Ebay seller using my own photo for his auction

[jkno]

This guy selling an AT-AT SE is using my own photo for his own auction. I wrote him an email kindly asking for him to remove it, but nothing. People could get scammed looking at my own photos and his replica is also with some damage.

Master Replicas Star Wars "AT-AT" Signature Edition Artist Proof 1/10 Produced | eBay

Prop Replicas - Studio Scale and Blasters :: Master Replicas AT-AT Signature Edition picture by sergiurusu - Photobucket

When someone can take a detailed close-up photo of his item, not sure why he isn't doing the same for the whole item and needs to use someone else image. I tried here but there is no option for stolen photos that I can see, except from another auction - not the case here:

UPDATE:

Ebay forced him to close the auction. He re-listed it with his own pictures (as far as we know), and thus I have no problem anymore. Hopefully he will not scam the buyers.

 

[TOE]

thats why you gotta put a trademark on each photo

 

[jkno]

thats why you gotta put a trademark on each photo

Thanks for your "help".

 

[jimmie_dimmick]

You can "report the item"

Right above the item number before the description

 

[jkno]

You can "report the item"

Not sure how to do that since there is no option for stolen images except "from another auction", which is not the case.

 

[jimmie_dimmick]

Not sure how to do that since there is no option for stolen images except "from another auction", which is not the case.

If they "stole" your photos, isn't this a "from another auction" case? Also, to be honest, just call eBay customer service, give them the listing number, as well as yours, then ask them how to take it from there.

Whenever I've dealt with them, they have been "helpful" to say the least.

 

[David Dunn]

jkno, I have had others use my photo for their listing, but it didn't really bother me at all. I have seen folks use the watermark or something in their photo saying it was theirs if they didn't want others to use it. Next time, you could put a piece of paper with your ebay ID next to the item if it is eating at you. I would let it go and no, I'm not the one using your photo

 

[jkno]

The stolen image was not from an auction, it was from my own photobucket account. The idea is that the buyers are looking at my own AT-AT which is perfect, and they buy one with damage. Besides that how can anyone be sure now that the plaque and the damage shown there are indeed sellers own pictures?

I remember about 5 months ago someone posted on Scribd one of my students' thesis where I was coordinator professor. I contacted Scribd and in less than 12 hours the document was taken down.

 

[jkno]

The guy now added even more pics he found online, even of a completely different AT-AT - a custom LE version.

 

[crows]

maybe, perhaps you shouldn't have your photobucket account open to the public?
maybe?
this person probably googled for the image and probably google gave it to him,
if you didnt put in in photobucket public maybe they would have not gotten it.

ebay can only act if it is from another auction though

The person Is Lying, yeah, but IF i was you i would just put the account on private
if the account is public i dont know how you can ask ebay to remove it, people put pictures from the internet all the time

 

[karamazov80]

Happened to me before. Too bad he's misleading potential buyers, but what are you gonna do? Lots of shady characters in the world.

 

[jkno]

I'm all in for free stuff, but not when this affects, like in this case, the buyers out there. I don't really care if someone is using my image to show it to someone else, or for a review etc. But not when declaring THAT item is the one the buyer will receive.

There was someone on Rebelscum who used an image of one of my Kotobukiya statues, but I had no problem with that, since he clearly said that is not his statue for sale, and the image he posted was only for people to know how that particular item looks like.

In this ebay case the guy is selling an item, showing pics of 3 completely different products. Quite shady.

 

[karamazov80]

eBay is actually complicit in this kind of behavior. They instituted a new policy a couple of years ago where all sellers were automatically agreeing to allow other potential sellers to use their pictures for subsequent auctions. You had to manually opt out through a convoluted process. So what message are they sending to other sellers? Just take from others if you're too lazy to take pics of your own or whatever.

 

[thenammagazine]

eBay is actually complicit in this kind of behavior. They instituted a new policy a couple of years ago where all sellers were automatically agreeing to allow other potential sellers to use their pictures for subsequent auctions. You had to manually opt out through a convoluted process. So what message are they sending to other sellers? Just take from others if you're too lazy to take pics of your own or whatever.

Really? I've reported sellers through the VERO program for this and used my original auction link for them to see my photo was the original and they've taken them down.

 

[a-dev]

Really? I've reported sellers through the VERO program for this and used my original auction link for them to see my photo was the original and they've taken them down.

How long have you been selling on ebay? You seem to have encountered every kind of $h!t possible on there.

 

[karamazov80]

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/abblog/blog.pl?/pl/2009/8/1249613186.html

"Starting September 1, 2009, eBay will begin selecting sellers' photos for inclusion in the eBay product catalog. If your photo is chosen, an attribution including your user ID and a link to your profile page will be included on the product details page under your picture each time it's displayed. This attribution can give you significant additional exposure.

If you'd rather opt out of this program, please do so through My eBay as described here. To ensure your pictures are not considered for inclusion in the eBay product catalog starting September 1, you need to opt out by August 31, 2009 at 23:59:59 PT."

They might have changed this since then though, for all I know. I'm guessing you could report those auctions because eBay didn't choose to add your pics to their catalog.

Another comment of note in that link:

"So I do own exclusive content to my listings and photos, right?
Actually, no. Read eBay's User Agreement under Content:

When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, trademark, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future."

 

[thenammagazine]

How long have you been selling on ebay? You seem to have encountered every kind of $h!t possible on there.

Since about 1997.

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/abblog/blog.pl?/pl/2009/8/1249613186.html

"Starting September 1, 2009, eBay will begin selecting sellers' photos for inclusion in the eBay product catalog. If your photo is chosen, an attribution including your user ID and a link to your profile page will be included on the product details page under your picture each time it's displayed. This attribution can give you significant additional exposure.

If you'd rather opt out of this program, please do so through My eBay as described here. To ensure your pictures are not considered for inclusion in the eBay product catalog starting September 1, you need to opt out by August 31, 2009 at 23:59:59 PT."

They might have changed this since then though, for all I know. I'm guessing you could report those auctions because eBay didn't choose to add your pics to their catalog.

Another comment of note in that link:

"So I do own exclusive content to my listings and photos, right?
Actually, no. Read eBay's User Agreement under Content:

When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, trademark, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future."

And despite all that jazz, if you report it through the VERO program, they'll take it down.

 

[a-dev]

Since about 1997.

We had the internet back then?

 

[thenammagazine]

We had the internet back then?

I don't know about Ireland, probably not.

Things were better and worse back then though. You had buyers who actually bid up prices to nice profits but you also had scam artists who you couldn't get refunds from. Buyers were easier to control as you could just demand postal money orders which are hard to fake and can be cashed when shipping the item.

 

[karamazov80]

And despite all that jazz, if you report it through the VERO program, they'll take it down.

Since only shady sellers get miffed from that (and eBay doesn't really care about sellers in general), eBay probably just does it as a courtesy those who happen to notice it happening with their own pic to keep them from raising hell. But it surely doesn't seem like they have to do it.