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?
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  • 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 chronology ]


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