Psychlowne

Everyone knows that when buying any type of media from an eBay seller (especially from a foreign seller), you are taking a risk. More often than not, if the seller is from Hong Kong, his product is not legit. This is especially a huge problem among the anime world. It's tough finding legitimate Region 1 anime without bumping into five times as many bootleg copies.

Basically I'm tired of looking for something only to be greeted by a bunch of bootlegs, and I'm sure people can relate.

Proposal:

Request that eBay require the UPC when listing any type of entertainment media. Once the UPC is entered it will be verified as a certain title/artist/etc., and then listed as legitimate. When a user would go to search for a particular DVD, for example, there could be a "verified" section as well as an "unverified" section. This would not only be a huge convenience for buyers, but it would also be a deterrent for would-be bootleg sellers.

If a seller were to take the UPC from another auction item (meaning an item that is legitimate) and place it with his/her bootleg product, then the buyer could have a way out of it by claiming that the seller was falsely advertising the product. Too many times I have seen sellers representing their products as "original" or "not a bootleg," when in fact they are not legitimate.

Since DVDTalk is a large community, I'm interested in seeing what people think about this concept. We could probably formulate a petition and send it in if enough people support the idea.

tjr2mental

While I would love to see a idea such as yours used on eBay, I do not think that they care about the number of bootleg stuff that they have listed on their site.

I am always reporting auctions that are selling bootleg items, and for the most part nothing is ever done about them. As long as eBay makes their money, they don't care.

Ofcourse that is just my take on the situation.

D-Ball

That's the truth. I've reported obvious bootlegs to them, and they did nothing. As far as they're concerned, it's not their problem unless the copyright holder files the complaint. I agree the UPC code would be a good idea, but ebay would stand to lose money. I believe ebay will continue to be the largest market for pirated and stolen goods until some other organization steps in.

Jericho

Sounds like the making of some class action lawsuit down the line. : ) Of course in reality, DVDs are just so cheap anyways that people generally don't raise a big stink about it. Unfortunately it looks like there's not much one can do about it.

Troy Stiffler

Is there some technicality that's keeping the MPAA from moving on something like this? Aren't they supposed to regulate bootlegs 'n stuff? Or is that up to someone else?

I'm sure that eBay would be totally willing to comply if the MPAA did anything about it.

I would buy DVD's on eBay if it weren't for the mounds of bootlegs that you have to sift through.

Heathen

You are absolutely correct... They dont' give a flyin' rats ass... as a seller myself, I have many times pointed out blatantly bootleg material, but nothing was done, except to receive an cut/paste form-letter email advising me to contact the rights owner if I felt that they were indeed "incorrect" copies. It's very frustrating when you have to compete with others that sell bootlegs, and get to flaunt it as well.

HistoryProf

i've reported many bootlegs, to no avail.


now i just email sellers with a short and sweet message:

Dear x,

Nice bootleg!

Psychlowne

I know there's not much we can really gain from trying to do this (except for having this feature put in place), so I really don't see the work required to make this happen being beneficial on the personal level. It's too bad that it has to be this way, especially for people like Heathen who are legitimate sellers. There IS NO competition on eBay when you're going up against someone selling a bootleg to buyers who can't tell the difference. The legitimate sellers lose, plain and simple.

I don't want to generalize, but it's basically the non-Berne Convention countries, though I have seen some supposedly U.S. sellers selling bootlegs.

Just yesterday I did a search for "Matchstick Men DVD," and sadly I saw 5 auctions for a bootlegged version (in a keep case with DTS). It's just impossible for the casual buyer to know the difference, and it just makes it harder for people who are looking to buy the legitimate stuff.

spainlinx0

For me as a buyer it's also frustrating, and I won't even look at ebay anymore when checking for DVD's. I was searching for Six Feet Under because the prices are pretty high for HBO boxsets, but I simply saw bootleg after bootleg. It is just not worth it to me to sift through 50 auctions to find the 2 or 3 legit ones.

Scott Connors

Sometime last year I bought a copy of FREAKS from a dealer on eBay, and received a DVD-R disc. I thought that this was available but op because I remember seeing a newspaper review of this in a local paper and was pretty sure that it referred to a dvd (ok, I was wrong). Well, it wouldn't play, and was obviously a bootleg, so I reported him to eBay. Guess what? They bounced his butt out and I got my money back. (Now I have a player that can access DVD-R and I can play that disc now!) I also saw a dealer who had a bunch of DVD-R copies of old Universal horror titles like INVISIBLE RAY and BLACK CAT. I didn't complain about that, but they were also removed. So as far as I can see, eBay does take piracy seriously, but it's like "Lennington versus the Ants:" they're just overrun by the pests. Best, Scott

Heathen

I could understand that arugment if they were looking by themselves, but when you point out an obvious bootleg (for movies that aren't even released on DVD yet) 3 days before the auction ends, and they have responded 3 times in that same three days, there is no way that they can take the problem seriously! They would respond, I would reply and yell some more, and they would cut/paste ignore/respond, and would rant some more, etc... so they had PLENTY of time to "investigate", then what they do about it is a joke... a trained monkey could do a better job, especially when it is blatantly pointed out to them...

GaryGnu

I was recently looking for a copy of season one Six Feet Under. What surprised me is that these eBay sellers do not have a ton of negative feedbacks (at least the ones I saw). If I bought a DVD that was not advertised as a bootleg, thinking I would get an original, I'd complain, loudly.

I ended up buying it from half.com. I feel safer but I guess I could still get screwed.

I think eBay now has a way to list items similar to the way half.com does.

3Js

Instead of the RIAA and MPAA pouncing on individuals in court for file swapping this would seem a much more productive battle for them to fight.

This is undeniable piracy for profit on a scale that may well exceed any supposed damage caused by file swapping.

Of course, the international factor makes it more challenging to prosecute them.

chemosh6969

I think ebay would complain if they started going after people in the auctions. As stupid as this sounds, it is ebay, and they could say it would scare legitimate people away from selling or buying there.

I don't think the international factor should make a difference, ebay just has to cancel their auctions. For the local ones, the RIAA and MPAA could go after them.

I think ebay should at least make an effort to care by listening to the people who point out the boots. If you say something is on a cd-r they will shut down your auction in no time, but make a boot that looks legit and they don't give a shit.

Psychlowne

Yeah, these are "Associations of America" and can't do much to copyright infringers that aren't a part of the Berne Convention (which are a large part the Asian and Pacific Islands).

If there was a way to present the idea to eBay while attaching the legal responsibilities they are supposed to follow they might listen. But who knows...