One more irony Claire

Even being the copyrights holder doesn't afford you total and absolute protection. I know this from a first hand experience.

Shortly after I wrote AuctionHints 2, I began allowing resale rights for the original AuctionHints. I allowed a small number of people to actually have Master Resale Rights. One person emailed me and asked if he could use my old ad to market it on eBay. I told him that per the agreement when he bought the resale rights, the answer was no.

I placed an ad on eBay for my newest version and new pics, new description, and all and it was doing extrememely well. In 6 days I had made 42 sales on one ad. Then it happened. Without warning my ad was yanked and I received an email from eBay that my ad was yanked because "portions of the ad violated the copyrights infringement policy".

I cannot tell you how angry I was. Fortunately I had the powerseller's phone number and I promptly called eBay. I asked what they were referring to and they said it was my graphics. I pointed out that I had been using those same graphics for nearly a year and asked: First who reported this? And second how do I go about getting my ad back online with its 42 sales?

The guy who bought resale rights had reported it. He basically told them that he "had purchased everything outright including all rights to the graphics". He was, as a matter of fact, running ads on eBay using my graphic links.

In the end:

1. I had to send eBay materials (affadavits) that testified that I still held all of the copyrights to the ebooks and all of the materials in the ads. This took time and the ad that was removed wasn't ever replaced. It cost me nearly $1000 in sales!

2. I actually threatened eBay with legal action for the loss of my sales and they gave me a free month of ads. I still lost a lot of money because at the time my monthly eBay fees weren't but about $400.

3. I reported the guy for his violation and eBay actually, while waiting for my proof to arrive, allowed his ads to remain online and selling. They removed mine without even warning me and left his online. Incredible....

4. So, in order to force eBay to remove his ads, since the moron had used my links I changed them. Let's just say his graphics were suddenly very inappropriate. I then emailed a friend of mine who was also an eBay member and he reported those "nasty pictures". The ads were yanked within one hour of my changing the links.

Ready for the funny part?

The guy emails me and threatens to sue me for his losses. Then follows it up with a sob story begging me to "please let him use the ads". Then has his girlfriend actually call me to tell me all about how she is pregnant and they need the money.

Once I had finally proven to eBay that the ads and all were "mine", they suspended him for his false report. He emailed me asking for a refund for his resale payment. I told him that he had already received it with interest given the amount of income I had lost because of him.

Sorry this is sort of a long post but it really gets to the heart of an important matter regarding sales on eBay; even when you should be safe you sometimes aren't. Yes it was my fault because I marketed the resale rights but the resale agreement was crystal clear. People were allowed to market the ebook but they were not allowed to use my ads or any of my other copyrighted materials. Incredible but true.......