Ebay Copyright Infrigement Violation

ToplessZ

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So It looks like someone flagged everything I was selling on ebay claiming it to be copyright infringement, which I guess technically it is.
The first item was a set of MK2 Challenger Hack eproms, I got an email saying the auction is pulled for copyright reasons.
Then I got one for my listing of a Tenth Degree Protoype kit, saying prototype items are not allowed on ebay.
Then I get one for my Naomi Netboot chip saying mod chips are not allowed on ebay.

After that I get one that listed every damn thing I had on ebay as being pulled for copyright infringement. It only seems fair that if they are going to go after me for selling eproms or harddrives then they should pull all of them , but Im guessing some *** just got jealous and reported my stuff which is why only I got hit. So what would you do?
I could report every damn person on ebay thats selling a harddrive or eprom or flash kit of any kind, since its the same thing as me, (I really dont have the patience to do that) but now I risk the chance of my account being suspended if I list anything I normally sell and have ben selling for years.
 
probably just need to find a creative way to list these items that is vague enough to let people know what it is but not clear enough for ebay to confirm you are selling copyrighted items. I know for a while 60 in 1's and the like were getting pulled for this reason but the sellers stopped mentioning specific game titles and then bay had no proff that the sellers were selling copyrighted games. They could only prove there were selling a jamma pcb with 60 games.

The prototype thing strikes me as odd. To me that's like saying you can't sell a hand made one of a kind items on ebay. Not sure why they would not want prototypes sold.
 
I had an auction pulled because it was reported by namco.. It could be some ass or it could be a corporation that has the copyright.

As for prototypes. Ridiculous. Perhaps they are just 'first editions'.. Or version 1.0.. :)
 
"I could report every damn person on ebay thats selling a harddrive."

The above line, I suggest to not report. It would just make it harder to find the drives when we end up looking for them.
 
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The prototype thing strikes me as odd. To me that's like saying you can't sell a hand made one of a kind items on ebay. Not sure why they would not want prototypes sold.

I think the prototype is under the bootleg clause. I don't think you are allowed to sell bootlegs. Doesn't sound like as big of a deal to us, but the clothing and accessories, and jewelry section were being inundated with bootlegs of current items.
 
I think the prototype is under the bootleg clause. I don't think you are allowed to sell bootlegs. Doesn't sound like as big of a deal to us, but the clothing and accessories, and jewelry section were being inundated with bootlegs of current items.

but a prototype is not a bootleg it's an original.
 
i think someone just has it out for you, otherwise there would be a ton of Art pulled not just your drives/upgrade kits. I know for a fact that you can sell repro items as long as it's stated atleast 1-2 times in your add (or something along those lines). and the prototype thing is definitely a sign it's just someone with something against you.

have you made anyone mad lately?
 
I thought ebay had bots that did there dirty work for them,Ive had the same issue in the past.
 
I just saw a 161-in-1 MVS cart for sale (guy wanted too much so I bought mine elsewhere), which technically falls into the same category. Like someone else said, I think its all in how you creatively word the listing. I kept getting my jailbroken iPhone I was selling on eBay removed a while back, till I started listing it as JB'ed...people knew what I was talking about.
 
Im guessing that its probably someone in the Naomi community. I've recently got pretty big into the compact flash development and I have a lot of Naomi compact flash stuff listed. I probably pissed off someone there. I dont think I have any angry customers, I have 100% positive on over 400 feedback.

My problem is I dont know what I can list again and not get my account suspended. I guess I could reword stuff but its all grey area anyway.
 
6 or so years ago I had two Pac-Man PCB's pulled by Namco because I stated something along the lines of "three wires are added to the top of the board to fix the damaged traces." (trying to be honest to the buyer that may not have wanted a repaired but working board)

It was pulled because it was "modded" even though I didn't use that word in the auction and it was simply a repair, not a copyright violation.

A year earlier I had one pulled because it had the fast rom on it; again from Namco.

I haven't sold on eBay in nearly 4 years, don't miss it at all... other than the pile of crap from still buying that fills a few rooms :(


Basically, unless you use very key words in your auctions, eBay WON'T do anything if simply reported by another user. They will however yank anything reported by a VerifiedRightsOwner (VeRO). Usually the information provided is different. One is ambiguous. The other specifically states the VeRO company by name and may provide contact info.


Example: There was (and still is) a guy who prints out every arcade manual PDF as "new manuals) Only in very small print with misleading text does he state they are new reprints. He got numerous accounts suspended early on (8 years ago) but then they no longer shut him down. Think their current account is USAmusements or something like that. You can spot the auctions easily because it says Xerox printer and they fake-color the front cover of the manual to make it look original -- even if it was in black and white originally :( Until the actual owners do something all you know that they are reprints is reading their old feedback.
 
Well, as you've said... you are selling bootleg stuff, which is against ebay policy. If you were selling official kits, they shoudn't have a problem... and I assume there's much less of a problem with replacement hard drives, which still require proper security keys. Recreating hard drives of something you legally own is legal... selling those replacements is probably a gray area (could be argued as fair use because you're providing a service to legal owners).

Selling kits to run unlicensed games is definitely not legal. You're not simply providing the replacement hard drive to licensed owners... you're providing a way for people to run games that they're not entitled to (with hacked ROMs, bootleg security chips, etc).

To us, this doesn't seem like a big deal, since the hardware is obsolete, and we really just want the games to play. Our whole community is accustomed to the convenience of multi kits (Berzerk/Frenzy, SW/ESB, Multi-Q*Bert, etc), but for the most part, this stuff is out of the mainstream, and probably under the radar (doesn't make it legal, but it's probably either unknown to the legal owner, or not worth the hassle of a C&D).

Selling on ebay brings it to the mainstream crowd. On there, it's easy for the legal owner to get listings taken down, or for someone who knows that it's a bootleg to report it (for whatever reason... uptight about legal things, jealousy, maybe you're hurting the market for official upgrades that they sell, or whatever). And due to ebay policies, there's no question on pulling the listings.

What to do about it? How much do you care about your ebay account? You could just relist the stuff, maybe reword it a little bit. Or you could just sell on the forums, and maybe set up a website to sell stuff on (which the legal owner may send a C&D to... but the jealous guy wouldn't really have any power over). How much business actually comes from ebay? And yeah... I believe the email will say if it was pulled by the copyright owner, so if that's the case, you may want to adjust your strategy.

DogP
 
probably just need to find a creative way to list these items that is vague enough to let people know what it is but not clear enough for ebay to confirm you are selling copyrighted items

thats exactly the way people get away with things on eBay, For example, eBay's rules and State laws covering ticket sales, You are not allowed to sell a sports ticket for more than face value, it's a law in most states. So people on eBay would do thigs like, "For Sale, Photograph of New York Mets, $125, 2 free tickets to Saturday's game included" You can't sell the tickets for $125, but you can sell some worthless bauble for $125 and 'give' the tickets away with it, and its perfectly legal.

You just need to be creative :)
 
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