eBay

j2774 · ‎10-14-2018

I have a friend who is a very accomplished artist. His work has been shown in galleries in New York and Massachusetts. He began selling some of his work on eBay a few years ago, and much to his chagrin, he discovered that other people were making bad copies of his work and selling the copies on eBay. Some of the copies even still showed his signature! He complained to eBay, but he said they told him they could do nothing about it. I was floored to hear this! I said, if you file a complaint, and eBay does nothing about it, and they make money off of these copies, that makes eBay complicit in the intellectual property right infringment. I could not believe eBay would not be all over this sort of thing like white on rice.

I also heard of a similar infrigement. There is a seller on eBay that makes inexpensive jewellery using photos. A buyer asked if the seller could make a piece for them using their own personal photo, and the seller said, yes, send me the photo, and I will make the piece for you. Photo was sent; custom product was made; buyer purchased the custom made product. Later, buyer discovered the seller had continued to use the buyer's very private and personal photo to make more jewellery to sell on eBay. The buyer complained to eBay and was told nothing could be done about it. Once again, I was appalled to hear that eBay would do nothing. If the buyer alone created the photo and paid someone to make use it for a one off custom piece of jewellery, why would ebay not clobber a seller for continuning to use it? How would anyone at eBay like it if a photo of their child or grandchild or whatever was being prostituted by someone to put money in their pocket?

I am sure if I continue to talk to other eBayers about this, I will learn of other stories, too. Why oh why does almight eBay claim impotence these matters? Does anyone know if a class action suit for this sort of thing has been filed against eBay ever? Something should be done. This should NEVER be tolerated.

Taking credit for someone else's creation is tantamount to copying answers off of another test taker's paper. It is cheating. Anyone caught cheating receives an F and is usually suspended and even expelled, and this pertains to any exam anywhere from grade school through univeristy as well as in entrace tests such as the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, etc., etc. Cheating is simply not tolerated, except perhaps one eBay. I, for one, want honest answers as to why eBay would tolerate this dishonesty. The person(s) who do use someone else's work to make money or for any other reason are just as likely to rob your home or car or anything else if they knew where you lived. They are theives, criminals, plain and simple, and if they robbed your home or vandalised your automobile and police caught them, they would go to JAIL. Ebay does not even have to put in the sort of effort police do to catch the thieves. All eBay has to do is to not let them list anyone on eBay. What is so complicated about stopping intellectual property rights infringment?

j2774 · ‎10-14-2018

jen_proudleowife, I am checking with my artist friend right now to see if he was able to obtain relief through VERO. I have not heard back yet, but my fear is that he will tell me he tried, but they did not help him, and the only recourse he had was to see the miscreants which was cost prohibitive.

This is why class action suits are so important. They allow an attorney to consolidate many claims that are not worth a huge amount of money each into one big claim that is worth the attorney's time and effort to go after the wrongdoers. In my personal opinion, eBay is just as guilty as those who violate someone'e intellectual property rights because eBay is allowing them the platform to do it.

pburn · ‎10-14-2018

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Unless you are the rights holder of that brand, you can't vero them anyway. Your best bet is to contact the rights holder with the information so that they can contact ebay and have those listings taken down.

I didn't see anything in the OP's posts indicating s/he wanted to file a VeRO complaint him/herself. I think s/he just started the thread as a point of discussion. More like "asking for a friend."

or_couture · ‎10-14-2018

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
@or_couture wrote:
Yes, VERO helps. You fill a form email them and they would take off those listings (if they are indeed fake) in 2-3 days or so.

The brand I sell is heavily replicated on eBay and eBay is full with fake items of that brand. Too bad eBay isn't doing much about it cause it def brings my sales down, for sure. And I can't vero each and every one, there are thousands of them... Easily spotted (quality and price point).
Unless you are the rights holder of that brand, you can't vero them anyway. Your best bet is to contact the rights holder with the information so that they can contact ebay and have those listings taken down.

Right. I wonder how that brand doesn't care about it. There are many fake website "selling" their items and they don't seem to take them down.. I don't get it.

