Does eBay take pirated software seriously?

[kxeron]

Hi,

I was reviewing a blog post by someone in the information tech industry here:

http://www.considerit.co.uk/blog/it-security/counterfeit-software-could-lead-to-malware-on-your-mach...

I wanted to know eBay's policies on physical software that are counterfeits. I know IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) owners (E.g. brand name companies) have venues like VeRO to which they may launch complaints and have listings taken down and to have the listing owners penalized directly and with force, but there seems to no venues for buyers unlike say counterfeit handbags where the differences are more substantial to eBay and easily can result in an Significantly Not as Described complaint.

eBay seems to make the barrier for software piracy complaints much higher than regular counterfeit items. Is this because eBay does not understand software piracy and how it should be combated or is eBay uninterested in software since it falls under their 'not a physical item' policy? If so, how does eBay permit software to be sold at all on eBay if they can't enforce any rules or regulations against it?

Given software piracy especially from asian and middle-eastern regions is something that runs rampant with very legitimate-looking packaging and license certificates: how can buyers protect themselves adequately from sellers who may not disclose information about how that software is licensed or who may lie and claim that they have license agreements with big names like Microsoft? Keep in mind when answering this: Said regions have rampant actual computer stores and street vendors alike selling burnt discs with pirated software on them as if they are legitimate and they're purchased as normal, same with DVD movies or the like. The cultures there don't take software piracy seriously to which print shops and whatnot will actually print materials like the above link's example for making the software look completely legitimate on a cursory inspection (again, like my link). These practices are acceptable to the governments in these regions, to which it isn't unheard of for police and government to be running pirated software in said regions. Given this,  the only venue possible to protect these individuals would be eBay as there's nothing that can be legally done against the seller themselves.

I know that there are other venues like the Business Software Alliance and of course going to the software companies themselves to issue complaints and the like, but it currently seems like eBay has inadequate measures for software with software being able to exploit loopholes in eBay policy to which buyer protection will not protect, even with proof that the software is pirated.

I am still interested to hear how eBay themselves would interpret the situation in the blog post above on if it was sold on its own versus sold with a computer or other possible scenarios.

[pierrelebel]

"I am still interested to hear how eBay themselves would interpret the situation"

eBay staffers do not respond to questions and inquiries raised on these boards. 

Your best bet is to raise the question on Wednesday afternoon (1:00pm Eastern) during the Weekly Board Hour.

However, based on past experience, I know eBay never replies to comments posted on blogs. They will typically refer you to their written policy and suggest you take it from there.

[kxeron]

---

@pierrelebel wrote:

"I am still interested to hear how eBay themselves would interpret the situation"

eBay staffers do not respond to questions and inquiries raised on these boards. 

Your best bet is to raise the question on Wednesday afternoon (1:00pm Eastern) during the Weekly Board Hour.

However, based on past experience, I know eBay never replies to comments posted on blogs. They will typically refer you to their written policy and suggest you take it from there.

---

I have a feeling that you did not read my post completely, to which I understand if you don't have a vested interest in software or information technology in general.

This isn't exactly the reply I was looking for given the linking to the blog post was not a solicitation for that blog, nor was the blog a situation that involved eBay originally, but rather using it as an example, an exhibit of the general problem of software piracy with photographic examples of legitimate versus pirated that could be a very gray area according to eBay policy that from rep to rep the opinion can definitely vary, consider:

"The software wasn't legitimate? You should contact the seller"

"The software works? Not our problem. We don't deal with problems with software since they're not tangible."

"The software came with a laptop? We can't tell if you bought that laptop for the software or the like, so we can't grant you any relief against the seller" (this was an actual situation I recall)

"The software didn't come with the license? Did the listing specify it would come with a license? No? We can't do anything"

"The listing didn't mention it was Genuine software, so we can't help you."

etc.