You slap a $100 bill on the counter, and walk out. The cashier says, "Hey, this is counterfeit!" You say, "How do I know that? Looks good to me. I'm JUST a person, I'm not with the Treasury Department."
How far would you get before you were tackled by law enforcement?
That's the "real world."
On the Internet, EBAY gives the benefit of the doubt to anyone selling counterfeits and fakes. Despite having a rule AGAINST such things, EBAY did not stop the auction below, which is a fake, unauthorized, totally and blatantly illegal sale of copyrighted material:
Somebody is claiming to have the rights to toss THREE HUNDRED New York Times Best Sellers on a DVD and sell it? And EBAY doesn't do anything?
Can we see the fine print on this outrage?
This ad was reported and IGNORED by EBAY.
Why? They can hide behind Internet law that was created 20 years ago, before piracy. Websites are "just venues" people use. How do they know what's legal or not? They need to be told.
Compare that to your bookstore cashier, who can and WILL scan a $100 bill before accepting it. The cashier isn't saying "my bookstore is JUST a venue, I'll take anything that looks like a $100 bill, and even a coupon from somebody who says "This is from Random House and entitles me to $100 worth of their books for free."
EBAY has very few rules when it comes to digital versions of copyrighted books. The ones they have are skewed to misguided interpretation by their lowest-level employees, the ones who cast a sleepy eye at items bidders send in via "report this link," the obscure hot link faintly viewable on every eBay auction.
One laughable rule: offering eBooks via "download" or e-mail is not allowed...but if you put SEVEN THOUSAND of them on a DVD you made, that's fine.
Another laughable rule: if you claim "I own copyright" you won't be challenged. Also, you can state "I will send this item by mail" and not charge any shipping, and claim to be in Sri Lanka, and no red flag goes up, even when your feedback says "Great download, I got it an hour after I paid. Great seller! What a BARGAIN!"
This greedy seller's other ad offers, yes, SEVEN THOUSAND copyrighted mysteries for sale. All royalties and profits to HIM and EBAY.
These ads were cleverly designed so that the average VeRO rep wouldn't see any abuse...no name of a book company or author...that information hidden via a hot link to another website.
It's more than a shame that today, book companies, TV networks and even film studios are groveling in front of INTERNET GIANTS like GOOGLE, AMAZON and EBAY who control the world and make sure lawmakers do not pass any legislation against piracy and abuse.
This is why any eBook is easily available on the notorious "torrents," in private "forums," and often on impudent blogs owned by GOOGLE (Blogspot) or sometimes hosted by nose-thumbing Communists in Croatia somewhere.
This Irish bootlegger has a lot of nerve AND greed, because selling a 30 cent DVD for $12 isn't enough.
The ad includes "click here" links to THIS place:
HUH? This is just one of those mysterious websites, like Pirate Bay, that stay in business because Internet law has no teeth. What's the deal here? The "server" is in Russia or Croatia? The credit card money is diverted to a bank in Sweden or Switzerland?
Maybe Random House and Knopf and Bantam are sighing, "It's whack-a-mole, if we spend a fortune in suing some punk, he'll get a slap on the wrist and put the website back up again under a new name." Which isn't exactly true. Ask "Kim Dotcom" who ran Megaupload and is currently sweating out a life behind bars.
The good news?
A dedicated and experienced VeRO rep will find any abuse and remove it.
The "catch" is that the author or publisher has to have one.
Another problem is that in another few years, even more people will be Internet-savvy enough to find the FREE torrents and forums, ones with servers located in places where copyright is not enforced. Wait long enough and yes, eBay's cheap grifters won't be able to sell George R.R. Martin, E.L. James or Cassandra Clare (to name three fools who don't monitor the site properly) because $5 for the entire collection of an author is too much. FREE is better.
For the good of the economy, the future should see a law that lets an ISP block a rogue website, and international laws that can put a bootlegger in jail.
"Just a Venue" EBAY should be held responsible for aiding and abetting bootleggers. They should be obligated to answer red-flag queries and DEMAND to see the papers on sellers who claim "I own copyright, or the item is in public domain, or I'm an authorized re-seller."
Some anti-piracy organizations are filing suit against abusers. That should happen on eBay. There's no reason why, when eBay is in cohoots with Paypal, that sellers should be allowed to keep the money they stole. After a VeRO report proves a seller has no rights to the money, that money should be given to the rights owner, or to charity. Right now, creeps like this bootlegger of the NY TIMES list and SEVEN THOUSAND thrillers, can laugh at all the illegal money in his bank account.
But right now people on eBay can easily, unwittingly buy from bootleggers because they figure "if it's on EBAY it must be legal." They type in a favorite author, or they check what's new in the eBook category, and they find items like the above...or items similar to ones chronicled in previous posts.
It is VITAL that publishers not rely on DIGIMARC or WEB SHERIFF if it means ignoring abuse. "I can't afford to pay them $2 every time they file a DMCA" is NOT an excuse. Go get an intern to do it. EBAY is a big website and should NOT have bootlegs on it. Guarantee: that Intern will be saying, "anything else for me to do?" because if he's good, he'll eradicate 90% of the abuse in a week or two on everything the publisher is trying to sell.
Literate, quivering bunnies in the publishing world are saying, "We're in a SEA CHANGE, and we don't know the PARADIGM, or the SCHADENFREUDE." And I say take the dictionary out of your gob and face the real world. Get organized, get laws passed, and use the DMCA currently available to remove blatant abuse on EBAY.
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