Ebay Copyright Violation Question
Greetings,
I am currently on eBay ranked as a power-seller and am in good standing with an above average feedback rating. I sell old horror comics and magazines, dvds, books, and photographs, mostly old horror hollywood stuff. I purchased a huge collection of 8x10 photos from a flea market dealer who was going out of business and have been listing them on ebay for a year or so now. Unfortunately, there is no way to know for certain whether all the photos are in compliance with copyright restrictions or not. I know they are reproductions. They date from the early 20th century to now, with the vast majority being publicity photos of old hollywood actors and horror start and movie stills. Lots of old TV stuff as well. There are also a number of modern photos of current celebrities, as well as general photos of nature and other interesting things. They have been selling well and I have been adding more each month.
About six months ago I received some emails from two different people claiming to represent the estates of deceased celebrities claiming that I was in violation of their copyrights. I took them down and emailed asking if they would be willing to grant me permission to sell them. I explained that I only had a few photos of each celebrity in question and had no way to know for certain they they weren't photos that had been legally purchased at trade shows or conventions. Neither party returned my emails. I also received a copyright violation notice from ebay stating that a couple of my photos were deleted at the request of their copyright owner and was told to contact them directly. I did but again, I never got a reply. I did not re-list either of the photos that were deleted. I have also spent countless hours at the company's web site looking at the collection of the images to see if any of the other thousands of photos I had were listed and have deleted every one I could find. There weren't that many, but I deleted all the ones that matched.
For a few months, everything was normal. Then I received a second policy violation from ebay who deleted a photo at the request of a deceased celebrity's estate. A week or so later, I received a third violation email regarding the photo of a current celeb. Both photos were not re-listed, but I did not email the owners given my previous experiences. Now things are going alone fine again. But I am concerned.
I am on disability for heart problems and am trying to build up a business so I can get off SS. I work very hard at this (as hard as I am able given my health issues). But I am worried about being suspended. The photos I am selling are also being sold by many other ebay sellers, some who have been on ebay for 10 or more years and have feedbacks in the hundreds of thousands as well as 10k or more listings each month. If they haven't been suspended, how much do I need to worry? I was planing on contacting ebay the next time I requested a limit increase to tell them that (1) I am not knowingly selling any copyrighted photos, (2) that I try to research as much as possible to avoid future violations, and (3) that I have never re-listed anything that has been deleted for said violation. I am wondering now whether that might make any difference because I am bound to get mopper of these violation notices over time.
I was once suspended a year ago for 30 days by ebay for inadvertently listing some adult comic books in the comic section and not the adult section. I explained to them that the reason I listed them there was because that was the category other sellers were listing the exact same books in. They never responded to my explanation and I had to sit out a month before resuming. This is why I fear getting the axe with no recourse for appeal.
NOTE that I was also on amazon.com a few years ago selling mostly DVDs and books. I had a heart attack one day and ended up in the hospital for three weeks recovering from a quadruple by-pass. I didn't log in for two months but when I did, I had some amazon sales that were canceled and my amazon account was suspended. I went through the appeal process, offering to prove to them that I had a medical emergency and that is why the orders were not filled. They returned my email with one stating that I was suspend for life and they will not answer any further emails from me. Two years later I emailed the CEO of amazon and again explained my situation. He forwarded the email to one of his CS reps who told me the suspension stands and that is it.
What is wrong with these people? Here I am trying to get back on my feet after a serious illness and trying to get off govt. assistance and they give do this. Why are they such hard asses? I fear ebay might be the same way after reading some of the comments here. Any advise would be appreciated.
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