AuctionBytes received several letters from readers about the Monday's article about a Wiley Publishing lawsuit. Wiley filed the lawsuit against Carlos, a college student, for violating the company's copyright and trademarks. You can read the fulltext here: http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m04/i25/s02.
One reader wrote and asked, "Did Carlos have legal copies for sale? Or was he selling mass duplicated/pirate copies? It's not clear in the article."
Carlos' auctions can still be viewed on eBay, the three auctions under the User ID xtreemze are for e-books. A link to one of his auctions is here: http://digbig.com/4dftf. (You can view the official e-book for sale on Wiley's website here: http://digbig.com/4dftg).
Another reader wrote and commented on due process. "Advise (Carlos) to call or write the court which issued the order and request a copy of the complaint & summons as well as any Return of Service filed in the case. If there is no Summons or Return of Service, the whole procedure is null and void. The entire system of American jurisprudence is based on timely and proper notice of any proceeding. It's called Due Process."
And a person who had registered a site that included the words "fordummies" in the domain name sent in a copy of a letter Wiley sent him warning him not to activate the site.
The issue of copyright and trademark law is one that comes up frequently on eBay. AuctionBytes has covered cases that have involved other eBay users in the past, including eBay's request for Google to ban keywords from its paid search service (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y03/m08/i07/s02); the legality of selling Mary Kay products on eBay (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y203/m03/abu0090/s03); as well as the VeRO battles of eBay seller Tabberone (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m07/i12/s01).
VeRO is eBay's Verified Rights Owner program that allows companies to report trademark and copyright infringing auctions to eBay (http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/programs-vero-ov.html).
Intellectual property rights holders are growing increasingly frustrated with eBay sellers. Tiffany got fed up last year and decided to sue eBay directly (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m06/i22/s01).
Something that may come as a surprise to many eBay sellers is the fact that eBay releases users' names and addresses to VeRO participants. In a Wiley lawsuit against another eBay seller, Wiley submitted to the court copies of their correspondence with eBay's VeRO team. http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m04/i26/images/wiley.GIF (Wiley had written to eBay requesting eBay seller bubblesolution's contact information, and a member of eBay's VeRO team responded via email with the user's name, address and phone number.)
AuctionBytes will continue to follow the Wiley - eBay sellers lawsuits and other cases as well. Readers can also visit the AuctionBytes "eBay VeRo and Copyright" forum at http://digbig.com/4dftk
