By Will Sturgeon, 5 December 2005 17:25
NEWS
Microsoft and eBay are boasting of considerable wins in the fight to clamp down on the vast amounts of illegal software being sold on the auction site.
eBay is one of the most prolific channels for the trade in illegal software but the two companies say they are recording major wins against the pirates, claiming to have removed 21,000 bogus software lots since August.
However, a look over the site's auction rooms reveals there is still some considerable way to go before the trade in illegal software is significantly dented.
Past research has suggested as much as 90 per cent of software sold on eBay may be pirated, and neither eBay or Microsoft was able to say what kind of bite out of that figure the 21,000 cancelled sales represents.
However, the onus for getting illegal sales closed down is very much on the software company to find and report those items being sold illegally and report it to eBay's VeRO programme (verified eBay rights owner).
silicon.com presented eBay with a number of lots offering illegal software but was told by an eBay spokesman the company would only act, even on clearly pirated software lots, "once registered rights owners contacted us and asked us to remove them from the site".
As such many members selling illegal software appear to favour quick sales to limit the chances of detection.
At the time of writing, searches by silicon.com revealed pirated versions of a number of popular software applications.
An ad for a copy of Adobe Photoshop, for example, advertised openly as having no box or manual and not being a holographic disc, states: "This item is for the purposes of back-up only and it is entirely the buyer's responsibility to own the original software."
The seller also boasts of having found a loophole to bypass eBay's laws on software sales. The ad states that the bidders will receive the CD containing the program free of charge but advises them they are only bidding on the plastic sleeve it will be delivered in and not the content of the CD.
The eBay spokesman told silicon.com such a tactic does not sidestep any laws and is in fact in contravention of eBay's rules for selling any recordable media.
The same seller has previously sold illegal versions of other Adobe applications, such as Illustrator and InDesign on eBay.
Other sellers claim the lack of box, manual and printed CD is a result of them being licensed to offer special budget 'no frills' versions of the software. Many hide behind similarly implausible stories about why the software may appear to be a little dubious.
The eBay spokesman told silicon.com: "All listings on eBay are written by our users and are unique. It is simply not feasible for eBay to monitor and check every item on our site. It is also impossible for eBay to be an expert in all of the many hundreds of thousands of different items offered for sale on our site."
He added that eBay has "no obligation to monitor its site for illegal content".
Comments
There are 6 comments. Join the discussion
1. Laurence Eastham
e-bay's denial of all responsibility is its standard response. It will be interesting to see if they are convicted of aiding and abetting the sale of contact lenses in March. Such a conviction will prise open the lid on the responsibility can of worms in many fields. In my view their denial of responsibility falls into the "protest too much" category but the enforcement authorities and government need to act to make sure they do take proper responsibility for things they can control.
2. Tradewalker
Yet, another excuse for Ebay to protect their profits. They have the same stance with music piracy. Unless the record company/artist complain the items will not be withdrawn. Have a look for live recordings by any popular artist, Ebay is full of "rare live recordings". These are nearly all unofficial recordings by audience members (who usually share these with fellow fans for free) often with permission from the artist themselves - on the provision that these are never sold.
Maybe the solution is for a new law, making Ebay an accessory to a criminal act. That way I'm sure they would be more vigilant.
3. Joe Whitehead
I'm of the mind of an economics professor of mine with decades of experience - it's not Ebay's business to be monitoring the auctions for illegal items - they (the employees) are there to make money for their company's owners. That is, unless a law is made or the media company sues. Very few would dare sue a major vendor when the vendor provides a method to stop auctions (not all of the software is illegal). That means that there will likely be some kind of rule made for them. The company will tend to flow down the easiest path so we need to make some dams.
4. paul bliss
having been a member of ebay and other auction sites like qxl.com and pricedroptoday.com for years i find that e bay has a very lax attitude to any type of ilegal material on there site.there are scammers around every corner and most long term people on e bay have been stung at one point or another. they seem to have got to big to control the business and will i envisage go the way of enron and others. one look at software,mobile phones,cars etc and nearly every catagory has blatant illegal activity which could be filtered out by simple scripts,smaller auction sites fair better in that they tend to specialise and control auctions on there site.
5. anonymous
Agreeing with Paul. I too have been caught in the Ebay game.
I will not purchase anything on Ebay any longer unless its a real bargain (which very little is these days) and it's only small value so not much to lose.
I was really pleasently suprised by Amazon the other day when I purchased from one of their private sellers who I found out to be less than scrupulous. I contacted Amazon who refunded my money to my credit card in FULL (unlike Ebay) and began investigating the sellers recent influx of bad ratings.
Surely this proves that Ebay could do more if they actually wanted. Even if they merely copied the Amazon business model.
If anyone asks me about ebay, I simply state what Trading standards quoted me with my Ebay problem: "Buyer Beware".
6. OStecComputers.com
I signed up at ebay and sold a couple of items but the fees charged soon outstripped my profits so it was really a no-brainer. The other day I got a call in Australia from a New Delhi call center enquiring about my overdue ebay bill. I said to the operator that I would appreciate a written notification. He stated to argue, I hung up. Two days later, same thing, this operator just kept talking over the top of me. I finished my story about wanting a letter and hung up just as he was getting to the part about the call being recorded for training purposes. I strongly advise: Don't use Ebay!!!! Also cancel all your ebay direct debits.