eBay Copyright Thieves & Crooks Named and Shamed
It's dishonest to copy photographs, and misleading to buyers.
davidrtaylor0796 Using Copied Sovereign Images on eBay
davidrtaylor0796 of Pontefract, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom, stole 10 our gold sovereign photographs to use on eBay, and omitted to tell buyers that the images were not of the coins he was selling. Totally dishonest
High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty
When we wrote this page, this eBay member's feedback was 64; with 100% positive according to eBay.
Sample Listing
1890 Queen Victoria Full Sovereign Coin 22ct Gold
1890 Queen Victoria Full Sovereign Coin 22ct Gold
1890
Queen Victoria
22 carat GOLD FULL SOVEREIGN
Genuine gold coin.
Weight = 7.98g
Diameter = 22mm
What's Wrong?
We invest a great deal of time, effort, and cost into creating some of the best photographic coin images on the internet. We strongly object when lazy and dishonest people decide to use them without a by your leave or thanks, doing so in competition with us.
Copyright theft is dishonest. We recommend you avoid doing business with dishonest dealers.
This particular eBay seller not only stole ten of images of various gold sovereigns, he used them in five different listings for five individual sovereigns. He did not seem to think it was worth mentioning to potential buyers that the high quality photographs of near mint condition coins were not his own photographs, and not the same coins as he was offering for sale. This is almost certainly illegal in the UK under the Trade Description Act, although it appears to happen on a daily basis on eBay.
It's possible he is ignorant of such fine points, or just plain ignorant.
It is always possible, even likely, that sellers who steal photographs do not own a similar coin, and have the intention to totally defraud potential buyers.
The vendor is not only cheating us by stealing our copyright images, he is fraudulently or ignorantly misleading and deceiving all potential buyers. Gaining pecuniary advantage by deception is the definition of fraud.
Price
The seller is asking a starting price of $825 for the date run of of 4 coins. He is likely to get complaints, and all the coins returned, if eBay buyers have any brains, so will have wasted time money and postage both ways, for himself an others.
For the other B.I.N. (Buy It Now) listing, it seems there were originally 7 coins at $229 each, so this eBay member stands to gross at least $2,428 using our photographs.
eBay Guilty of Negligence or Complicity
We will be reporting this example of copyright abuse using our standard Statutory Declaration via the eBay VeRO programme, and wait to see if they chose to action or ignore our report. We look forward to taking legal action against eBay for their negligence and / or complicity if they fail to take down the offending material promptly.
Seller ID | Item Number | Date | Description | Price
|
davidrtaylor0796 | 260450751899 | 21st Jul 2009 | 1902 EDWARD VII FULL GOLD SOVEREIGN | £165
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davidrtaylor0796 | 260450750158 | 21st Jul 2009 | 1931 GEORGE V FULL GOLD SOVEREIGN | £165
|
davidrtaylor0796 | 260450747833 | 21st Jul 2009 | 1896 QUEEN VICTORIA FULL GOLD SOVEREIGN | £165
|
davidrtaylor0796 | 260450745324 | 21st Jul 2009 | 1925 KING GEORGE V FULL GOLD SOVEREIGN | £165
|
davidrtaylor0796 | 260450736887 | 21st Jul 2009 | 1890 Queen Victoria Full Sovereign Coin 22ct Gold | £165
|
Selling Gold Sovereigns & Other Coins on eBay
We point out that sellers may often get more money, for less effort, by selling to a specialised dealer, such as us, rather than via eBay.
Copyright Notice
Please see our "Copyright" page for further information.
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