eBay Cheats & Copyright Thieves
vansett in eBay Copyright Theft
vansett , of Tasmania, Australia, stole our 2008 Australian Gold Fifth Ounce Kangaroo at Sunset Photograph, taken from our Icons of the Commonwealth Gold Coin Collection page, to use on eBay, and failed to tell buyers the image was not of the same item he was selling. Twice. Totally dishonest!
High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 250 with 100% positive according to eBay.
At the most recent edit, this had increased to 257.
eBay Copyright Thieves
Many eBay vendors use our coin photographs to sell inferior quality coins on eBay. These eBay members are dishonest and should be avoided.
We believe eBay profits from IP rights infringements (copyright theft), and does so knowingly, only removing infringing items reluctantly, if at all.
Sample Listing
2010 $25 Kangaroo at Sunset Gold Proof Coin **RARE**
(1/5 Oz Gold) Mintage of just 1000 coins
2010 $10 Kangaroo at Sunset Proof Coin
(One of the most sought after coins worldwide)
1/5th Ounce Gold
This Royal Australian Mint $25 PROOF coin features the striking image of a lone kangaroo bounding over an endless horizon .
The finely crafted hardwood Jarrah presentation case enhances the value of this coin
which has a limited mintage of 1000 and was available from a massively over subscribed balot (sic).
With numbered Certificate of Authenticity.
Some Gold kangaroo coins now sells (sic) for well over $2500!!!
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Seller ID | Item Number | Date | Description | Price
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vansett | 230405052387 | 1st Dec 2009 | 2010 $25 Kangaroo at Sunset Gold Proof Coin **RARE** | AU$0.99
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vansett | 230541714569 | 23rd Oct 2010 | 2010 $25 Gold Proof Coin - Kangaroo at Sunset
| AU$0.99
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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 images of a 2008 Australian Gold Fifth Ounce Kangaroo at Sunset Photograph, he used it to sell his own card on eBay. He did not mention to potential buyers that the high quality photographs of a mint condition coin card was not his own photograph, or that his card may not have been in mint condition.
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.
He has got the technical ability to use a photo editing software package to remove the coin form our own images, but seems incapable or reluctant to create his own original scan or photograph.
Price
The seller was asking a starting price of $0.99 AUD.
Repeat Offender
We noticed vansett stealing our photograph on or around 1st December 2009, duly reported it to eBay, and the listing was removed.
In October 2010, vansett decided to repeat offend, and once again used our stolen photograph to promote and sell his own coin.
eBay fail to make removal reasons clear, and we have told them this in numerous occasions, but we still find it disappointing and offensive when eBay members ignore previous warnings, and try again. Do they think we are stupid, or do they hope we will not notice?
Wassup?
It seems that vansett learnt nothing when the first Kangaroo at Sunset listing was removed in 2009, because he repeated the image theft in October 2010.
It also appears that eBay failed to pass on the information we provided to them, that the reason for our report was abuse of our copyright images.
We believe these repeated failures by eBay are at best negligent, and possibly deliberate.
Their lack of proper communication leaves their member ignorant of their crime, they then often complain to us, and are often abusive and aggressive.
We received a polite enough e-mail from vansett, although we note there was no apology:
kangaroo at sunset ebay item
Hi.
I just got an email from ebay (sic) saying that my listing was removed due to copyright viotaion (sic).
Can you please advise what I did that was against copyright?
Thanks so much.
Val-
Vansett will have received our auto-responder reply almost immediately, explaining, and this states that we will not send an individual answer to any e-mails unless the e-mailer provides full contact details.
Search
If vansett bothered to do a Google search for "Kangaroo at Sunset copyright" or similar, he would find this page, which more than explains.
Update: 12th June, 2013
We received this very nice email from Val Ansett. We have removed the email address as requested.
Dear Chards.
I have noticed on your web page a listing of my ebay account as an example of copyright theft of one of your images.
I sincerely apologize for this action. As this event was over 3 years ago, I do not remember where or how I obtained your image, but obviously it was not mine to use, and I should of just used my own photo of the coin. At the time of the infringement I had used my own words, and based on my email to you (which I don't remember) I truly was unaware of the copyright issue with your image hence why I queried you why the infringement (which I had no reply to).
I no longer sell coins on ebay, and as such please do not see me as a competition.
I am quite happy for you to keep your warning re my ebay page, but I ask if you could remove the reference to my email address, or change it to my home email address so as not to embarrass the organisation I work for.
Thanks
Val Ansett
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.
Copyright Notice
Please see our "Copyright" page for further information.
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
Other Scams
Other Web Sites
All comments about copyright also cover content of all our other websites including, but not limited to:-
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2010 Australian Gold Fifth Ounce Kangaroo at Sunset Photograph
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Our 2008 Australian Gold Fifth Ounce Kangaroo at Sunset Photograph
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