eBay wants me to remove my logo from my images - NEVER!

[mxdude!]

So, eBay now wants us to remove our logo from my product images. The images we invested a lot of time and money in and which are therefore copyrighted, eBay now wants to offer our competitors to use for free. All in the name of clarity for eBay buyers.

How can they think we will/can agree to that? We won't. Our competitors would be lauging very hard when they can use our images. We will have our listings taken down the moment eBay starts enforcing that policy rule, and we will expand our webshop efforts. eBay has been pushing us too much lately, this is where we draw the line.

Any thoughts? Let me know. 

[themonitorman]

Yes I do own formal copyrights on all of my images for sale.

and yes - I have enjoyed my run on eBay!

Thank You!

[the_voice_in_your_head_is_me]

Do a search for Bismuth Trioxide and note the images watermarked with a web address. What's interesting is that the current seller stole those images from the original owner that had his listings ended for the watermarks.

Reporting is a waste of time.

[lookng2015]

There's no 'getting' about it - they're already there.

[thatsallfolks]

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@papyruspapillo wrote:
Do you own formal copyrights on all of your images? If not, they belong to ebay ... whether we like it or not. I hope you enjoyed your run on ebay.

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You clearly know nothing about copyright law. Please provide us with a link to the definition of “formal copyright” on the Copyright Office website.

[themonitorman]

maybe he meant a Copyright with white ruffled shirt, black tie and tails?

[campesinoplastic2014]

In addition, the photos and my other hard work is not shareware. I guarantee these photos will "become the property of FeeBay and Google" and without your prominent markings on them you lost them for good. You worked your tail off for some scab to have the benefits.

[johnfduda]

I aplaud you for your stand. I agree and have stated that here publicly. My pictures will not be removed from my listings. I have stated here that eBay may remove my listings.

If eBay values the pictures in the listings more than the listings; then they may remove them. Take them down, but I will not be a party to STEALING my pictures.

It's my opinion that an image with a copyright notice is copyrighted. I'm not an attorney but have many decades or photo experience, including in the photo industry. My main complaint is that I don't want my listings to look like some lazy bums listings. A seller here who would stoop to using another sellers images is not worthy of buying from. Or so it seems to me.

[thatsallfolks]

“It's my opinion that an image with a copyright notice is copyrighted. “

In in most cases, an image without a copyright notice is still copyrighted.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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7606dennis wrote

It appears that eBay has in the past granted themselves non-exclusive rights to use any work uploaded to the site.  However, this does not grant them ownership of the copyright to the material, nor does it prohibit the copyright owner from granting similar rights to others.  Of course, it also doeasn't deal with the question of whether or not any rights to the use of the material was granted to someone else prior to it being uploaded to eBay and thus restricting their usage of the material.

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I was thinking something along those lines.  A seller may be given permission from the images' copyright holders to use them on eBay, but that is all.  Unless explicitly stated, the seller can not grant eBay the right to then use those pictures as they see fit, because that right is not the seller's to give.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@jonathankirkland wrote:

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@krys888 wrote:

Retired reporter. I always notify when recording. Not my first rodeo 🙂

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I'm very surprised you informed them of your recording and they didn't just hang up on you.

I tried to record conversations, letting them know I was doing so, when calling various customer support lines and they ALWAYS in every case told me they could not continue to assist me and had to terminate the call.

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This call may be recorded for quality purposes...

No need to inform or otherwise ask permission.  Since the persons responsible for setting up the outbound recording was authorized to make that statement, they already give their consent to be recorded.  They can't have it both ways.  Either their declaration that the call can be recorded means it can be recorded, or they are outright lying.

[johnfduda]

I'd be interested in knowing the rights of a photographer to protect his images. Let's assume a seller here sued a seller who used his image/images in his listing. I don't see how eBay can protect a seller who used anothers image. I can't believe eBay would hire an attorney to defend a user who got an image out of the eBay catalog. So eBay's being disingenuos. They don't have the right to the images whether hosted on their servers or not. So this is a bluff, the act of  a bully.

But I certainly would follow a court case. Say a photographer in Townsville who sues another seller in Townsville in Federal court. Both the plantif and the defendant live in Townsville, so eBay can't have the case moved to  San Josy. Besides they have no tenure. But the news media would take note of it. Especially if it was for big money.

The eBay catalog would become worthless. a load of stolen refuse. Ripe for deletion.

[themonitorman]

This sounds like it would be a good time to bring up the effects on "Licensed" images and artwork.

I have a number of images (listed, soon to be listed, and eventually to be listed) which have been contractually licensed to me for reproduction and sale (in a specified limited quantity), by the Bundesarchiv Deutschland, who currently holds the Copyrights on those images.

Am I going to run into any legal problems, if eBay chooses (based on their questionable UA) to steal - excuse me, utilize - those images, without also being licensed by the Bundesarchiv Deutschland?  Or will eBay be the one to face any legal issues from the licenser, BA-D?

[thatsallfolks]

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@themonitorman wrote:

This sounds like it would be a good time to bring up the effects on "Licensed" images and artwork.

I have a number of images (listed, soon to be listed, and eventually to be listed) which have been contractually licensed to me for reproduction and sale (in a specified limited quantity), by the Bundesarchiv Deutschland, who currently holds the Copyrights on those images.

Am I going to run into any legal problems, if eBay chooses (based on their questionable UA) to steal - excuse me, utilize - those images, without also being licensed by the Bundesarchiv Deutschland?  Or will eBay be the one to face any legal issues from the licenser, BA-D?

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In my experience, the legal risk and responsibility falls on the entity that uses the image without permission of the copyright holder, not the entity that provides it for use. That’s not you. But it also may not be eBay. It may be the other seller.

[johnfduda]

Let's take this even farthur out there. Suppose I steal a picture, a beautiful picture, and use it in a listing here. I crop out a copyright notice. Then eBay steals it for the catalog. And Joe Smuck gets it from the catalog and unknowingly uses it in his listing.

So where does the liability lie. I don'r have much money, neither does Joe. The only one with the big bucks is on the bay.  Joe doesn't claim ownership, I only stole it. The guy with the bucks distributed it and claims ownership.

Where does the hammer fall.

[scotchtapeboutique2017]

i watermark my images so that ebay can not use them in their catalog without compensation.

if we  have to remmove watermarks, I will simply take only ADEQUATE pics that have some quality issues so that the items will still sell but be worthless to ebay/other sellers.