eBay Not Liable For Pirated Goods Sold On Their Site

from the phew dept

A judge has decided that eBay is not liable for pirated goods that people sell on their site. They say (correctly) that eBay doesn't verify the goods, and acts more like a flea market owner that just lets others set up their own stalls. The amazing thing about all of this is that eBay really does try hard to prevent pirated goods. In the case in question, they had simply asked the guy for more proof that the items he was asking to be taken down were pirated. That seems like a reasonable request. Instead of complying, he just took them to court. Isn't that the American way?
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    The Captain, 7 Sep 2001 @ 6:22am

    This guy sounds massively arrogant

    "EBay asked Hendrickson to submit a sworn, written statement detailing his claim through its Verified Rights Owner Program, which lets copyright holders request that eBay remove an infringing item. Hendrickson refused, saying his general complaints should have been good enough"

    I agree with you, eBay's request was MORE than reasonable...I mean why the hell should anyone believe this guy? Or just anyone? If "general complaints" were good enough, wouldn't it be SOOOO easy to derail a competing auction just by making either an anonymous complaint or a complaint through a friend?

    What is UP with people these days?

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.