Others stealing my photos and descriptions

[idacres]

I am getting tired of making my own photographs and product descriptions, only to see other sellers steal them to use in their own listings. 

How can I stop this? 

Are all pictures allowed to have a visible watermark? 

Is there anything I can do about the pictures and descriptions they already have stolen? 

Even the distributor has stolen my pictures and descriptions!

[idacres]

I am looking for some insight on this issue. The item I am specifically asking about can be found by searching "mieoko 18". ALL the results I can see have MY pictures and MY descriptions. To be unique, I will shoot new and better photos all over again, and watermark them all. Is that acceptable on Ebay?

[shipscript]

@idacres

Your user agreement allows eBay to collect your photos for the product catalog and then allows others to take advantage of those photos. Sharing your photos with the catalog was once optional and is now mandatory. Last year eBay started a ban on watermarking, but then relented on the due date. So I suppose you could still watermark for a while, but then google will be less likely to pick up your items.  eBay sends Google a regular feed of items, and google will purge those that fail to meet google guidelines. Those Google guidelines have dictated some of eBay's recent changes.

[idacres]

Thanks for the info. I am disappointed in where this is going. People who make photographs that take considerable time and effort are then stolen by lazy or incompetent sellers. This practice is theft of my intellectual property. In all my listings on Ebay and other platforms, I use all my own photography except for with one product where the distributor has granted permission to use theirs.

Maybe there would be better protection if I listed my photos on Shutterstock. At least then there would potentially be a deterrent to theft, since I hope that Shutterstock could help to enforce the copyright. Does that work at all?

[dhbookds]

I don't know if this would work..........but I've seen some suggestions that if you register with the Ebay Vero program, you  can file complaints with ebay to which they will respond.  I don't know what qualifications/limitations are involved.....but might be worth checking out. 

[idacres]

Thanks. I'll have to look into that if it is different than the Notice of Claimed Infringement that I submitted against a seller who seems to not accept email communication that isn't about an order (at least I could not find a means to contact seller as I could with the others).

[parkersparrow · Accepted solution]

@idacres Have you tried writting the the sellers and asking them to remove you photos? I have done this when I find someone has used one of my photos or if they have my store name in description. I have even asked a seller to please not use my exact titles. Usually they will comply.

[idacres]

Yes. Last night I emailed them through contact seller, except the one that doesn't accept communication, where I submitted a Notice of Claimed Infringement.

[idacres]

Sellers who could be reached by email took down their listing entirely, and the distributor/wholesaler changed back to their own photos.

For the one seller who could not be emailed, the solution was from dhbookds: "register with the Ebay Vero program, you can file complaints..." Their listing was taken down.

[equid0x]

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@idacres wrote:
Thanks for the info. I am disappointed in where this is going. People who make photographs that take considerable time and effort are then stolen by lazy or incompetent sellers. This practice is theft of my intellectual property. In all my listings on Ebay and other platforms, I use all my own photography except for with one product where the distributor has granted permission to use theirs.

Maybe there would be better protection if I listed my photos on Shutterstock. At least then there would potentially be a deterrent to theft, since I hope that Shutterstock could help to enforce the copyright. Does that work at all?

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eBay has it in the terms of use that all photos become eBay property and can be used by anyone. Watermarks will get your listing removed from google search results and last I knew, is against current eBay policy. Plagiarism is rampant on the Internet and unless you really wants to spend a lot of time tracking these things down and sending people DMCA takedowns, etc, its probably better to just let it go. 

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@equid0x wrote: eBay has it in the terms of use that all photos become eBay property and can be used by anyone. Watermarks will get your listing removed from google search results and last I knew, is against current eBay policy. Plagiarism is rampant on the Internet and unless you really wants to spend a lot of time tracking these things down and sending people DMCA takedowns, etc, its probably better to just let it go. 

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