OT: Grrrr! Another ebay seller is using my pics and item description!

[Mono~rail]

Yeah, I don't find it complimentary either. I love the "free express shipping." That's great! I guess maybe if I do sell again I will use an outside hosting site and maybe learn how to do the code to prevent c&p'ing.

I've never considered stealing anyone else's pics or their description. I describe *my* items' condition so it wouldn't do me any good to copy someone else's. Bah! No good talking about it now. eBay makes me want to barf sometimes - and this is one of those times.

 

[mom2my3kids]

I hate it when they do that, I hate it when they charged outrageous amount of money for shipping. I just won't buy no matter how bad I want it. But we did have to suck it up when we purchased 4 of the little cars from the cars movie on ebay. It cost me 10.00 to ship 4 little cars. But I knew it when I purchased them.. Still a shame..

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

I don't sell on ebay anymore. Just too much of a hassel for not enough profit. We do the tax write off now. I would probably be spitting mad if someone took my description and photos without permission.
But the real reason I am posting is - I just love your Redneck Kittens picture!!
I smile everytime I see one of your posts.

 

[Mono~rail]

I don't sell on ebay anymore. Just too much of a hassel for not enough profit. We do the tax write off now. I would probably be spitting mad if someone took my description and photos without permission.
But the real reason I am posting is - I just love your Redneck Kittens picture!!
I smile everytime I see one of your posts.

Thanks!

 

[Tinkerjane]

Just reported my pics and descriptions being stolen TWICE! First time, they said he listed his item before me, all that meant was that he stole the pic the last time I posted it so had been using my pic for several months. 2nd time (different item, different seller) they said they see no similarities in pic or description (it was word for wordand pic was exactly with my lacey background, you couldn't mistake it.) I could not believe it. I ended up contacting both sellers, the second one I contacted was extremely apologetic, she was new and had no idea and removed the pic right away and asked if there was anything she could do to make it right. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people on Ebay who actually think any pics that are posted are public property ? Huh?
Ebay will still look into it even if your auction has closed, but don't be surprised if you get the same response I did.
Good Luck.

 

[DizneyDogs]

Another way to resolve this issue in the future is to put a watermark or your auction id on all your pictures. Haven't had one person steal my pictures since I started doing that.

 

[kimberly6]

people overcharge on shipping so they don't have to pay e-bay a cut.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Oh boy, that stinks! It has happened to me in both pics and copying auction text. I have always reported the auctions and they have been taken down, but time is not on your side here. While I can't do anything (except reporting) for people copying my auction text, I do use my PAINT program and write my seller name across the photo. It's a pain, but those stealers are annoying.

I have seen people put the word THIEF in place of their stolen pics....lol.. like others have suggested.

It is not a compliment, it's theft. It is not small stuff on ebay, because many times these idiots are competing with your item. I can't believe the nerve of some people.

I do not email the seller. I report it and let ebay handle it. I emailed a thief seller once and told her to remove my photo. She said, "I didn't realize it was YOUR photo. I'll take it down when I come home from work." Wrong answer. I reported her. They took down her auction and she started emailing me nasty letters. She said I was mean and this sure left a bad taste in her mouth! lol... She wouldn't let up. I sent her one last email and then blocked her from emailing me and from bidding on any of my auctions to get back at me. Of course that doesn't always solve the problem since they get additional names, but it worked in this case.

Good luck!
tink

ps. Actually, I now use 3 free programs in my auction text to help prevent photo theft. I got one or all of these codes from dynamicdrive dot com. I believe two of the codes are called Better Mouse Trap and Mouse Chaser, if that helps in a google search. Also, not sure if you need to be doing your own html in your auctions for this to work or not, I'm not a techie by any means.

 

[Mono~rail]

I've been researching which watermarking program I want to try. I've got the code to disable right click! I've decided that I will keep selling, but I'm taking action to make it a real pain the rear for other sellers to steal *MY* stuff!

