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7 Aug, 2013
2013-8-7 7:36:24 PM UTC
Sadly, all I can do is delay this fake item being bought on ebay by someone who thinks they have got a bargain and a genuine signed Lord of the Rings

ebay prevent me from stopping the sale, so sadly someone is going to buy this crap and think it is real
7 Aug, 2013
2013-8-7 7:48:39 PM UTC
You see, you touch on the main issue here: eBay. The problem really is eBay's failure to act on items that are reported. You also have very little space to explain why you're reporting something. I mean, quite a few of us must report quite a lot of stuff --& it's all books & Tolkien. It's actually a bit of a surprise no one has been contacted. I find all this more annoying than the sellers trying (in full knowledge or not) to sell these items, as frustrating as this (also) is. eBay really need to address this, themselves.

BH
7 Aug, 2013
2013-8-7 8:29:10 PM UTC
It is all economics: eBay makes money when fake items sell, unless they have been sued by a large enough brand or designer or the like to make it more economical to enforce removing fakes for those particular brands.

Look at it from their perspective - they have no idea who Trotter is, nor do they know who the seller is. They certainly don't have the expertise in house to spot a fake Tolkien signature. So, they do nothing.
7 Aug, 2013 (edited)
2013-8-7 8:51:32 PM UTC
Yes, I know what you're saying --but there are two responses to this. One, where is the ethics here? I have a real problem with any corporate entity that wilfully ignores possible law breaking right under its nose --particularly where they stand to benefit financially from such activity. Secondly, why have a report function, at all, if you're not going to do anything with the information provided? Or course, we know the answer to this: to be seen to be doing something. It's shameful. I hate capitalism. At a less moral/philosophical level, the collateral effects of capitalism's singular pursuit of money (& very little else), is just deeply annoying.

BH
7 Aug, 2013
2013-8-7 9:12:22 PM UTC
In eBay's defense, I have had an auction of mine taken down due to someone reporting it, so the reporting button/function does work - I am guessing they just don't know what to do with something as subjective as "is that a forgery or a real signature"?

Longer story - I was selling a boxed software product and as it turns out, that particular version was distributed as "not for resale" and I didn't know that - you could only tell from the UPC code. I didn't relist the item once I knew what I had. The report was made by the software maker, so they had "legitimacy" in the eyes of the eBay minion who handled the report.

I have a feeling that if the Tolkien Estate legal team notified eBay, the item would be taken down. That's probably the only way to get an action from them.
7 Aug, 2013
2013-8-7 9:21:54 PM UTC
Clearly they need to prune down those reporting options then, if they have no way of acting in regard to some of them. I agree in regard to The Tolkien Estate. It ain't, obviously, going to happen though.

BH
8 Aug, 2013
2013-8-8 4:45:16 PM UTC
Did tolkienfkesignature win the auction????
8 Aug, 2013
2013-8-8 5:22:46 PM UTC
Yes, currently ignoring the seller
8 Aug, 2013 (edited)
2013-8-8 6:46:36 PM UTC

Urulókë wrote:
In eBay's defense, I have had an auction of mine taken down due to someone reporting it, so the reporting button/function does work - I am guessing they just don't know what to do with something as subjective as "is that a forgery or a real signature"?

Longer story - I was selling a boxed software product and as it turns out, that particular version was distributed as "not for resale" and I didn't know that - you could only tell from the UPC code. I didn't relist the item once I knew what I had. The report was made by the software maker, so they had "legitimacy" in the eyes of the eBay minion who handled the report.

Sorry but I'm not happy with your ebay defense as it does not work, in your case it is almost certainly because they are VeRO registered with ebay, so they had "legitimacy" http://pages.ebay.co.uk/vero/

The one and only success that I have ever had with ebay stopping a fake ebay auction, is because HarperCollins asked ebay to remove it and they are VeRO registered.

I may be wrong, but I strongly believe that in 100% of non-VeRO reported items, ebay take zero action.
8 Aug, 2013
2013-8-8 7:32:06 PM UTC
Well, you say I'm not happy with your ebay defense as it does not work but both of us agree that reporting items does work - just not for us.

Again, look at this from eBay's perspective. They probably get thousands and thousands of reported items every day. Some of those are reported by other sellers trying to get a competitive advantage. Some are by frustrated buyers trying to sabotage a seller they think wronged them. Some are by specialists with excellent knowledge trying to protect others from buying fake items. How do they tell the difference? If they researched every reported item from unverified users, they would be buried and not survive the costs of doing so.

I agree that odds are extremely likely that unverified reports are filed away and nothing proactively done with them. However, they may serve a valuable purpose if the buyer then files a dispute, with the reports being used as evidence to back up the buyer's claim, so I do think they still have some very small value, even though the buyer is still pretty much screwed.

I think the best course of action is to lean on HarperCollins contacts to be our proxy to report things, as none of us are the rights holder.

Basically eBay backs this up if you read through the VeRO documentation. For example:

If you want to report other suspected infringing items to eBay write to Community Watch. We are happy to receive such information, but must advise that we may be limited in our ability to respond to your request absent formal notice from an authorized rights owner.

Essentially, eBay is taking a neutral stance unless legally compelled to act. They see this as a case of "he said / she said" between the seller's opinion of veracity and our opinion of forgery.
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