How Do I Protect My Website from Lazy Ebayers

northforkpets

With increasing frequency I find my 3 webshops listed or linked in others Ebay listings.
Often price comparisons or just plain lazy description thieves.
Each time I report to item to Ebay, I get zero action.
Is there any remedy?

Greg @ TDM
www.teardropmemories.com
www.maidensmemoirs.com
www.northforkpets.com
http://greg--north-fork.zoints.com/
http://teardropmemories.blogspot.com/
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iTsold · Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Posts: 42 Location: UK

If you are not earning from these then yup, you can stop them.

1 Ensure your listings are marked as copyrighted
2 Ensure you mention this in your t&c
3 When you spot this, politely request they remove the offending item(s) within 7 days or face legal action
4 Report them to eBay or via VeRo.

HTH
Regards
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northforkpets · Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:20 am Post subject:

Hi I and others have reported to Ebay multiple times, zero action.
One guy even called me to ask about an item I had for sale,
then used the conversation word for word in his listing and included a link to my site for comparison.
No response when asked to remove link.

How do I get Ebay to take this seriously?
It is happening with increased frequency.
I fill out the "report this item" link and get a generic reply, but no action.
Must I jump through all the VERO hoops?
It seems there must be a more simple way to protect myself.
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tabberone · Joined: 09 Aug 2003 Posts: 192

You can put in a copyright statement but if it's not registered with the copyright office you can't get any damages if you take them to court.

You could try changing your copy on your website to be don't buy cheap imitations or from people who don't have the product in hadn.

Other then that there isn't a lot you can do that won't cost you a bunch of money.

Let's say you use VeRO. The person who gets taken down files a counternotice. Are you prepared to file a federal lawsuit in their jurisdication to stop them? That's $350 to file and you don't get that back since it's not registered with the US Copyright office.

iTsold · Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Posts: 42 Location: UK

It is almost impossible to prevent copycats online.

All you can do is try and make life as difficult as you can. Watermark your images, ensure the text is company specific, embed java to prevent hotlinking...

HTH

Regards
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