Raped her intellectual property, that is. And he got a "HAPPY" comment for it, too.
From his feedback:
One of the latest scams on EBAY is sellers insisting they OWN THE COPYRIGHT to every best seller on the NY Times list.
Oh, and they own the copyright on anything else they think they can bootleg for a dollar or two. Like Stephen King:
It's pretty obvious that this is a violation of EBAY's own rule on "digital delivery."
He says "WE WILL EMAIL BOOK..."
DUH.
According to EBAY, "We have priorities." Meaning, it might take up to a week before a complaint is acted upon.
The person at EBAY I spoke to also admitted that sometimes the item is NEVER stopped. "Report it again."
You see, they are very busy at EBAY, and it's not that they ignore or trash complaints they just, well, say "REPORT IT AGAIN."
They might also not even want to talk to you, and instead put you on hold for literally a half hour, while blasting music and constant "Your call is important to us, stay on the line" messages.
Meanwhile, the HAPPY customers of this HAPPY seller can go check and see who else he's raping with his lies about owning their copyright. Yes, that OWNING COPYRIGHT line is prominent (red lined for your benefit)
A seller like this also gets the benefit of many "warnings" and then "restrictions" (ie, seller can't post for a week or a month). Ultimately there's suspension. But the suspension would come a lot faster if authors get involved and send DMCA's through the vero program (vero@ebay.com).
While it's not going to hurt Stephen King much if some cretin in Tennessee offers up $1 or $2 copies of HIS books, the more that "HAPPY" EBAYERS get for chump change, the less they buy.
Worse, if they do buy, they'll "be sure to buy again" from the cretin in Tennessee, who will surely have something on his list of 30 or 40 books that will be worth the $1 bid. If not, he'll happily take requests, and go to the sneaky torrent sites or forums where he can get his free downloads of most anyone's book, and then bring it over to eBay.
Meanwhile new authors, mid-list authors, and others who rely on people buying their books, get nothing. Potential readers are too busy reading bootlegs and bragging how they just finished the new Andy Weir and the latest masterpiece from E.L. James.
You'd think that when a creepy liar blatantly says of Stephen King, Andy Weir, Paula Hawkins and everyone else, "Attention Ebay Staff: I am an Authoried Reseller..also the copyright holder..." authors would literally call him on it. Just out of pride of copyright. It's the BEST way to handle it.
I've called EBAY. I've said, "He's telling YOU, EBAY STAFF, that he's authorized. Why don't you call him and demand that he fax you that authorization?"
Because EBAY would rather get a commission on a dollar from a redneck thief in Tennessee, and because EBAY doesn't want to pay employees to lose sales. Ebay would rather have the serenity of being "just a venue," that acts only when they absolutely have to.
Andy Weir, Philippa Gregory, etc., you may have your hands full with writing new books, answering fan mail, Tweeting, playing with your websites, doing phone interviews, etc. etc. But you still can deputize a relative or a fan to be your VeRO rep. That person would be glad to check eBay once a week for ANDY WEIR eBook or ANDY WEIR kindle and take a minute to forward the auction numbers for removal.
I've seen eBay piracy of mp3 files and music dwindle to near nothing. The same can happen with this new phenomenon of digital theft of copyrighted books.
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