DSF

Yep, just as I thyought, fleebay only want to take the money, they are not bothered about how they get it either!

Tans;70265 wrote:A potentially stupid question.... but does anyone on here ever report listings, which clearly infringe copyright?

at a guess some of them people are on here typing right now , ps i dont do ebay so im Out!

i have done it once - when some idiot copied all my listing word fonts, layout, everything.
TBH i dont see the point in reporting anyone for copyright - cause ebay do nothing about it anyway, and i got better things to be doing than running around other sellers stores checking for copyright stuff - which is about 60% have anyway !:rolleyes:

Ebay has no power to directly remove listings that infringe copyright, other than a direct request from the people that either own the copyright, or their legal representatives. Even then there are huge grey areas of legal issue involved. Those procedures have to be in place to prevent a malicious competitor simply having all the the listings of their competition pulled.

Incidentally the same applies to trading standards officers raiding car boot sales and Sunday markets. They cannot just seize items without support from the copyright and trademark holders to validate that the items are actually bogus.

New Horizons;70928 wrote:Ebay has no power to directly remove listings that infringe copyright, other than a direct request from the people that either own the copyright, or their legal representatives. Even then there are huge grey areas of legal issue involved. Those procedures have to be in place to prevent a malicious competitor simply having all the the listings of their competition pulled.

Incidentally the same applies to trading standards officers raiding car boot sales and Sunday markets. They cannot just seize items without support from the copyright and trademark holders to validate that the items are actually bogus.

I beg to differ ebay are the site owners as such they have the right to remove anyone for what ever reason they like its like owning a shop the owner has the right to refuse admission sure there may be good reason to take the owner (in this case ebay) to court for various reasons for instance if you go back to the 50's ebay couldnt get away with the signs like whites only (and quite right too) but at the end of the day if ebay feels there may be a sniff of copyright infringement, and this could be because of another member reporting this , then ebay can certainly either remove the item pending evidence of copyright ownership or valid copyright license under the guise of protecting themselves from leagal action .
On the flip side Ebay think they are a law to themselves anyway so in the end they will do what they want and im sure they can afford better lawyers than any of us on this forum put together

New Horizons;70928 wrote:Ebay has no power to directly remove listings that infringe copyright, other than a direct request from the people that either own the copyright, or their legal representatives. Even then there are huge grey areas of legal issue involved. Those procedures have to be in place to prevent a malicious competitor simply having all the the listings of their competition pulled.

Incidentally the same applies to trading standards officers raiding car boot sales and Sunday markets. They cannot just seize items without support from the copyright and trademark holders to validate that the items are actually bogus.

Not sure about some of that. I have known market traders and street sellers to have items taken from them that they believe to be copies and it is just Trading Standards on their own. I thought anyone could report someone to TS and they could act on that, not just rights owners. It is the legal aspect with ebay where they have decided they cannot assume anyone is selling fakes. You can see that bit would be a minefield for them even when it is totally obvious a fake item. They were quick enough to take all sorts of items down though after the Amazon rape t-shirt saga. It is just what suits them at the time it seems and the more items listed the more cash for them.

When I was looking at the market trading side of things where I live, I was told by my Trading Standards bod that I could not have certain items on the stall that I had at the time, which were the 'Keep Calm - I'm a XXX Fan' where the XXX was a football team name. They said if I tried to have them on the stall they would take them and cancel any trading license!

James990;70933 wrote:When I was looking at the market trading side of things where I live, I was told by my Trading Standards bod that I could not have certain items on the stall that I had at the time, which were the 'Keep Calm - I'm a XXX Fan' where the XXX was a football team name. They said if I tried to have them on the stall they would take them and cancel any trading license!

That would be because the team names are copyright you absoloutly can not put Manchester Utd or any derirative of that name on a mug with out a license

When you list an item on eBay, you are charged a listing fee for that item and eBay has entered into a legal contract for listing that item. If an item is removed without due reason, then eBay has broken that contract. The reason that eBay do not take down the ads is predominantly fiscal. Everytime someone sells an item whether legitimate or not, eBay makes a healthy profit. They make a profit on both the sale and normally through the purchase via additional PayPal fees. Even the taxman gets a healthy cut out of it, both through purchases of the original production materials and taxes on the sellers profits. Reality is the mugs are just a miniscule drop in a big sea out there. It is a sea brimming with endless fake items, many of which are in the £100 plus price brackets.

I had a friend that worked for trading standards and they tell me that their main focus was on counterfeited goods and also on unsafe consumer items. :frown:

New Horizons;70937 wrote:When you list an item on eBay, you are charged a listing fee for that item and eBay has entered into a legal contract for listing that item. If an item is removed without due reason, then eBay has broken that contract. The reason that eBay do not take down the ads is predominantly fiscal. Everytime someone sells an item whether legitimate or not, eBay makes a healthy profit. They make a profit on both the sale and normally through the purchase via additional PayPal fees. Even the taxman gets a healthy cut out of it, both through purchases of the original production materials and taxes on the sellers profits. Reality is the mugs are just a miniscule drop in a big sea out there. It is a sea brimming with endless fake items, many of which are in the £100 plus price brackets.

I had a friend that worked for trading standards and they tell me that their main focus was on counterfeited goods and also on unsafe consumer items. :frown:

Im pretty certain that if you read ebays small print that ebay will have a line which states Ebay reserve the right to remove items without reason or something along those lines i may be wrong but i doubt it it would be rather daft of ebay to leave such a gaping loop hole in their t&c