Tiffany to sue E Bay for Facilitating Counterfeit Items

Hmmm..........No one interested in this? Personally, I think that this is a very important subject. E Bay has become a force in marketing. If they were deemed culpable in offering fakes for sale, even indirectly, that would change the entire canvas of internet business.

I just see them as a form of a classified ad site. How can they be responsible for what people sell? That's what the rating system is for.

That was exactly my thought. My concern is that Tiffany & Co. has some high powered lawyers on their payroll. I will be watching the way that it plays out, with great interest.

Yeah, I don't know how they can practically enforce this stuff.

I'm interested. I don't think eBay is responsible, but I can understand Tiffany's suing, if only for the warning potential from the publicity.

That's the thing, Soz. They can't. If the courts rule against E Bay, I think that an entire, innovative new industry will go down the tubes. Referring to Slappy's post, in my newspaper they have caveats on their classified ad pages.

eBay does too, though.

I think that the problem is the hugeness of E Bay, and the effect that the fakes had on the prices of the real goods. That site moves an awful lot of stuff, probably at a volume never seen before.

It's caveat emptor. If it seems to be to good to be true, it probably is.

As Slappy says, the person who gets the knockoff isn't going to rate the seller very well.

E-Bay's problem here, IMO is that they were told that teh items were counterfit and then refused to do anything about it. That is in direct opposition to their written policy.

From their own WWW site:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/copyrights.html

"Why does eBay have this policy?

eBay urges its sellers and buyers to comply with all governmental laws and regulations. The unauthorized sale of copyrighted items is illegal as well as against eBay policy. Sellers who are unsure of the legality of their items should not sell these items on eBay. This policy helps protect buyers from purchasing counterfeit and unauthorized merchandise, and helps intellectual property rights owners protect their rights."

They'll have a hard time explaining how they have a policy, were informed that it was being violated and then did nothing about it.

Good point.

fishin'- But what could they have done?

They might have been able to ban some sellers, but what else could they do? When I mentioned this story to my husband, he told me that he recently read where there are groups of swindlers who work together to increase their compatriot's rating on E Bay.

They could have attempted to enforce their own policy OR they could have eliminated the policy and not pretended that they care one way or the other.

To me it seems like the same issue that AOL (or was it Compuserver) ran into a few years back. They hosted monitored public chat sessions and had a policy that users couldn't harass other users. People harrassed others anyway and then someone sued and won on the basis that if you claim that you are monitoring something and have an established policy then you take on some responsibility for your failure to enforce the policies you've set.

In this case the fakes were apparently pointed out to E-Bay and they did nothing. Banning the sellers probably would have been enough. They don't have to hunt down the fakes themselves - they just have to act when the fakes are reported to them.

Auction houses, once they advert something as genuine, stand behind it. Most big houses have appraisers who are savvy.
eBay is a web site where people auction off stuff site unseen. I cant believe (as an antiques guy) how somebody could be so damn stupid to actually buy stuff without a personal inspection.

I collect Pa German blanket chests (real ones) Ive seen from the pix that people send in that items that claim to be real antiques are doctored up and often fakes.
You can see paint Over old scratches

Hinges are moved on lids

you can see roundhead and finishing nails on trim

eBAy stands behind its own ass saving policy which most of reputable dealers find totally laughable
It is well known that there is an industry in China making steuben, Lalique,tiffany, and other high art glass. This stuff comes with labels pasted on the bottom and names like LCT R Lalique etc inscribed in places where the real makers would have. The stuff looks clunky and , has a "too good" price at Knock Off dealers (Pa has a number of them clustered near Philly).
The sellers of this crap tell the buyers that they shall not sell this on the retail market with any attempts to decieve. Most all the dealers , upon purchasing their box load of Tiffany stemware, sit in the parking lot scraping off their paper labels and then take them to auction houses where the owners , if theyre knowledgeable, will say, no sell here.

I hope eBay has to eat its words some day. I dont buy anything on their line (or any other e auction that wont allow pre-bid inspections).
Many auction houses now have e-bidding, the difference being, they have a pre sale inspection to which buyers come freom all around. I was at a recent auction for some arrowhead artifacts and there was a collection of "teething marbles" from the 18th century. The collectors came from Illinois and Texas to this little town in central PA, hen they flew home and decided to phone or e-mail their bids. e-mail bids at a public auction do slow things down but for a real choice item , I can understand the policy.

I've looked for software and it seems the bay had there finger on that pulse or not...

farmerman- Makes sense to have a look-see before you buy a valuable item.I don't think though, that for items that are not very costly, that people would travel great distances to see them. Personally, I would never buy anything valuable on E Bay.

I DO think eBay has a responsibility to prevent this and for acting as a fence for stolen goods.

This has become headline news at least once a week here in Oregon over the last year as the FBI investigates area "resellers".

Ebay is fencing tons of stolen goods.

And they take a cut of each sale.

People who think copy right infringment isn't a big deal and very costly to the infringed up have obviously never had anything copyrighted.

If I was caught reselling stolen or copyrighted goods I would be in trouble - even if I weren't the one to steal it.

So "It's hard to police our web site". So what? Cry me a river.

Phoenix32890 lots for cars sold on ebay motors

the whole copyright thing is to make lots of money for lawyers in many cases