I've now had a better look at the threats etc. offered by the 'gentleman' in question. It's bluff and bluster but ebay have done the usual and crawled down a hole. I've suggested he issue a counter complaint and return the favour. And then to list on ebay australia which can't be covered by US law (unless our fearless Prime Minister has signed some document in Washington this week in exchange for exemption from the Farm Bill provisions - home of free enterprise - ha!) Meanwhile - please note - MY MATE DEAN WHO EPITOMISES ALL THAT PIONEERING AUSTRALIAN INGENUITY WILL MODIFY YOUR OWN POLAROID 110, 11OA OR 110B TO A 4X5 BACK FOR AROUND US$300 WHICH IS ABOUT 20% OF WHAT SOME GUY CALLED LITTMANN IS ASKING FOR A COMPLETE CAMERA. I've seen it, it works beautifully, it's simple, it's nicely finished and it includes a ground glass and all adjustments ready to go. It's named after his dog and is nearly as elegant. You end up with a seriously compact field camera with ground glass and rangefinder focussing. He's a fair dealer, a good mechanic and will refund if you don't like it. He didn't steal the design - he didn't even know someone else was doing it. He'll even show you a pic of the finished product, which Mr Littmann won't. He's hurt and bewildered and I'm trying to boost the poor sod. I'm having one as soon as I can scare up the money or the body or both. Some days you feel the need to kill a lawyer. On others, just maiming would suffice. AndrewF >andrew fildes <afildes@netlink.com.au> writes: > >[snip] >> However, the page may be short lived - he informs me that ebay has >> thrown him off on the grounds that he may have infringed a patent >> held by someone in the US. This sounds strange to me on several >> grounds. Surely, any dispute (and the guy may not even have a world >> wide patent, and may not even be kosher) is between the patent holder >> and my friend? Isn't it incumbent on the patent holder to seek an >> injunction? I would have thought that ebay are on very shaky ground >> in simply banning his advertisement. > >May be ramifications of the Thugs' Charter, aka DMCA et al: if the >people in the USA have more money than your friend, they claim to Ebay >that some "rights" are being infringed, and Ebay have to remove the page >- in principle your friend can start arguing, but in practice he >probably can't afford it. Of course it's absurd; there is no such thing >as a "world-wide patent", and US notions of what constitutes an >"invention" are pretty skewed. Nonetheless, Ebay are subject to American >law, and have to protect themselves. Doubtless their terms and >conditions are written under the general American assumption that >America is or should be the world. > >(Actually it's interesting that there was one "Nazi memorabilia" case in >which the US judge ruled - absolutely correctly, of course - that yahoo >in the US is *NOT* subject to French law, and may ignored French court >rulings trying to tell it what to do. Unfortunately, awareness of the >opposite situation seems to be longer coming.) > > >Brian Chandler >---------------- >geo://Sano.Japan.Planet_3 >http://imaginatorium.org/
