The continuing struggle over protecting copyright, preventing product and intellectual property piracy, and illegal sales on the Internet has intensified this week.
In addition, the court also barred eBay from selling certain products, issued a cease and desist order barring eBay from running ads for certain products, and imposed a daily fine for noncompliance.
Obviously this ruling, if upheld, will change the face of eBay and all online auction sites. It will force eBay to be more responsible in evaluating the sellers who use the online giant, and compel them to put in place safeguards to ensure the products sold are original and that the sellers have a legitimate right to sell those products.
Here at Palo Alto Software we are keenly aware of the problem of “stolen” goods being sold online. We regularly challenge eBay auction/seller pages which are selling pirated copies of our software products, and/or are selling the content from our products or from our website network.
Our customer care team gets calls all the time from people complaining that they just paid good money for a sample business plan which we provide free of charge on our business-planning resource site, Bplans.com, or as content within our Business Plan Pro software.
This means, because of the thieves, costs of goods will go up, costs for selling on eBay will go up as well, and the customer will, in the end, pay more as well.
As an entrepreneur, you won’t want your product ripped-off, so don’t you go buying the shady deal either. If the deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. If you want the real product, support your fellow businesses, and buy from a legitimate source.
Steve Lange
Senior Editor
Palo Alto Software
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
From the other side of your story comes my small eBay business that can’t tell customers what orchestra is playing on an old record because it has the name Longines on it.
You say eBay needs to be MORE restrictive in allowing people to sell. I sure hope you have given all your constructive ideas to eBay so it can be solved quickly.
Or are we just complaining with no solution. If it is so easy, solve it and let us go on with our business.
I undertsand your desire to protect your business, but why have YOU not solved that and why should a person complain if they were gullible enough to buy what is out there free.
As you might guess, I am tired of hearing all the criticism with no solutions. If you think shutting eBay down is solution, think again. There are plenty more to step up and take its place.
Also, once you sold it to me, why do you have a right to say what I do with it? As long as I don’t copy it, why do I not have the right to resell it?
These VERO rights owners have gotten way out of hand. Many do not want you to sell your second-hand or lightly used product to anyone.
I am not talking about knock-offs but then again, what about buyer responsibility. You said it, if it looks too good to be true, it porbably is, so if you have larceny in your heart, you get what you deserve.
I sympathize, but to be fair, pointing out problems doesn’t mean we aren’t working on solutions, or that solutions are within our control.
My work is routinely stolen and sold on eBay, and I’m not for shutting it down, not at all; in fact, through several years of this now, eBay has been very cooperative in the efforts to curb the theft. So I’m not applauding the fine — I didn’t write this post either — but I do want to just add that take on your thought about solutions.
I really like your last paragraph, about buyer responsibility. People buy things from sketchy sellers at huge discounts on eBay, then turn to the legitimate manufacturer with angry complaints when they bought counterfeit.