eBay Cheats & Copyright Thieves
sianie207 in eBay Copyright Theft
sianie207, of Epsom, Surrey, United Kingdom, stole our 1974 Gold Krugerrand photograph to use on eBay, and omitted to tell buyers that the image was not of the coin he was selling. Totally dishonest!
High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 7; with 100% positive according to eBay.
Sample Listing
1oz 1974 Fine Gold KrugerRand (sic) (South Africa)
100% Real....GREAT Investment
The value of Gold is on the rise and the KrugerRand is one of the best ways to own valuable gold.
The coin is in great condition ( no chips or dents ) and comes in a protective plastic case.
Comes straight from the Kruger National Park (sic) in South Africa.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. HAPPY BIDDING :-)
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 1974 Gold Krugerrand, he used it to sell his own coin on eBay. He did not seem to think it was worth mentioning to potential buyers that the high quality photographs of near mint condition coins were not his own photographs, and not the same coins as he was offering for sale. This is almost certainly illegal in the UK under the Trade Description Act, although it appears to happen on a daily basis on eBay.
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 £850 for his coin!
If he manages to sell his coin at that price, he could not only afford the £40 eBay selling fees (10% on the first £400), plus any PayPal fees (up to about 5%), but could afford to pay us a 10% commission for the use of our photograph.
If anybody pays his price, they must be even more stupid than he is greedy and dishonest.
He or she did actually get 1 bid (£850!). This is an unbelievable price, or would be if it were not on eBay, where many people bid first then renege later.
He probably copied terrycarriel's similar listing which was priced to start at $800 US.
Repeat Offender - Stupid or What?
We reported the first listing to eBay, who removed it. When they do this, they advise the member why, but in our opinion, they fail or neglect to make a good job of the explanation. For whatever reason, we have notice many eBay sellers simply repeat the same offensive listing without taking any notice of why. Perhaps they are stupip, and eBay does, in our observation and opinion, attract the lower level of the intelligence spectrum. Considering this, we think eBay should make their advice to wayward members clearer.
On the second attempt, sianie207 fixed a starting price of £99; which seems to us a strange price. Either start at £0.99 or at the £850 bid which the first item had already received.
Ours not to reason why!
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 his 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.
Copyright Notice
Please see our "Copyright" page for further information.
Copyright Infringements Remedies
Our suggested draft remedies for copyright abusers dependent on category - competitors, bloggers, pseudo-expert & advice sites acting as eBay & Google portals, eBay & other auction site sellers.
Other Copyright Abuse
Other Copyright Abuse
Buying Gold Coins & Bars on eBay
Selling Gold Coins & Bars on eBay
Copyright Thieves on eBay
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.
Alphabetical Listing of Other Copyright Theft Sites
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All comments about copyright also cover content of all our other websites including, but not limited to:-
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sianie207 eBay Listing Using our 1974 Gold Krugerrand Photograph
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