His phone number is listed on the auction, you might try calling the guy? This is unacceptable, not only is he stealing your digital property, but he is also missleading the bidders by posting a picture of a kit that is not the one he is selling. Lame

By placing a watermark on your pics, this will stop most of this type of thing from happening! Unless you do have a copyright on the pics??

Simply reporting it to eBay should be enough to have them cancel the auction.

At least that's what it says in their rules.

Use the "Report this auction" link on the auction page to report it.

just my opinion if he's not scaming anybody and it aint causing you any financial deress. i would look at it as a form of flatery cause premier might think the same about us taking pics of gear and using it for what ever reasons.

Actually, it looks like he IS intending to scam someone.

There is nothing in the auction description that states that the pic is not what you are getting. In fact, it makes it appear that the drum set shown is what you get.

Plus, he wants you to contact him via phone outside the auction.

This one screams scam to me.

This is all on the assumption that the picture of the drum set sitting outside on the grass is the picture you're talking about.

How about the other pics (throne, snare, etc)? Are they yours also?

Feedback of 4. Yeah, right. I'll be bidding on this one. LOL

Thanks for your active attention so far.

@deadhead:

I won't give him a call - it's too expensive (from Germany to UK).

@vintagemore2000:

good idea, but I really don't like those big signs throughout a pic ...

@KapperDog:

ebay had received my note immediately. First and only comment from them: 'note received, we will take care of it' (that was yesterday afternoon and the auction ends tomorrow).

Indeed, the photo with the garden in the background is the only one from me.

I just read the details of his auction:

- no second rack tom, but two floor toms (!).

If you look professionally into the pic, you'll see that my hihat is the top modell Tama IC and the throne is the TAMA 1st chair. So it should be dubious to possible buyers where the pic comes from (the other one from him obviously showing his cheaper drum throne).

I think I let it go and try to reach the buyer via the feedback afterwards, telling him, what's about the pic. Perhaps he will make trouble with the seller then.Excited

Cheers,

Ralf

Unfortunately, people take pictures all of the time. This is par for the course on eBay.

Also, it is common for peoples eBay accounts to be hijacked. So the person you are emailing is possibly the hijacker and this person does not care you are emailing them.

In regards to watermarks, you can make them transparent enough that they are hard to remove and also not in the way of the image. I do this all of the time.

To claim copyright is to actually have a copyright for the photo. Once you put it up on eBay on the eBay system it is an eBay photo. Many times eBay watermarks their images with that little camera in the corner.

I have had 100's images lifted from the site that I have found in eBay listings. I just move on.

Anybody will take anything they want and use it how they want to use it.

From a legal perspective, once you put something online you are letting the world use it at their discretion. It is just the way the Internet works. If you want to keep your work private and protected do not put anything on the Internet.

Photo services like I-stock and Getty Images are supposed to actually submit their photos for copyright and they have some legal ground to stand on. They have sophisticated software that embed tracking codes into hidden pixels on images and software that can travel the Internet looking for people using these images illegally.

So I say do your best to get it removed, but protect your photos going forward.

David

Understood, David.

And I agree, I'm not the only one out there in the www who has trouble with an infringement of the copyright - for sure.

I'm afraid that especially the younger generation (or has it become nearly 'common' generally today?) has 'no probs' with copyright (on pics, songs, movies etc.) nowadays.

Thanks,

Ralf

One of the biggest misconceptions in copyright law is that someone has to put the copyright symbol or do some other hocus pokus to vest a copyright. That was the case under the 1909 copyright act, but the USA moved away from that in the 70s. Also, per treaty, the copyright law of today is basically the same from country to country (at least any country that matters).

A copyright today vests immediately in its owner once the work is in tangible form. You take the photo, it's your copyright. My daughter scribbles on a piece of paper, she owns the copyright.

Of course as with any legal dispute, evidence becomes the key. How does ebay know for sure that you aren't just some chancer when you report an infringement?

This is why there is the copyright registration process. It provides evidence of the existence and ownership of the copyright. People wrongly assume that the registration is THE copyright, but its not--again the copyright springs into existence when the expressive work is created. The registration is helpful evidence to show you actually own the copyright (and it is also a prerequisite to bringing a copyright infringement action--or at least it was when I worked in this area).

OK so that's the academic answer. The practical answer is that the economics of enforcing a copyright make it so most people are not always going to be able to enforce ownership.

That's why the best suggestion practically speaking is the watermark as mentioned above. Also, if you can show Ebay in this instance that you used the photo in a previous listing that will probably help you as well.