eBay continues to profit off illegal merchandise, and clearly doesn't care

eBay continues to profit off illegal merchandise, and clearly doesn’t care

Submitted by Stephen Munn on December 31, 2009 – 11:43 am9 Comments

Castlevania soundtrack bootleg CDs

In my years of buying and selling on eBay, I’ve become increasingly shocked at how little eBay seems to care about the sheer volume of illegal merchandise that is being sold through their massive auction site. Obviously, it is in their financial interest to allow people to sell whatever they want with a minimum of intervention, but one would expect that a corporation as large as eBay would have the resources to do something about the issue.

The majority of what I’m seeing, because of the area I work within on eBay, would be bootleg video games, DVDs, and music. Nearly all of these are coming from China. I’ve bought some of these myself without knowing, and I really can’t begin to express how frustrating it is to find these sellers are still operating on eBay. Just today I perused one Chinese seller’s inventory of hundreds of obviously bootleg items, then looked over their positive feedback. Most of the people buying these things either don’t know they’re being cheated, or they don’t care.

Beyond bootlegs and counterfeits, there are the many, many sellers who are brazenly selling emulators and ROMs on eBay. The system is equipped to report illegal items, but I have yet to see a reported item actually get removed from the site. When I report a Nintendo-related item, I also “share” it via email with Nintendo’s auction piracy reporting email, and cross my fingers that their lawyers are better at this than I am.

Then there are the games. Dozens of copies, for example, of Professor Layton and the Curious Village are up for sale on eBay from China right now, and they start low and sell low. They’re all bootlegs. They come in flimsy packaging, but most buyers don’t notice until the game stops working that something is wrong. Folks, if you bought Layton on eBay, it’s almost certainly a fake.

What makes the crime perfect is that as long as the seller issues a refund to the fraction of a percent of people who catch on, they don’t get any kind of penalty at all.

Why do I care? Well, it’s because I sell legitimate items on eBay, and fewer buyers will bid on my items because these fake ones are so plentiful. Also, I have to take great pains to prove that I’m selling real games and not bootlegs, which is a nuisance. So while eBay gets rich off these criminals by looking the other way, I’m losing out and so is the buyer.

Oh, and don’t believe any of eBay’s line about them “doing their best.” When I report an obviously fake item and it’s still there three days later, they obviously aren’t doing everything they can.

Tags: bootleg, ebay

InfinityDevil

I think this can probably be solved by greatly strengthening their PayPal dispute resolution system, since that's where the rubber hits the road. That's really where confidence gets crushed because really if you can't make the customer think you know what you're doing when going after crooks and swindlers, they're not going to come back.

And while they made a big deal about their system for letting IP owners kill auctions at will years ago — and Microsoft uses it very effectively to kill OS and other software re-sales that end users don't have the right to do — I haven't seen anyone else use it to any great effect. Perhaps after they beef up the PayPal dispute system they can add an anti-bootlegging department or at least give it some more manpower.

After having low confidence in the 3 transactions I did to buy games on eBay this year, one of which went wrong and took a month and a half to get a refund via PayPal dispute resolution, I don't think I'll be buying much more from there in the near future.
StephenJMunn

But you see, there's the exact cause of the problem. Paypal is serving as a safety net not only for the consumer but for the illegal seller. When you dispute a purchase for it being illegal, you're doing so through PayPal. Once the seller refunds your money, the dispute ends. The seller faces absolutely no repercussions for selling illegal items, as long as they refund the money when challenged. They go right on selling thousands of bootleg CDs, DVDs, and video games to people who don't recognize them before leaving feedback.

If you report an item, and eBay pulls it, even if they hit the seller with a listing policy violation, there is NO WAY for the buyer to know it happened. eBay's documentation says repeated violations CAN impact the seller's ability to operate on eBay, but do you think it actually does? Not in my experience.

The system is broken, eBay knows it, and I honestly don't think they care. I expect they're making too much money off the products to do anything about it.
http://www.aeropause.com mclazyj

The problem is that unlike Microsoft, most game companies do not have the coffeurs to go after these illegal auctioneers. I would love to see the BSA and the ESA get involved and take these guys down, but the fact that most of the sellers reside beyond the reach of US law. Also, most of these sellers normally reside in countries that are less than stellar at prosecuting copyright infringement.

I have stayed away from eBay when purchasing nowadays, for this exact reason. The last thing I bought on there, a copy of Sid Meier's Pirates, came with a code taped to the inside of the jewel case. Yeah, I am sure it was totally legitimate. I reported the seller, but he was in China, and that was pretty much the end of it. They suspended his account, but I am sure they just set up another one. Its not like it is that hard to set up a new ebay account.
StephenJMunn

If eBay suspended the accounts, it would help the issue. They'd have to start their accounts over at 0 feedback, which is a much harder deal for them. Most of these sellers have hundreds or thousands of positive feedback. They can be shut down, but eBay doesn't care to.
StephenJMunn

But you see, there's the exact cause of the problem. Paypal is serving as a safety net not only for the consumer but for the illegal seller. When you dispute a purchase for it being illegal, you're doing so through PayPal. Once the seller refunds your money, the dispute ends. The seller faces absolutely no repercussions for selling illegal items, as long as they refund the money when challenged. They go right on selling thousands of bootleg CDs, DVDs, and video games to people who don't recognize them before leaving feedback.

If you report an item, and eBay pulls it, even if they hit the seller with a listing policy violation, there is NO WAY for the buyer to know it happened. eBay's documentation says repeated violations CAN impact the seller's ability to operate on eBay, but do you think it actually does? Not in my experience.

The system is broken, eBay knows it, and I honestly don't think they care. I expect they're making too much money off the products to do anything about it.
http://www.aeropause.com mclazyj

The problem is that unlike Microsoft, most game companies do not have the coffeurs to go after these illegal auctioneers. I would love to see the BSA and the ESA get involved and take these guys down, but the fact that most of the sellers reside beyond the reach of US law. Also, most of these sellers normally reside in countries that are less than stellar at prosecuting copyright infringement.

I have stayed away from eBay when purchasing nowadays, for this exact reason. The last thing I bought on there, a copy of Sid Meier's Pirates, came with a code taped to the inside of the jewel case. Yeah, I am sure it was totally legitimate. I reported the seller, but he was in China, and that was pretty much the end of it. They suspended his account, but I am sure they just set up another one. Its not like it is that hard to set up a new ebay account.
StephenJMunn

If eBay suspended the accounts, it would help the issue. They'd have to start their accounts over at 0 feedback, which is a much harder deal for them. Most of these sellers have hundreds or thousands of positive feedback. They can be shut down, but eBay doesn't care to.
Jenna12

you are an idiot.why would yu care.isnt it publishers and multi milion companies that loose a few percentage of profit? so what it has to do with you?
Sstrunksl6

hello i have bought several cds from this website:http://dimensionalarmada.com/

and i notice that all these items were bootleg items from the company
miya, i have been trying to get my money back from this bootlegger and
he has been very rude, but i wanted to report to you because i notice
thye sell alot of soundtracks for series that you have here in
america.and also do you know if there anyone else i can report this to
that deal in bootleg items because this person is doing a disjustice to
all the anime fans like myself who want to collect authetic products,

thank you for you time.