eBay Cheats & Copyright Thieves
blueshuby9 in eBay Copyright Theft
blueshuby9, of Paducah, KY, United States, stole our 1999 USA One Ounce Gold Eagle photograph to use on eBay, and told buyers the image was a "library photograph". Totally dishonest!
High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 127; with 100% positive according to eBay.
Sample Listing
1 OUNCE FINE GOLD EAGLE 1999 COIN
You are bidding on a BEAUTIFUL 1999, 99.99% fine GOLD EAGLE 1 OUNCE. This item comes packaged in a clear pocket sleeve. We would appreciated if you could use PayPal eCheck, You are still protected by PayPal but it saves us the fees associated with credit cards and using eCheck means you don't have to pay credit card debt, since the money comes directly out of your bank account. eCheck is like writing a check, it's faster and more secure. Payment must be made within 48 hours from winning Auction because of the price of gold fluctuations. FREE SHIPPING and we deliver within 24 hours of payment!
What's Wrong?
We invest a great deal of time, effort, and cost into creating some of the best photographic coin images on the internet. We strongly object when lazy and dishonest people decide to use them without a by your leave or thanks, doing so in competition with us.
Copyright theft is dishonest. We recommend you avoid doing business with dishonest dealers.
This particular eBay seller not only stole our image of the reverse of a 1999 USA One Ounce Gold Eagle, he used it to sell her own coin on eBay. He did mention to potential buyers that the high quality photographs of a near mint condition coin was not her own photograph, wrongly stating it to be a "library photograph". We wonder which library he is a member of, or whether he pays any fees or subscriptions for her membership.
Most buyers will see the photo of a mint condition coin, and assume that this is the coin on offer, and not read all the description.
It's possible he is ignorant of such fine points, or just plain ignorant.
It is always possible, even likely, that sellers who steal photographs do not own a similar coin, and have the intention to totally defraud potential buyers.
The vendor is not only cheating us by stealing our copyright images, he is fraudulently or ignorantly misleading and deceiving all potential buyers. Gaining pecuniary advantage by deception is the definition of fraud.
Price
The seller was asking a starting price of £99 for her coin
For at least two of her "feedback" items, he would have got more by selling to us when eBay's new 10% selling fees are taken into account, even ignoring PayPal fees.
Why?
We received an e-mail from Tina Rives (bluehuby) as follows:
why did you remove my listing selling gold (sic)
Ebay has been selling Gold Eagles forever! What is the deal????????
Polite
At least her e-mail was polite. or what passes for polite in eBay circles, and although it is brief to the point of curtness, it is revealing.
- There was a distinct lack of apology for stealing our images.
- She was criticising us for protecting our own property.
- We can infer that eBay failed to tell her that copyright infringement was ethically and legally wrong, and probably passed the buck to us. We believe this is a dis-service to us and eBay's members. eBay should have the guts and moral fibre to tell its members (customers) when they have done wrong.
- eBay have never, to our knowledge, sold eagles. Some eBay members sell eagles, many take and use their own photographs.
- eBay's rules advise sellers to use their own images, or to ensure they have permission from the copyright owners, but bluehuby appears to be ignorant of this simple fact. Is this eBay's fault or its members' fault?
eBay Guilty of Negligence or Complicity
We will be reporting this example of copyright abuse using our standard Statutory Declaration via the eBay VeRO programme, and wait to see if they chose to action or ignore our report. We look forward to taking legal action against eBay for their negligence and / or complicity if they fail to take down the offending material promptly.
Double Stupid or Double Stubborn?
We did report the above listing, which eBay removed. The stupid idiot decided to repeat her listing, still using one of our photographs. It happens more frequently than one would expect, leading us to believe that eBay are negligent in explaining copyright abuse to their members, and to believe that eBay are implicit co-conspirators in this abuse.
High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 232; with 99.1% positive according to eBay, which all goes to show that you cannot rely on the eBay feedback system as any indication of the honesty or integrity of the member.
Copyright Notice
Please see our "Copyright" page for further information.
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We already have a page naming and shaming dealers using our images without permission. It's time we did the same for eBay, although if we include them all, this could be a very long page.
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blueshuby9 eBay Listing Using our 1999 USA One Ounce Gold Eagle Photograph
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