albertabrightalberta
ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
Hello, everyone.
I notice a lot of sellers are selling their items with watermark logos embedded in the item photos.
It's not a good idea to put a watermark logo embedded in the item photos because there are other resellers that would like to buy the item from you and use your photos and resell it to their customer.
It's a good idea just to use the item photos without a watermark logo then you will see that your sales will increase then the reseller will use your photos and show to their customer and it will generate good results for the eBay sellers and the generic resellers.
I hope that my comment will be helpful and the seller will remove their watermark logo to increase their sales.
@tasifama wrote:
If you purchase something to resell, why not use your own photo?
Answering to your question:
Most of the time people don't have the product in stock to take pictures to use their own photos or maybe they didn't receive their products yet and they have to promote the product to sell the item before it arrives etc.
If that's what you're doing, you're violating ebay policy and not only risk upsetting customers when you're not able to fulfill a buyer order but you face loss of your account when ebay finds out that you're dropshipping in this manner.
It sounds like you're ticked off that you aren't able to steal pictures of other sellers' items so you can dropship your items using pictures that belong to others.
Instead of being lazy, do your own work. Buy the inventory, have it in stock, photograph using your own pictures and own words in the description and improve your reputation as someone who is willing to do the work to become a good seller.
FWIW, I find it interesting (and rather telling) that you aren't using your selling ID to post! I wouldn't want to out myself either if I were doing this.
@driver.apparel wrote:Ebay recalled their watermark ban rule, an official annoucement was made on 11-30-2017
Search Ebay community Announcements: Watermark-Removal-Policy-Enforcement-Update
I cant include a link in the comment unfortunately.
Watermarks
eBay instituted a ban on watermarks in response to Google's policy of not including listings that had junky photos (borders, backgrounds, watermarks) which was causing a drop in eBay listings appearing in google shopping.
eBay did not reverse or "recall their watermark ban rule". They simply cancelled their March 1, 2018 drop-dead date for compliance (when listings were going to be removed from search).
"...have decided that we will not enforce the removal of watermarks in March 2018 as originally planned...."
As a third-party developer, I was present at the developer council meeting where we developers complained that sellers facing the task of retaking hundreds of thousands of photos could not do so within such a short period of time. The consensus at the meeting with eBay staff was that no new photos could apply watermarks, while the existing photos could be allowed to age off. Those listings with existing watermarks were less likely to appear in Google shopping.
The developers, in compliance with eBay's new rules, removed the watermarking features from their listing tools. I no longer promoted my watermarking tools. That is were it was left at that time. I don't recall it ever changing after that. The 2017 ban on new watermarks still stands, and no new watermarks should be appearing.
Copyright
That said, I agree that sellers should, and do, have the ability to protect their work. A seller who invests in quality photo equipment and staging to generate great listing photos, should not be subjected to photo theft by others who will profit from those efforts without payment.
I also believe that "discreet" copyright notices should be allowed.
According to US copyright law, copyrights are vested in the creator of a work at the moment it is created. The work does not need to be labeled with a copyright notice to be copyrighted, although a notice makes it easier to take the infringer to court. This means that purloining the photos of others (often found on the Internet) is a violation of copyright law UNLESS the owner of that copyrighted work has given it to the public domain or has given direct permission. Grabbing the photos of other sellers, without asking permission of that seller, is a violation of copyright law.
