Ebay Scumbags!

amyparr

Hey everyone,

Just wanted some advice really.

For the past few months I've been selling revision notes on Ebay for a law degree (all made by me personally). I spent absolutely ages on these for my exams last year, and as I'm saving for a trip to Cambodia to do voluntary work, I thought this would be a good way of making a few quid.

However, someone bought one of revision packs from me, and is now selling them on Ebay passing them off as his own! I've emailed the guy and said what I think about the whole thing, explaining how the money is going towards my law school funds and my Cambodia trip, and threatening to report them to Ebay, but I've got very little response.

The question is, what can I do about this?? Although I made these notes myself (it includes diagrams, revision notes, lecture notes etc) I don't have any kind of copyright over them, and they are sent to people via email, to keep costs down.

Maybe some of you guys could give me a few suggestions?

Thanks!

Amy

Kilty_2

amyparr wrote:

Hey everyone,

Just wanted some advice really.

For the past few months I've been selling revision notes on Ebay for a law degree (all made by me personally). I spent absolutely ages on these for my exams last year, and as I'm saving for a trip to Cambodia to do voluntary work, I thought this would be a good way of making a few quid.

However, someone bought one of revision packs from me, and is now selling them on Ebay passing them off as his own! I've emailed the guy and said what I think about the whole thing, explaining how the money is going towards my law school funds and my Cambodia trip, and threatening to report them to Ebay, but I've got very little response.

The question is, what can I do about this?? Although I made these notes myself (it includes diagrams, revision notes, lecture notes etc) I don't have any kind of copyright over them, and they are sent to people via email, to keep costs down.

Maybe some of you guys could give me a few suggestions?

Thanks!

Amy

Did you mark them as copyrighted when producing them?

Anything you produce is automatically copyrighted to you. Report them to ebay and see what happens.

amyparr

Being a law student I really should know these things, but I don't study Intellectual Property! Thanks for the advice!

LULUBELLE_2

There are some real b******s out there! :mad:

Hope you get it sorted! :beer:

Mandles

maybe get it copyrighted quickly. ring him up & have a go at him

crazy_guy

Ebay should respect your work and close down the auctions. Its best to convert your work to pdf file to protect your work and just put at the bottom copyright and put your username.
With this no-one can dispute the document being yours.

But for now i'd either get ebay involved or 'buy' this item and get hold of his address so that if you are going to take things further you've at least got his address.

black-saturn

You can copyright it by putting the whole lot in an envelope with a cover sheet on it saying your name, address, date and signature and put in with it something like a front page of todays newspaper. Seal the envelope and post it to yourself. When it arrives dont open it.

Then email the seller and inform him/her they are selling copyrighted material.

You've got me thinking anyway. I'm on a travel and tourism course, do you think I could sell some of my notes? :rolleyes:

AuctionCUT

Yes, just get his address and send him a legal looking letter theatening to take things further. This alone will normally scare them off.

If you are going to convert it to a .pdf file you can do it free with software at: http://www.pdf995.com/

samanthaknd

That is awful, I think it is also known as plagiarism (or something like that) passing someone elses work off as your own. So you can actully make legal action against this creep./

Anthillmob

you can be expelled from college or uni for plagurism so ebay should kick this guy off.

danmanchester

Amyparr it might be worth reporting the infringement through VERO (Verified Rights Owner programme) on ebay. Report a Notice of Infringement here

What the VERO page says:

"How to report an infringing item
In order to participate in the VeRO Programme, all you need to do is fill out and fax to us a Notice of Infringement form specifying the allegedly infringing listings and infringed works, complete with an original authorised signature.

The information requested by the Notice of Infringement is designed to ensure that parties reporting items are either rights owners or authorised by the rights owners, and to enable eBay to correctly identify the material or listing to be ended. After your first Notice of Infringement is received by us, you'll be able to transmit future notices to eBay by email."