"Although I have made
only 7 purchases on eBay, FOUR have resulted in either FAKE
or useless products being shipped. The last purchase was
software, guaranteed legit, valid serial, valid certificate
of authenticity and a holographic CD straight from MS. What
I got looked legit until I tried to register with MS.
MS aid
software was PIRATE software ! I informed eBay and was told
they would handle the problem.. Three weeks later the vendor
is still selling the same stuff."
See this
lawsuit article which suggests that the illegal sales
problem is an epidemic and that you must hire an attorney
and sue each and every seller of your intellectual
property:
"We conservatively
estimate that over 90 percent of software sold on eBay
is being sold illegally . . Currently eBay lists an
average of about 89 million different items for sale on
its site, and 6 million new items are added each day"
Some companies such as
Tiffany
are trying to stop sales of counterfeit merchandise, but
instead of tracking hundreds of bad guys, they are suing
eBay:
"The legendary
Manhattan jewelry store Tiffany and Co., now a global
entity, charges that eBay is complicit in this illegal
activity by facilitating and participating in
counterfeiting and trademark infringement of
Tiffany's trademarks. . .
Then, one must keep in mind eBay also profits from these
sales. This means eBay profits directly from illegal
activities. It wouldn't be too far a leap to suggest the
company doesn't have a vested interest in stopping these
sales as long as they continue to profit from them.
While eBay wouldn't expressly support illegal
activities, charges have been made for years that
various forms of fraud, fencing and other illegal
activities go on there. eBay's "hands off" policy makes
it easy to conduct these business dealings."
As of 2006, the
Tiffany case is still pending, and the charge that eBay
is facilitating criminal sales of counterfeit goods because
they receive hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from
the criminals, may set a precedent:
"The legal question - whether eBay is a
facilitator of fraud - is a critical issue that could
affect not only eBay's future, but Internet commerce
generally, said Thomas Hemnes, a lawyer in Boston who
specializes in intellectual property.
"If eBay lost, or even if they settled and word got out
that they settled, it would mean they would have to
begin policing things sold over eBay, which would
directly affect their business model," Hemnes said. "The
cost implied is tremendous."
. . . "The majority of
things that appear on eBay are fakes," said Joel Garzoli,
an art gallery owner in San Rafael. "
Using VeRO to protect your property
and include the URL for the page.