I've looked at Auctiva, and I think I will sign up and try their free auction hosting service.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[poohs_hunny]

Why can't you change your pictures? Did they copy your pictures then uploaded them to be hosted elsewhere? Or are they linking directly to your pics? You can find out by right clicking on the pic, clicking on Properties & seeing if the address that comes up is the same as yours. If it is, you can simply change the pic to a picture of a jack*** or something.

Brilliant idea!

 

[Mono~rail]

Whew! *thud* I've spent all afternoon figuring out how to watermark my pics for free. I registered with Auctiva, and one of the features of their service is being able to disable right click on auction pages!

If anyone steals my pics now at least I will get *free* advertising!

I know that the disabled right click can still be gotten around, but it is highly annoying for the thief and not nearly as easy as just right clicking.

ETA: Another advantage of Auctiva is that if someone does use the code for my images I can switch it with something really fun - like a horse's butt, free express mail shipping, a monkey's butt, etc!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Another way to resolve this issue in the future is to put a watermark or your auction id on all your pictures.

You can watermark photos easily with any photo editing software, which helps, but I have seen image thieves brazenly use photos belonging to another seller, even with the other seller's id clearly watermarked!

As for disabling right click, don't bother. This is so easily defeated in seconds that it's not worth the effort.

 

[LilyWDW]

I've got the code to disable right click!

It has been said, but this is totally worthless to even worry about. I know little about programming and code, but it only took my boyfriend 10 mins to teach me how to get around this.

 

[fkj2]

You took the photo. It's yours. If you complain to Ebay and they don't do anything to rectify the situation, I'd mention "copyright infringement."

Using your photo without your permission is theft of intellectual property. It doesn't have to be "registered." Ebay may find themselves in difficulty unless your agreement with them allows this sort of thing. I had to contact a free web domain host because a short story I had written for a college class ended up posted by one of my classmates who was web savvy. I contacted the host, told them I'd not given permission for the story to be posted, they were participating in copyright infringement and the page was gone in about a day.

 

[Mono~rail]

I figured out what she did to steal the pictures - she copied and pasted the image source code into her listing. She killed two birds with one stone - stole my pictures and avoided paying the eBay fees on 7 images.

The "effort" involved in disabling right click was clicking a box in my preferences settings. I only have to do it once and it is set up for all my listings. I didn't even break a sweat.

 

[NHLFAN]

Check this out...

Just last year I listed a Disney pin on ebay...within a day someone uploads my image to pinpics.com and then another Ebay auction shows up with my image and they gave credit to pinpics.com for the photo and info.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

As for disabling right click, don't bother. This is so easily defeated in seconds that it's not worth the effort.

In the script I mentioned in my previous post, along with my seller name on my photos, the scripts I use also:
1. prevents right click
2. prevents another common method which I don't feel like advertising here
3. creates an invisible layer over my photo so that when the thief tries to snag it, they get the wonderful invisible layer, not the photo.

I know the ways to get around some of these things like right click, but using the scripts that cover ALL the actions above, while nothing is fool proof, stealing one of my auction photos will require more work than a simple "click and steal." Let's face it, the thieves are lazy, so I like making it more difficult for them, even though it's more work for me.

If someone wants your photo, they will find a way. I just don't want to make it so easy for them.

tink

 

[HooKooDooKu]

I've got the code to disable right click!

No code in the world is going to prevent someone from hitting the "Print Screen" button and pasting a copy of what shows on their screen into "Paint".

 

[I Heart Disneyland!]

Report them!!! Ebay will end the auction. This happened to me too. It's SO annoying!!! Shame on them.

 

[Mono~rail]

Let's face it, the thieves are lazy, so I like making it more difficult for them, even though it's more work for me.

If someone wants your photo, they will find a way. I just don't want to make it so easy for them.

tink

Exactly, they are stealing pics and item descriptions because theya re too lazy to do the work themselves. If they have to do more than highlight and/or right click, they will probably just move on. . . hopefully.