8 Responses to “My Photo on eBay?”

1. 1 danni h. commented:
   January 12th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
   
   

   holly, i can’t post a comment over at your other blog so i am posting it here..ohmigoodness that is just horrible! and absolutely ridiculous. a similar thing happened to my friend over the weekend. we came to the conclusion that some people are just oblivious and ignorant to the fact that it is wrong to do things like this! she did end up messaging the person selling the print and the seller took it down. well good luck with this, i hope you message her. ps: i didn’t know you had a personal sort of blog, absolutely love it!

   danni h.s last blog post: peace song:

2. 2 Chef Messy commented:
   January 12th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
   
   

   The sad news is that if the photo was on Flickr, you’ve signed your rights away and the photo is now public domain. It’s still skeevy of people to try to make a buck off of it, but it’s not technically illegal. That’s why a lot of people use watermarks. A similar situation, by the way, happened with Virgin Mobile in Australia not that long ago. The company snagged a picture of someone’s vacation photos and used it as a billboard, and the person in the photo (who hadn’t given her permission for the photo to even be posted online) tried to sue, without any luck. I’ve had photos used without permission before, too, and it just stinks.

3. 3 decor8 commented:
   January 12th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
   
   

   Chef Messy: This is a common misconception and does not hold up to the legal definitions of “copyright” in the US and internationally. Any creative work is your own intellectual property, you are automatically the copyright owner. You define what is to be done with your copyrighted work. Entering it on Flickr does not make it Public Domain. Flickr enables members to assign different licenses to their images, the default being “All Rights Reserved”. Beyond that, you can also assign a Creative Commons license, which I have done to all of the images in my Flickr account. My images are labeled “None – All rights reserved”, so that eBay user has no legal right to take any of the photos I have posted in Flickr and use them. For more information and to learn more about copyright protection, please refer to http://creativecommons.org/.

4. 4 Allison commented:
   January 12th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
   
   

   Have you tried contacting eBay’s Live Help? I’m involved with some online groups dedicated to a particular clothing line, and when another eBay seller steals their personal photos Live Help can get the auction removed. I would assume since it is your artwork that they would even be more eager to help.

   Best of luck with this!

5. 5 Kim Wallace commented:
   January 12th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
   
   

   My goodness you wouldn’t believe it until you saw it with your own eyes! Some valid comments here, it was always my understanding too that copyright always remains with the photographer. But what can you do, other than going through a lengthy and most likely expensive law suit? Unbelievable…

   Kim Wallaces last blog post: Just added… Flutterby diptych by KS Art & Design

6. 6 becky from hatch commented:
   January 12th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
   
   

   Hit the eBay community posts immediately. You are NOT allowed to post the actual auction number, but quote the exact title of the auction so the other eBay users can use it. I can’t say enough about how helpful the eBay community is, especially in the Art Community. Go to COMMUNITY (at the top of the page, then DISCUSSION BOARDS, then find the art related ones. Also contact trust and safety. eBay is very anxious to rid their site of anything counterfeited or that infringes upon copyright law.

   Go to HELP and look up Trust and Safety rather than general Live Help.

   GOOD LUCK!

   becky from hatchs last blog post: Golden Globes Wrap Up

7. 7 sweetpea commented:
   January 12th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
   
   

   this is terrible! they have ruined you lovely image.
   grrrr

   sweetpeas last blog post: soft, beautiful, girly

8. 8 Jhoanna commented:
   January 14th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
   
   

   Hi Holly, thought you might also want to alert your readers to the stealing of images created by designers/crafters/artists by Polyvore.com and what is being done about it. Details are on the Art and Ghosts website: http://artandghosts.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/01/polyvore-copyright-violation-update-.html

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