VeRO NOTICE: eBay Listing(s) Removed - VeRO Program~bad situation went WELL

[auctiondropnship]

Got This letter yesterday

Dear (ebay@urbanhouseimports.com),

**PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT EMAIL REGARDING YOUR LISTING(S)**

We would like to let you know that we removed your listing:

3879756484 Hitachi Digital DVD Camcorder DZ-MV550A - Awesome

because a copyright rights owner notified us, under penalty of perjury, that your listing uses a rights owner's image and/or copyrighted text without authorization.

We have credited any associated fees to your account. We have also notified the bidders that the listing was removed, and that they are not obligated to complete the transaction.

If you relist this or any other similar items on eBay, your account likely will be suspended.

If you believe your listing was ended in error, or have questions regarding the removal of this listing, please contact the copyright rights owner directly at:

Hitachi America, Ltd./Hitachi Home Electronics(America), Inc.
Legal@HHEA.Hitachi.Com

eBay is available to answer questions, but since it is the copyright rights owner that requested the removal of your listings, we encourage you to contact them first.

For more information on the VeRO Program, and a list of rights owner About Me pages, please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/vero-removed-listing.html
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/vero-aboutme.html

Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay Inc

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I asked for Hitachi to clarify what was the issue , within an hour they
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They commented that the picture was the problem


Hello,

Thank you very much for writing. I realize that receiving a removal notice can be very surprising and somewhat confusing.

I reviewed our copy of your listing, and our records show it used a copyrighted image owned by Hitachi, which is not lawful without Hitachi's permssion. Hitachi does not grant such permission for purposes of online auctions, as only Hitachi's contractually authorized dealers and distributors receive that benefit.

If you would like further guidance on how to ensure your auction listings do not infringe upon third parties' intellectual property rights, please visit the following link on eBay:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/compliant-listings.html#1

Good luck to you.

Best regards,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wrote the following letter

Mr. Neal Svalstad
The image that was shown in the auction was a stock photo, that has been released too Ebay, through CNET Channel . Please review the image below in an ongoing auction with the same image . Under details you will see the same stock photo provided through Ebay from Cnet Channel . When we list an auction through Ebay , we were given the option too use this photo. This photo is open for all Ebay users too use as Hitachi released it too be used through CNET Channel . We used this exact same photo except larger .
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64332&item=3880370700&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

The first sale doctrine allows us too use this photo, as the picture has been released into the general public for common use for everyone

"The whole point of the first sale doctrine is that once the copyright owner places a copyrighted item in the stream of commerce , he has exhausted his exclusive statutory right to control its distribution

We are asking you to please reinstated the auction , or we will forward it our legal department

You may want to review www.tabberone.com to review the "first sale doctrine"

Todd McCormick

www.AuctionDropNship.com
Drop It. Sell It. Ship It
Canada's First & Largest Ebay Drop off store

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They wrote me this letter in less then 2 hours

Hi Todd,

Thanks for writing back and for providing the additional information. I asked our marketing department to review your photo to make sure no error occurred. In their opinion, they think you are probably correct that the picture in your listing was likely created by CNET when they reviewed Hitachi's product. It is my understanding that CNET makes its photos of products, such as this DVD camcorder, available to eBay and its users. The CNET photo is almost, but not quite, identical to one of Hitachi's marketing/support stock photos, and the unfortunate result in this case is that we requested the removal of your auction. We pledge to spend more time evaluating all the different elements of the auction listing photos we encounter in the future to ensure this mistake is not repeated.

I plan to send an email to eBay's VeRO Program, cc:'ing you, explaining that your auction listing was removed in error, that the removal should be expunged from your seller records and that you should be able to list the item as originally presented.

I can tell you are very passionate about your business, and I respect that. I wish you the best of luck with your reselling activities. Thanks for contacting Hitachi about this situation.

Regards,
Neal

[sunward-hobbies]

ebay was reasonable after listening?

something is about to freeze over

Angelo

[shoplineca]

Angelo
No eBay wasnt reasonable, Hitachi was reasonable.

Malcolm

[bad_manors]

Hello all,

We've been told that Vero is likely to get even tougher and stranger. One of our clients has been following a law suit launched by Tiffany to get eBay to police us a little tighter. Hmmm. I understand that eBay's position is that they are doing things correctly. Prevailing wisdom is that the suit will fail, but it does pose some interesting questions. And it would seem to clear the way for eBay to give copyright holders more clout. Hopefully the deputized folks will devote the manpower to make sure that the power they wield is well placed.

Brad

[ospreylinks]

The VeRO program gives all the power to the third party and we as vendors are stuck pretty much on the sideline watching as our listings are removed.

I ran into a similar situation a couple of years ago, had an item removed because I had included the products legitimate logo on the auction. The item was VeRO'd and the party who had it VeRO'd refused to reply to me as he stated my original inquiry as to why they had it removed was rude.....

Eventually, after pretty much getting down on my hands and knees for an explanation, the gentleman finally replied.

After that, I got a hold of my sales rep who sells me this line and told him to get it sorted out or not expect to sell to me in the future.

As I stated, the VeRO process is not a fair playing field.

Jeff

[multidistributor]

I agree to this which is totally unfair and unjustified. I also had my listing pulled, so what can we sell does it go by day or when the rightfull owner wakes up and say's today i don't want anyone selling my items. I have spent a lot of hours checking << Copyright, Trademark, and Other Intellectual Property Rights Owner About Me Pages >> and most of them don't even sell on ebay. I am surprised we can sell anywhere else in newspapers, other sites, at flea markets, but when we come to ebay we get the VeRO treatment. Maybe we should have these owners just sell on ebay, ebay doesn't need our money they ask the big guys so let them sell and pay ebays fees. I think that ( Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay Inc ) is a big BS and even though I have tried to email them with question about anything else no one has responded to me. This is my opinion thank you.

[recped]

so what can we sell does it go by day or when the rightfull owner wakes up and say's today i don't want anyone selling my items.

Yes exactly right, my favourite is Prince, he does this sort of pinge & purge thing, at times anything even just slightly "grey" will get pulled at other times anything goes, seems to depend on his mood of the moment.

Some vero members monitor the goings on very closely, other do not. I once listed a promo cassette by an artist that not only was obscure but hasn't released or recorded since the early 80's, sure enough the tape got pulled. Another times I was contacted directly by a vero memeber "if you agree to share 50% of the selling price I'll let you continue" now there's a classic example of "capitalist principles".

Ben
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

[multidistributor]

And if you look at them 90% of them have a me page and are members and they don't even sell on ebay, so i don't get it. We work hard at this as a business and all we get is slapped with doors here, links here, buyer protection to the tilt, seller protection to the zilt and VeRO to the ZeRO.

Honey bring on the KY because the Preparation H isn't working it has to be deeper.