Earlier this month, Wiley Publishing filed suit against Carlos Velasco for selling e-books protected by copyright (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m04/i25/s02).

Carlos said he stopped selling the e-books (he had listed three eBay auctions in total), claiming ignorance of the copyright protection and contacted Wiley to apologize. Velasco never denied that he was selling these materials. The breakdown apparently came with a disagreement on how to communicate and what to talk about.

Susan Spilka, Director of Corporate Communications at John Wiley & Sons, said, "Mr. Velasco wanted to debate, at length, the legality of our claim; he wanted to debate copyright law." She insists that this is his right but the proper forum would be in court and so Wiley proceeded to file suit.

"I completely disagree," said Velasco. "I simply stated my position, and expected them to counter with their direct and transparent answers, which they did not. They mostly ignored...what I said. I was readily available via email. They made no attempts to dialogue via email."

"What we refused to do was get into a debate about copyright law," says Ms. Spilka. "There is no gray area here about whether this is legal." Selling copies of e-books violates copyright law because, she says, "what he purchased was one copy."

Velasco said, "I believe that this is beyond protecting their business. This is profitable to them. Even the $500 that Wiley offered as a settlement was an exaggerated amount far from my profits," noting that, with fees, he has actually suffered a net loss from his short-lived eBay activities.

When asked about Wiley's motivation in this case, Spilka says that Wiley is looking to protect the rights of the authors and that these illegal sales are a kind of "theft" which many people don't understand. Wiley is careful, she says, to make clear that "this is not about punishing them. Our costs of doing this far exceed the income we get out of this."

Karen Dudnikov, an eBay seller who has wrangled successfully with eBay VeRO participants (http://www.tabberone.com), including Shabby Chic and Major League Baseball Properties, said of the Wiley - Velasco case, "Yes, Carlos was infringing, but he ceased. That is what copyright law demands. If you cease and desist when told to, then it's over. He wasn't willful in what he was doing, intent is important in the law."

She added, "Can you imagine the outcry if all the eBay VeRO members did this? Would VeROing an auction on eBay become a profit center? Would eBay get to collect FVF (final value fees) on this money?"

Chris Sprigman, a Residential Fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University, who has specialized in intellectual property practice, noted that ignorance of the copyright violation would not affect a defendant's guilt but might affect the damages. Though he wouldn't comment directly on the case, he said, "The question would be, was the infringement willful?"

Sprigman also noted that, "typically cases don't get litigated, they get settled."

Velasco said has received a notice from Wiley to show up in a New York courtroom in May for a pre-trial conference. But he points out that he has yet to receive a summons even notifying him of the lawsuit. Court records accessible on the Internet show no record of such a conference.

Ms. Spilka insists they are not out to punish nor to make money. "The reason we do this is to get the message out that this is illegal." Saying that their main business is not law enforcement, Ms Spilka stresses that "we prefer to sell books."

Carlos Velasco plans to continue his fight, saying, "I cannot go to New York, not only because of financial constraints, but because I am a very busy student at the time."

Update: Velasco informed AuctionBytes he has been served.

Edited for clarification on 5/4/05 Edited for clarification on 5/5/05