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My brother sold copied college dvds on ebay-What punishment?
 

Hi, please can anyone advise me what to do? My brother has been selling 'How to'/educational dvds on ebay that he had copied from his local college, today he recieved a message from a ebay member saying 'Please note, you are under formal investigation. It is beleived that the source of these DVD's is ****** College of ***** & Technology' , has anyone idea what will happen to him? Please help!!

its bull ... dont pay any mind, tell him to report the ebay member for harassment

could be true could be not

if you were under formal investigation, im pretty sure the account would be shut down and received a few phone calls or emails from ebay, not gettin a message from a random ebay member

Frostypug. I am formally investigating you for ...

See, it doesnt have the same luster as the cops showing up at you door asking for a statement.

There is a strong probability that the account could in fact be suspended IF the sender of the email takes further action. The college has the IP* ownership of the information. Your brother may well be able to copy for his own use BUT he has no right to sell it for profit. Go to the website of the College and carefully read what is said about using the material. My experience is that there will be a disclaimer about usage. In the academic world materials can not be reproduced easily.
If you like I will quote the relevant UK laws. My advice would be to tell SWIM not to sell these any more or maybe lose the account
*IP:Intellectual property. Relates to VeRo,copyright.

Thankyou GreenBean, that makes a lot of sense! Yes i would love you to please quote the relevant laws. I have researched the user name of the person who sent the email and he is the head lecturer of engineering at the college in question. My brother has since taken the listings off ebay and has made the first steps towards ending his account(it seems it is a slow process nowadays)
Ps-this is an interesting message i recieved on another forum regarding my brother, see what you think:

who was the originator of the copied material?
if it was a brought program by an external co. that the college purchased then the college will do nothing. it will be down to the co. that produced it & it is very common.

if it educational documentation that has been generated by college staff, then it will be the college that might pursue the issue.

either way, i doubt very much he will hear anything more about it other than a slap on the wrist.

suprisingly, this goes on all the time, don't worry about it.

can i ask exactly what it was, leeched eductional software or in house tutorials?

Off the top of my head, just tell your brother to NOT list on ebay. Don't close the account.
Suggest he get in touch with ebay & leave account active.Let the account sit fallow for awhile. Then down the line, there's another account.
Will give you the info.

Bugger! He has already requested the account be closed(it takes 180 days?) Is it too late to cancel this? I think he did this to potentially stop the college finding out how many he sold...

How long ago did he do this? Usually when you close an account you get a message to say 'oh why,oh why are you closing this'. I did an experiment with ebay UK, ignored the message, let it seem i wanted the account closed. Then sent an message asking to cancel
the cancellation: worked OK.

Interesting stuff! He did it last night but also got that message you mentioned and replied to that too with the phrase they asked him to reply with, something along the lines of 'Yes, i do want you to cancel my ebay account'...! Do you not think ending the account was a 'safe' thing to do?

There are so many factors involved about doing this. Look at it from that lecturer's point, no listings, why a drama? I would keep the account

Good advice GreenBean, thankyou! Just one more question if that's ok? Is there any way to change the location of my other user account(under my freind's name and address)? You see, he lives in the same town and id like to make the location that other users see a totally different location other than the one we live in...
P-si do appreciate the help you have given!!

urgh, an address can be changed BUT (always a but 'cos it's ebay). Think carefully of the reasons and determine if it is worthwhile. May not be worthwhile.

Because it arouses suspicion from ebay?

Yep. At times, changes can raise flags. But there are workarounds.

Ohh....could i ask what they are please?