eBay Rant - My Item Got Pulled!

[ducklite]

I'm a professional photographer, and am very protective of my copyrighted work. I just had some crazy chick's entire web site shut down because she stole 12 of my photo's and wouldn't remove them. (I got a record labels legal department after her as well--and she's going to be very unhappy because they've got deeeeep pockets.) Technically I could have E-Bay shut down if I found my photo's on there and they wouldn't remove them.

My case is a little different because my work is all I have to profit from, but still, copyright is a slippery slope, if you let one go others can claim you gave implied permission for them to use your work as well.

Anne

 

[DVCajun]

It's amazing how careful we as sellers have to be, only to have it turned around and have someone else deliberately screw you over and not get any help from ebay.

I make bracelets and other jewelry from antique typewriter keys (among other things) and this one chick bought a bracelet from me, figured out how I did it and started selling similar stuff herself. When I said something to her she said to "get a patent; imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." She also said that she was going to sell the bracelet she bought from me. I said fine, as long as she gave credit to the actual artist. Well, she didn't. She listed it as her own. I jumped through every hoop I could find to get her auction pulled-- I mean, she ADMITTED what she was doing and even told me in advance she intended to sell my piece as her own and they STILL didn't do anything about it. I went through VERO and everything and they just acted like they didn't get it.

I'm still incensed about it but I'm trying not to think about it too much as I obviously have no protection from ebay. It's amazing to me that they get all up in arms if someone copies a picture of an item instead of taking their own and then they completely ignore something like this. I mean, they're not selling the PICTURE-- they're selling the item pictured. In my case, this woman was claiming she made something that was made by me and they acted confused about why that would be a problem. GRRRRR!!!

 

[DMRick]

You can't copyright an idea, unfortunately. If she made them just like you made them, with the exact keys in the same order etc, you would have more of a case, because then she is copying your design. But you have to prove you were first, and that might be hard. I've seen bracelets like yours for years at craft fairs, and we actually considered selling them at one time, when we acquired some old typewriters. But we made more selling the typewriters LOL!

As for reselling what she bought from you, how would that be different from people who resell paintings they bought, books, or any other item? Why would they have to give the artist credit? It's now a used item. Of course if she said she actually made that item and you could see some sort of mark showing that it was your original one, you could hire a lawyer, but it would cost you a minimum of $2000 for a copyright lawyer.

I do understand your pain. I have an item I sell that is always being bought from me at one price and resold at a higher price (I give discounts for large amounts). I could stop selling them, for the price I do, but I'm ok with what I get for them, and if they want to resell, not much I can do about it.

When I said something to her she said to "get a patent; imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." She also said that she was going to sell the bracelet she bought from me. I said fine, as long as she gave credit to the actual artist. Well, she didn't. She listed it as her own. I jumped through every hoop I could find to get her auction pulled-- I mean, she ADMITTED what she was doing and even told me in advance she intended to sell my piece as her own and they STILL didn't do anything about it. I went through VERO and everything and they just acted like they didn't get it.

 

[robinb]

I make bracelets and other jewelry from antique typewriter keys (among other things) ...

I just have to say that I have admired the bracelt in your signature for a while. You do nice work! Probably nicer than the other woman .

 

[thelittlemermaid]

It was a couple of years ago I sold DS' Elmo costume on Ebay.

My auction ended and about 3 days later received an email from a Ebay member asking me if they could use my picture of the Elmo costume because they didn't have a camera and had the same costume to sell. I had no problem if they used my picture. The only thing that I asked of them was to list my user name in their auction saying that they borrowed the picture from me. They wrote back saying they had no problem with that and thanked me.

When I checked their auction they in deed listed me in their auction as the owner of the picture. But that was quite some time ago. It seems now if you want to do anything on Ebay {buy or sell} you need to start doing background checks on either your buyer or seller.

 

[Donna]

When auctions are pulled, 9 times out of 10, it is another seller turning you in, not ebay finding it randomly. ebay will look into it and do the pulling of course, but it's another seller that does the dirty work. with the millions of auctions out there, they depend on the sellers to keep an eye out for them.

 

[jgates]

I believe the only thing I have had pulled was cigarette coupons. Yet I only listed them after I saw at least 40 others! And the others stayed out there. I also did the whole 'white envelope' deal to have them bid on that and it was still pulled. So I suppose one of the other sellers just got mad.

 

[bigdaddytim]

I've been selling on eBay for several years now and yes, I do sometimes report other listings. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing your entire listing (that you spent up to an hour creating) copied and pasted by another seller. What took me time (and some talent) to create, they stole and used within minutes.

Now I will admit that sometimes it can be fun. I've had sellers copy my listing completely (included the URL to my photo that is stored on my website). All I have to do is change the photo to something completely different and now their whole auction doesn't make sense. Good fun.

As for the "like ****", I will report those also if it affects my auctions. Even worse are the "not ********". This just makes it harder for buyers to find what they are looking for. Try it out sometime - my favorite searches are "not disney" and "not DVD". If I had the time, I'd report every one of them.

 

[bigdaddytim]

I should have added this to my reply:

Best thing to do is just read the rules when selling. I have never had an auction pulled and would never try to get a competitors auction pulled if they are following the rules.