the winner telling them they just got scammed?
posted on August 3, 2001 06:44:41 PM
Hi ironking ...
It's a long story! I'm sure you can comb thru the archives here to see my rants. Suffice it to say though, that I do NOT support anyone who sells bootlegs and pirated videos on eBay or any other auction site
I am happy to see eBay at least try to do something about this illegal activity. Yahoo and Bidville don't seem to care that they are abetting a criminal activity on their venues.
posted on August 4, 2001 12:15:39 AM
eBay is not required to remove an infringing item unless the actual owner/agent of the intellectual property signs a complaint and forwards it to eBay, as per the DMCA.
eBay states that it will remove "obvious" infringements, but is not required to do so.
Edited to add- A TOS violation may be in the item's description, if so, many sellers just change the cescription to conform to TOS.
[ edited by REAMOND on Aug 4, 2001 01:32 AM ]
posted on August 5, 2001 09:20:58 PM
Actually, the high prices might be coming from representatives of the studios themselves.
Go to vsda.org and post the name of the seller on the discussion boards there. You probably won't get an actual response, but those who you want to contact will see it - and it will not go unnoticed
Good luck to you.
BECKY
The real bummer is that it is illegal - I have hundreds of those doggone things!