Thanks everyone for sharing & helping 🙂

or_couture · ‎10-14-2018

@j2774 wrote:
jen_proudleowife, I am checking with my artist friend right now to see if he was able to obtain relief through VERO. I have not heard back yet, but my fear is that he will tell me he tried, but they did not help him, and the only recourse he had was to see the miscreants which was cost prohibitive.

This is why class action suits are so important. They allow an attorney to consolidate many claims that are not worth a huge amount of money each into one big claim that is worth the attorney's time and effort to go after the wrongdoers. In my personal opinion, eBay is just as guilty as those who violate someone'e intellectual property rights because eBay is allowing them the platform to do it.

OP, VERO does work! Print the form with all the details, sign and email them the form - vero@ebay.com - in 2-3 days if everything is ok in the form, you'll see those listings being taken down.

Thanks everyone for sharing & helping 🙂

j2774 · ‎10-14-2018

dadsstock, can you post the paperwork to them? I do not know how you could print it and email what you printed unless you have some way to scan your printed material into your computer.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-14-2018

@pburn wrote:
@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Unless you are the rights holder of that brand, you can't vero them anyway. Your best bet is to contact the rights holder with the information so that they can contact ebay and have those listings taken down.
I didn't see anything in the OP's posts indicating s/he wanted to file a VeRO complaint him/herself. I think s/he just started the thread as a point of discussion. More like "asking for a friend."

I didn't see that anything like that either but then I wasn't replying to the op. If you look at my post you will see the quote and the person that I was replying to.

fashunu4eeuh · ‎10-14-2018

@missjen831 wrote:
The user agreement does not prevent anyone from filing a class action suit though. There have been class action suits against eBay. So I am not sure why posters always refer to the UA as if no one can sue eBay. They CAN but it doesn’t mean they will.

Hi Jen. Thank you for the input. To clarify, I never said they couldn't sue nor suggest they could not open a class action. Merely sharing information that may be pertinent.

or_couture · ‎10-14-2018

@j2774 wrote:
dadsstock, can you post the paperwork to them? I do not know how you could print it and email what you printed unless you have some way to scan your printed material into your computer.

Here is the form NOCI:

http://pics.ebay.com/aw/pics/pdf/us/help/community/ITTNOCI1.pdf

They also let you know once they acted upon it and it's removed.

More info about VERO:

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/verified-rights-owner-program.html

Thanks everyone for sharing & helping 🙂

j2774 · ‎10-14-2018

Thank you, dadsstock. : )

7606dennis · ‎10-15-2018

Your friend should probably consult the US Copyright Office web site.

"It is an intelligent man that is aware of his own ignorance."

robot-hands · ‎10-15-2018

robot-hands · ‎10-15-2018

@j2774 wrote:
Some of these sellers who are infringing on intellectual property rights are actually using images of someone's deceased loved one to sell stuff and put money in their pockets. It is despicable that anyone should do that. There is no excuse for hurting a family that has lost a loved one to disease or accident or whatever.

You'll find people making money of dead people everywhere. Record stores, book stores, department stores.

We even have national holidays for dead people.

Even libraries are FULL of books by dead people.

Dead people are sometimes more popular than boring old living ones.

luckythewinner · ‎10-15-2018

@j2774 wrote:
Thank you. Did it help? What/who is VERO?

VERO is a program set up by eBay to accomplish EXACTLY what your artist friend wants to accomplish.

VERO was established by eBay in order to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA provides websites like eBay with "safe harbor" from liability for IP infringement by its users, as long as the site removes the infringing material promptly when notified by the rights owner.

Intellectual property rights owners like your friend register with eBay, and submit a Notice Of Claimed Infringement against the listings in question, and eBay immediately takes them down.

I have been registered with VERO for a decade now, and have reported hundreds of bootleg records of the music artists I represent. In perhaps 1 out of 50 reports eBay has asked for additional clarification, but has never failed to remove a listing that I have reported.

j2774 · ‎10-15-2018

Thank you, luckythewinner. I hope it works for these people. I still do not understand why, though, after it was reported to eBay customer service, people were told "there is nothing we can do about it."