any thoughts on this problem?

[jonahsonlinesales]

I have around 22,000 original steam locomotive photo collection on eBay. I have been selling them for 2.5 years. I learned recently from a customer, that someone has been scanning my photos in my listings and selling them in his store at a discount. So he scans the photo without much border to identify my background, and does not show photos of the back so as not to show the original photographer stamps or other markings, then sells them at a discount and makes money off my photos. These are not copyrighted photos and I have contacted eBay and nothing has been done. According to eBay policy, there is no way to watermark these photos. I also have many many hours of listing, so I cannot redo the listings. Any thoughts are appreciated. Oh, and looks like he is doing it to other seller too. He has a big operation. 

Thanks,

Tim

[m60driver]

This has been a recurrent problem on Ebay.  I once ran into this issue and then began to post my scans of my images with some key areas blurred and with an explanation in the description.    Or perhaps incorporate some type atop image.  It did slow down sales a bit but it also stopped the pirating of my images.

[pburn]

There's nothing in eBay's current policies to prohibit another member from using your photos--once they're out there, anyone can access them.

I am so curious, though, about what his/her customer is actually receiving when they purchase one of the listings. Can you tell anything about that from his/her customer feedback? What are customers saying about whatever it is they're receiving?

P.S. Remember that you cannot post any information that would lead to the identity of this seller--no links, no item numbers, nothing. 

[wastingtime101]

---

@jonahsonlinesales wrote:

These are not copyrighted photos

---

If they're not copyrighted then they're in the public domain and anybody can use them, yes? If the lack of a copyright is accurate, then any action to take would depend on whether the other seller is accurately listing them as what they are (prints), or if they're listing them as original vintage photographs.

[1tuna]

you need to mark your pictures somehow with a watermark or copyright

its perfectly fine to do so...watermarks and so forth were only prohibited for a few months before they said its OK and is no longer prohibited

@jonahsonlinesales 

[buyologist-3]

This is one of the newer things that ebay has changed.  It used to be against policy but it must've been hard to control or maybe there's a buck to be made?  They used to pull such things like pirating descriptions, photos, etc. but no longer, so do what jonahsonlinesales says: blur, add print, add a coin, etc. so 'they' can't use your photos.  You say you can't do that, so you may have an ongoing problem here.  The scammers, thieves, pirates and probably more, will continue without restraint.  Being the 'Good Guy' doesn't matter these days (almost everywhere).  Suks.  

[wastingtime101]

---

@1tuna wrote:

watermarks and so forth were only prohibited for a few months before they said its OK and is no longer prohibited

---

They said it's still against policy but they aren't enforcing the policy - for whatever that's worth to anybody.

Translation: it's prohibited per the policy page because they want to discourage sellers from using them, mostly because Google will reject watermarked images from search/shopping, but eBay isn't looking to take down your listings because of it.

[luckythewinner]

---

---

 I learned recently from a customer, that someone has been scanning my photos in my listings and selling them in his store at a discount. So he scans the photo without much border to identify my background, and does not show photos of the back so as not to show the original photographer stamps or other markings, then sells them at a discount and makes money off my photos. These are not copyrighted photos

If you do not own the copyright, then the minute you sell the picture it no longer "your photo" and eBay is not going to take them down just because you do like what the buyer is doing. 

And if they are truly not copyrighted, then anyone is free to copy them and sell them as much as he wants.

And if they actually are copyrighted, the copyright holder would need to file a notice of claimed infringement through VERO. 

[babclassics]

I took a look at your (nice) railroad photos.  My brother is an artist and sells his works online.  The first thing that pops out to me it that the resolution on your images is way-too-good.  If you post smaller, lower resolution scans of your photos they wont be worth pirating.  I would not release more than 400 or 600 pixel versions of your photos. You could always show a higher resolution "inset" of one area of the photo and explain that the whole photo will be of that resolution.  Also maybe not show all of the back side or any of the writing / stamps on the back.

Even just other potential buyers can make copies of your photos if they have a good printer, not just the thieving pirate.  Of course they wont have original photos, but some people just want any print.  Dont post a good enough version for them to copy.  If they know it is a high rez photo they are buying I don't think it will hurt to post low rez samples.

The idea of watermarks was already mentioned and that can work as well. 

Finally, I don't really agree that all photos in listings can be copied to other listings by other sellers.  The policy says that CATALOG photos can be used by other sellers.  But I assume that not all of the photos you post are in the eBay catalog?  I think there may be some room for removal if you talk to sympathetic staff, maybe the Facebook eBay staff.  Its worth a try.

[collectfest]

I understand your frustration but...

I bought out a museum over 20 years ago that contained what appears to be original negatives of a massive train collection.

I am not sure how you feel your images are "original" or how your are defining "original". 

In this case, in my humble opinion, eBay should not do anything. The written card you have attached to your listing by no means proves anything to me as a collector nor does your description or history provided.  I am not knocking the description but it is just information about the artist.

As to the so called original stamp on the back, that can be useful but by no means fool proof. Its the paper, even if the photo came from the actual photographer does not mean its defined as original.

[katzrul15]

I think it is wrong on so many levels.

Little you can do, but so very wrong.

We have a Seller "admirer".  We list a new line, suddenly, within a week or 2, so do they.

One of the many reasons a Seller should be able to view their Store followers.  Hard to combat issues like yours and others, if you do not know right away.

[a_c_green]

---

@jonahsonlinesales wrote:

I have around 22,000 original steam locomotive photo collection on eBay. I have been selling them for 2.5 years. I learned recently from a customer, that someone has been scanning my photos in my listings and selling them in his store at a discount. So he scans the photo without much border to identify my background, and does not show photos of the back so as not to show the original photographer stamps or other markings, then sells them at a discount and makes money off my photos. These are not copyrighted photos and I have contacted eBay and nothing has been done. According to eBay policy, there is no way to watermark these photos.

---

Are you positive that he's generating prints from the images in your listings? The ones of yours that I scrolled through at random just now are photographed on a table, at an angle and from a distance, so it seems like it would be a lot of work to turn that into a quality reprint: enlarge it, correct for the keystone effect, boost the contrast, etc.

At the same time, these are certainly professional-quality images, builder's photos or publicity photos, that would not have just been taken on a whim, printed once and filed away. I would think those photos could have been distributed far and wide in their day, and probably survive as hard copies in multiple locations. 

As for the vintage prints you have, I would certainly either watermark the listing image or (probably simpler) photograph the print with a clear acetate overlay carrying your eBay seller ID. I know eBay has been hot and cold on the issue of text in photos, but in this case the product is the photo, so obviously precautions have to be taken to prevent simply giving away the image via unpaid downloads.

[jonahsonlinesales]

thank you for the reply. Do you know how to do a watermark? Both old and new listings?

Tim

[jonahsonlinesales]

but it does go against ebay policy, for whatever that is worth

[imagewarehouseonline]

We had a separate Ebay shop selling 35mm slides and photos and ran into the same issue- we were alerted to it by one of our customers.  We started adding a faint watermark to protect the images and also threatened legal action,  the images are the property of the person who took them UNTIL that person either passes away or sells them to someone else and gives written permission to use the images. 

In most cases for us they were from Estates and the person had passed on and so the copyright for those photos belonged to us   until they were sold, then it becomes the buyers copyright. 

We contacted the person selling our images on a different site, told them they were breaching copyright law and they stopped. We contacted a lawyer to be sure as many of the images we were selling were being used in publications and the new owners had to be sure they legally owned the copyright to print.

I hope this helps,if you  get really stuck putting a piece of coloured cotton across the photo before you take a photo or scan also is a deterrent that is easy to  do