Unauthorised Showroom links in Ebay auctions :S

[wldnas]

I have just found out (Thanks mainly to TerrySC for alerting me by Email?) that someone has posted up a Ebay auction for a well used Kyosho Maxxum FF chassis but they have had the cheek to post a link to my Showroom entry for my MIB version and not only that they have taken the first few lines from my write up there and pasted it onto their Auction description!!! [8)]

I was not asked nor consulted by the seller about this, he just went ahead and did it, I can say that I'm not at all happy about this [V] some bidders might link to my showroom thinking that it is my car thats for sale [8)] I have sent the sellers a suitably stearn Email you can see the auction here and see for yourself? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...item=5907827705

I would like to know if anyone else has had this problem? I mean it's easy enough to link to any of the Tamiyaclub showroom items for anyone? but is it right and acceptable to ppl to do some without permission? I think NOT but what are your views? [?]

[Gonze]

I agree with you. If they realy feel the need to use peoples showroom cars. they should at least ask the permission of the owner first.

Gonze

[netsmithUK]

I'm not 100% sure where I stand on this one, basically because I know I've linked to other sites when I've sold stuff (tamiya.com,sony.com,dpreview.com etc) without seeking permission first.

Part of this I guess is just not thinking about it, or thinking that large corporations don't car, and smaller sites are probably thankfull of the extra advertsing to their sites.

And I must admit I feel a glow of pride when people link to our club car pages as an extra sort of reference - out of the million sites in the world they could pick anyones but they pick us as the experts[] Plus any link on ebay is worth a lot of extra hits too us.

The only distinction I do make though, that links must make it clear that the item displayed is not the item that is for sale and the link is for reference only. If people do that personally I have no objects to people linking to my stuff.

If it bothers you too much and the guy won't remove it - just change your description and pictures for a short while to some toy'r'us cheapo model - that should stich him up good and proper[}]

Chris

[smallman28]

Might it be worth contacting the seller and just getting him to admend his listing saying that the link is just for reference and not showing the actual car for sale.

[Spatzel]

Hi,

last year i sold some rare Audi Quattro Lexan Bodys, before the Tamiya S1 appeared.One guy bought a Body for over 200$ and try to sell it again.I think it was not his intention to pay so much.He used my good written,emotional text.I wrote about Rally legend etc.... There is no copyright on ebay text but that were my thoughts and i hate it if they were copyed without my permission.

I think you should write him that he change you into a referenc.

As far as i know is it to late now to change tc into a site wich is non linkable.PHP support that or was it flash. A lot of work in any case it

think.

MFG Sebastian

[jozza]

Difficult one this, as netsmith said, many of us have linked to tamiya or other sites. But I think that this guy should have checked first out of courtesy. The danger is that it looks like you are endorsing his sale item. I think that the comment you've added is sensible though, makes it clear that yours isn't the one for sale, but you might want to amend it to state clearly that you aren't connected with him, and that you don't endorse what he is selling.

I like Chris' idea though, pop a Tomy on there for a few days. Or how about changing the description temporarily to say how awful the car is, that you wish you had never got it, it's nothing but trouble and completely worthless [}]

[TWINSET]

I'm with Chris, for the duration of the auction, remove your description and put something like;

Biggest heap of junk I ever wasted £10 on, my only chance of shifting this now is to some gullible moron on ebay

Or

Shame everything is covered in rust, only another idiot would buy this, guess I'll try ebay

What you really wanna do first though is bid on it, then he can't remove the link, only add to the description or end auction and start again.

quote:

---

i should also be able to supply some images to aid in the restoration,

---

id="quote">id="quote"> Looks like he may have already saved your pics too!

[Virus]

oooooh u guys are evil think i would do the same

pile of rubbish on garage floor an quick snap of cam

the caption My Rubbish is your rubbish thanx for looking

Paul

[Stefan(2)]

u have put a lot of efford in making of the car discription,

i can understand you would like to see the "credits" for it,

or at least the question.. " can i .... "

On the other hand, i would feel honored a bit to

Stefan

[mjohnston39]

Your page is public domain and the seller credited the source of the quote, plus it's pretty clear that the car for sale isn't your MIB (at least it is after the revisons??). I can't really see a problem- take this as a complement, if you don't like it take down or change the page...

Mike.

[Shodog]

Bottom line is that is rude to use something of someones with out permission.

I have had a few people e-mail me to ask if they could use some of my pictures for their website. I even had an ebay seller ask to use my pics some some trucks that had aluminum knock off hubs that he sells. since they asked, I don't mind letting them use them.

Seeing how Prolific wldnas's descriptions are, I would imagine if the guy would have asked fisrt, Wldnas would have probably wrote a nice description for him.

[akihabaramallrat]

I heard an interesting related story from a Hong Kong ebay seller who deals in electronics. A seller in Germany copied his description and photo so he hired a lawyer there to file an unauthorized use claim, resulting in payment of Eur500.

The Hong Kong seller didnt get a cent of it (all lawyers fees) but he did it out of principle, not the $.

[wldnas]

As you can now see (if you click on the link in the original topic) the Ebay seller has seen the error of his ways and removed the link and lifted text

I will admit that this little situation did get me a bit hot under the collar, the main thing that got my goat is that the guy did it without asking?

the funny thing is that I was Emailed by the guy a few few days previously when he asked me for informtion about how the gearbox and steering assembly on the Maxxum FF worked, I said that I could scan in some pages from the manual and send them to him, later I revised that to a complete scanned copy of the full manual, then this little "stunt" occured and I was all annoyed at the Ebay seller not knowing that is was the same guy (though I did kinda suspect something was amiss when I saw the gear train missing off the chassis in the auction?) but I didn't realise until just now that it was the same guy, the short of it is that this whole matter has been one big mess, one that could have been easily avoided had they just asked in the first place [8)]

[Scorchio]

Im well versed in the issues of 'public domain' and 'interlectual property' (windlasses description) as well as copyright (but the laters not an issue here) as my lively hood once centred around it, but must confess I'm still a newb to the web issues. Purely as a matter of courtesy anything I did not create that I EXPLOIT requires permission in my opinion.

Even when I used a pic from Shodogs' showroom for a wanted ad in the trade rooms here I asked permission, which he kindly granted. Others have too. When on not recieving a reply on one occasion I credited the person concerned and added 'Hope you dont mind, if you do I will remove'

If it happened to me on the scale of winlasses case I would get right ugly and sneaky not hesitating to pull stunts above and some, as quite frankly hits on any sites and flattery are not my concern, but things I put my own time and effort into ARE!I don't seek money fame or adoration just a bit of courtessy and credit where credits due. I'm with you windlass.

I may sound pretty uptight on the issue but believe me compared to others and the 'corporate sector' I'm easy going. information is power and in this 'SMALL' case windlasses efforts added to somebodys selling power. Worth credit at least & money at most. []

I wish I could spell PLAY-GUR-IS-EM properly [] and I must start shortening my posts [:I]

[mu5tang]

I was under the impression that any stolen material listed on Ebay would result in the auction being pulled. That is of course if you notify Ebay and tell them the situation. I would think in your case it would be easy to prove to them that you are the rightful owner of picture and the text in the description. I don't like to be rude, but I don't like to spend my time doing work for someone else for free. This website is great for the collector, and an asset to Ebay sellers. I just don't like to see the user's information being "stolen" instead of used. It takes time to write good descriptions, and the way I see it, this isn't school where they are stealing your info for a better grade. This person is making money off of it, and what are you getting? You didn't even get the courtesy of an e-mail asking you if he could use it. The way I see it, that is way out of line.

Okay, I will get off of my soap box now.