What's the eBay response to 60 minutes segment on harassing journalists for trying to do their jobs?

[peszar-0]

This is SICK tactics by eBay to try and bring down a journalist who is trying to bring to light a crackdown on 2nd Amendment rights. And the CEO exits with a golden parachute. **bleep**!!!!!!

[mam98031]

@valueaddedresource 

Do you happen to know who benefited from the fines that at least 3 of the people convicted go?  Was it to compensate, in part, the victims of their attack?  By my count it was about $65,000.

[valueaddedresource]

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@mam98031 wrote:

@valueaddedresource 

Do you happen to know who benefited from the fines that at least 3 of the people convicted go?  Was it to compensate, in part, the victims of their attack?  By my count it was about $65,000.

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@mam98031  I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV or the internet 😂, so take all of this as just general knowledge information....

Generally speaking there are important differences between fines and restitution in criminal cases.

A fine is meant to be part of the punishment and is usually paid to the local/state/federal jurisdiction for the case.

On a much lower level think of it like if you get a ticket for causing a traffic accident - that ticket is a fine and the money gets paid to the court, not to the person whose car you hit, and the fines the court system collects usually go to fund various law enforcement or community programs.

Restitution is typically an amount that is determined to be paid to victims of a crime to compensate for losses in some way - again going back to the traffic incident, if you were found to have engaged in reckless driving for example you might be ordered to pay restitution to cover the medical bills or lost wages of the person you ran into (assuming insurance doesn't). That would be separate from and in addition to the ticket/fine you would pay to the court.

Here's a good general article about the some of the differences between fines and restitution.

https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/criminal/criminal-law-basics/what-are-criminal-fines.html

Per the documents in all of the criminal cases that have completed sentencing so far - the dollar amounts have all been listed under the heading of "fine" while a separate column titled "restitution" was left blank.

Make of that what you will.

[mam98031]

Thank you.  It is appreciated.

[chapeau-noir]

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@mam98031 wrote:

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

IMHO it will never go to trial.  Highly likely they will settle.

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I agree - at this stage of the game, dragging it through court really benefits no one. Wenig and Wymer are gone and the rest have been prosecuted. These activities are NOT representative of eBay as a whole, and there's a chance for the company to express this.

* As for sales being down - highly doubt it has anything to do with 60 Minutes just as I think sentiments expressed here have anything to do with sales - correlation does not equal causation, etc. etc. and it's old news by now.

[vintagecraze50]

I just read your whole report on this on your website. You did such an excellent job putting together the whole story complete with all the advice that was given by the legal dept. Wow, the lawyer really got lax in their advice on what to do.

[moondogblues]

"but a pig head, right?"

Alex...what was Lord of the Flies?!

[moondogblues]

"has very sorted history of just that"

Perhaps you mean 'sordid'?

[moondogblues]

Interesting thread.  I do remember this whole thing from years ago...go Ina and hubs!!!

[mam98031]

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@moondogblues wrote:

"but a pig head, right?"

Alex...what was Lord of the Flies?!

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Bloody Pig MASK.

[vintagecraze50]

I wonder what ebay would have done if Ina sent back the pig mask and a Jason mask. Not as described merch. Sorry you gotta get a laugh about this. It’s so insanely crazy it in itself is laughable, EXCEPT for the terror the Steiner went through.

[mam98031]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

I wonder what ebay would have done if Ina sent back the pig mask and a Jason mask. Not as described merch. Sorry you gotta get a laugh about this. It’s so insanely crazy it in itself is laughable, EXCEPT for the terror the Steiner went through.

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I get your humor.  But I don't think at the time they knew it was a few Ebay employees, now ex employees that did it.  I can bet the Steiner's weren't laughing !!!!

[jersey..authentix]

I guess the only question left is, who is running the show now? Does the same mentality exist?

[zamo-zuan]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

OK, so twitter when Trump was bellowing about his divergent point of view regarding the election results was allowed to post his divergent point of view to the point where barbarians invaded the White House. Oh yes he had freedom of speech to a point. Fido and others posting on the blog where expressing continuous and unfettered negative comments about the CEO, and the company in general. Enough to anger the higher ups who of course want to protect their company. The relevance of peoples negative comment can get really out of control and be NOT representative, nor true of what they are babbling about. Buy hey, that’s for the public to decide right.

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I don't believe political commentary is useful here at all to be honest. 

But if you really want to criticize Fido or anyone on the blog, why don't you post an actual comparison? As of right now, you're speaking in complete hearsay, which is not constructive at all. There's a big difference between criticism and the picture you're trying to paint here. 

It seems there's a very large double-standard for the standards you're holding bloggers to, and the standards you're holding eBay's employees and leadership to.

So criticism on the internet is "out of control" and unacceptable... But being told by legal that they couldn't do anything about it then escalating it to real life retaliation is okay? Isn't the double-standard here obvious?

How are you determining that standard? Is it because you don't believe what the bloggers was posting was true? If that's all it takes, would you like me to post some examples of bloggers posting things that were 100% true and eBay spread information in return that we could prove was false?

And again, you're implying that Fido's comments were "out of control" and "not representative nor true". Why don't you post an example of that happening? As of right now, the way you are even saying Fido was just someone "posting unfettered negative comments" on the blog shows that you hadn't really followed him nor seen what he posted.

If you're saying the higher ups were simply "angered" and were seeking to "protect the company"... Umm... Well I think you and I might have VERY different definitions of what "protecting the company" means. They did MILLIONS of dollars worth of harm to the company (and other people) and have immeasurably tarnished eBay's reputation.

[cardxcraft]

"I don't believe political commentary is useful here at all to be honest."

Definitely a helpful post...much appreciated.  Especially the above quote.  I don't have your interpersonal approach, which leaves me open to getting my hands slapped by the Blues.  

[cardxcraft]

Ditto, lol.  Imagine how the Steiners felt when they realized it was Ebay Executives who were leading the charge, and not just a few customer service agents.  Whew!  

Btw, I hope they're ex-Ebay employees.  In fact, I hope it goes without saying.