Ebay seller stole my pics!

eBay is far from perfect, but they are not as bad as most people make them out to be. Think of it from their side. Because you say someone used xyz's pic. You have no proof that someone do not have that coin or someone did not take that pic or have permission to use the pic. I could say that all day long but have no proof that someone stole xyz's pic or xyz stole someone's pic. Were that all eBay needed, I would get everyone in trouble that I did not like.

However, when they use my pic, I have the coin or the earliest dated pic as proof or if they use a coin on an established site, eBay can and does act. There is proof that something is amiss.

 

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Someone on one of the forums wrote this.

Dear (webhost),

It has come to my attention that material sold on a website hosted by your company, ebay.com, is violating my copyrights by using images copyrighted soley by me, after I have issued a cease and desist order telling them to remove my copyrighted works and any descriptions or advertisements relating to said copyrighted works.

I have issued a cease and desist order giving the (user ID of seller, and CEO of eBay) 24 hours to remove my copyrighted worksHe does not have my permission to sell these works, advertise, use, or describe them in any capacity. He has failed to comply and is currently using my copyrighted images on his site without my authorization.

Therefore I am requesting under the DMCA that the following pages and
corresponding files be removed for violating my intellectual property rights by perpetrating what could be considered by Federal authorities to be criminal fraud:

(ebay auction links and file names)

I am also forwarding you a copy of the cease and desist order that was emailed yesterday.

I swear under penalty of perjury that the above is true and correct.

(your name, address, & phone number

 

i had a member here take my photo i posted and use in an auction

 

Actually I regularly have people copy entire pages from my website, including images and embed them in their eBay listings.

When I run across them, and I almost always do, I write the seller and demand that they remove the pictures at least. That's because it's my medal or coin they're advertising for sale and it doesn't matter whether they have one that looks exactly like it. The other reason I demand they remove the links is because they're literally stealing my bandwidth for commercial purposes. My personal coin and medal collection website is not a free stock picture hosting site like one seller suggested to me!

After 24 hours I report to eBay. After another 24 hours I repoint the link to images that contain text stating that the seller is stealing my images, bandwidth and attempting to defraud the buyers viewing the listing. That usually does it though with the "free stock pictures" guy I had to resort to a picture of the south end of a north traveling mule to get him to desist.

Usually the sellers switch off the pics with an apology. eBay almost never helps. In nearly ten years my pics have ended up in almost 400 listings and eBay has assisted once. I figure the guy was new...

 

US produced works are public domain

Work that is produced by the federal government is public domain. So, any pic you see at the Mint website (or any other US website) is free for the taking (unless the work is not produced by the feds).

For that matter, one can argue that any image of a coin (that involves no additional creativity or work) might be public domain. So, your basic picture of a coin *might* be public domain even if you took it. Something that involves extra work on your part -- for example, there is an "art" to taking closeups -- on the other hand, might not be public domain.

Note -- this is a completely different issue than ebay's policies, and about posting pix of a coin you don't have, and so forth.

 

Well . . . "can't be bothered" and "too busy" are two different things. At any given time there are over 150,000 auctions going on just in US Coins alone! So, perhaps 300K different auctions per week? I dunno. I can't even begin to fathom how many auctions there are going on all together. If just one-half-of-one-percent generated a complaint, that'd be 1500 complaints per week -- or 75,000 per year, just in US Coins. And we know a number of of complainers are vociferous and have little standing (anyone remember the guy who came on CT a few weeks back to complain about an eBay transaction, because he didn't get the coin he wanted and he wanted to be reimbursed fully plus an extra $40 for his time?) So, not only are there probably too many complaints, but they have to do "triage" -- i.e., deal with the bigger and/or more important ones first. (E.g., stealing a pic is not as bad as selling counterfeit stuff, or, worse, buyers or sellers stealing money/merchandise flat out).

Yes, Ebay could hire a gazillion more staff to police this stuff and to handle all these complaints . . . but then they'd have to raise fees to pay for the extra staff.

Face it, ebay is hugely huge, and they have pretty much the same problems all huge companies have.

I'm not saying ebay is doing the best it can. But I guess I am saying that stuff like this is to be expected when a single corporation is dealing with a gazillion sellers and buyers and transactions every week.