PDF, Copyright and Ebay

[Gary Roberts]

Folks hereabouts may be inerested in a blog post or two over at my end of the internet. I've been involved in a mini-battle with an Ebay seller who offered a couple of PDF items from my site. There's been a string of emails, limited activity from Ebay (but a fascinating response from them) and a whole lot of discussion on the side with a friend of mine who is an IP attorney.

I usually don't link-out to other sites, but in this case, I'm curious as to what the ephemeral crowd thinks.

Toolemera Blog: Digital Copyright

[Zeno Izen]

I just read your most recent post on this topic... your eBay seller is definitely confused about whether a PDF is or isn't a separate entity from the original scanned item, and whether Wikipedia IP guidelines are written for Wikipedia only or if they apply to the entire internet.

"Confused"? Maybe "wrong" is the correct term.

Anyway, I can't find your earlier posts on the topic. I'm interested to get the whole story, especially as regards exactly what the seller is doing with the PDF and what damage you are incurring. URLs?

[Gary Roberts]

Zeno... I'll check the blog tonight. There was a recent Typepad upgrade that must have messed with some internal links. As for Wikipedia... it continues to give me nightmares in my day job. If it disappeared today I wouldn't complain.

I'll pull the set of post together as one topic. In the very near future, I'll be adding a more comprehensive review of digital media, copyright, and the proliferation of Ebay sellers of same. Not that I am all that p'd off about it of course...

[Valerie MacEwan]

Absolutely fascinating. I mean it. Thanks for link-out to this information.

[Gary Roberts]

Valerie

I'ld love to say this particular issue is done with, but the seller has continued to offer another item as part of a compilation. That means I'll have to follow the formal Ebay VERIO route, along with a note from my attorney friend. In the very near future I'll be starting up a POD shop for both print and digital material. Which means setting some security traps in the PDF documents for the unwary bootlegger. Too bad I can't afford the $4000+ PDF enterprise security packages out there!

What really sets my hair on end is the rampant proliferation of people selling Google Books and Internet Archive material. Actually, Google can afford it. The Internet Archive I support and am annoyed to see people abusing that resource.

[Zeno Izen]

This subject is kind of fascinating. It seems esoteric on its face, but it's actually terribly serious and will probably become more common as we go forward...

I can see how Ebay would want to stay out of this kind of thing, too. Not that they should or shouldn't, but that it makes a certain amount of sense that their first move would be to try to stay clear as much as possible.

[Gary Roberts]

Zeno... Esoteric is the word for it. Although copyright invades almost every aspect of daily life, it's an incredibly complex and fluid area that's open to interpretation by both sides. Some points are clear but many are fuzzy, particularly when you get into the digital copyright issue and international copyright.

Ebay will act only if someone complains. Otherwise, they take a hands-off approach. While I disagree with their policy, I understand their approach. They can't take responsibility for monitoring every auction. However, I think they could make it easier for the complaint process to be finalized. I have to fax my complaint in! That means taking the fax machine off the shelf, plugging it in and all that. They won't take a PC generated fax as they want a true signature. I think they're really just making it difficult.