> >It's common for copyright holders to go directly to the outlet where the >copyright is being infringed, as well as to the person infringing or finally >to the law if necessary. If someone on ebay appears to have infringed on one >of your copyrights (photo), you can go to ebay and complain. ebay will >attempt to protect you. Do you think this is right? It's the same for >patents. > >As to shakey ground, they can do whatever they want with their policy, so >long as they don't discriminate based on race, ethenicity, etc. It's _their_ >site, not some government site. What if the claim of copyright is spurious - then ebay will have been complicit in restraint of your trade, no? Also, what is involved here is a pending patent which may be rejected at some stage and may have been sought as a legal blocking manoeuvre. I would have thought that the appropriate action for ebay would be to withdraw an ad or activity when the complaint obtains an injunction unless it offends specifically stated rules on such things as pornographic materials. Such rules could be challenged before a problem arises. It's their site but what they do is in the international public domain. Behaving ethically and responsibly has nothing whatsoever to do with whether you are a public or private concern. > >See the above... That there is no such thing as a "world-wide patent" is >irrelavent. If ebay was incorporated in Japan, it would be subject to >Japanese law and to the Japanese tort system. It has it's eccentricities as >well. All do. ebay is now a trans-national corporation and needs to act as such. It has sites in over twenty countries at last count, including mine. It can no longer hide behind the hamburger curtain. I've recommended that my friend list on the local site - that should be interesting. > > and US notions of what constitutes an >> "invention" are pretty skewed. > >This is opinion, not fact. Having done many patent searches, I tend to agree >with you, but of course this too is opinion. It's my understanding that you may patent a technique, design or process but not a fundamental idea. Thus, Leica could patent the M bayonet but the idea of a bayonet mount itself was not (unsure of that) and the fundamental concept of the interchangeable lens was not patentable, only the way in which you did it. My friend offers to modify a 30-40 year old camera for you - how the hell can anyone patent that (he has not copied the modification) or claim that Polaroid has the right to licence such a procedure? > > 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. > >This is uncalled for and has nothing to do with photography. Please take >your hate elsewhere. Oh dear - my friend is suffering from that exact assumption. Spend a little time on ebay and it's a generalisation that's not hard to make. You've already criticised your own government implicitly earlier in this. Your impact on us earns us the right. Your friends are not always the ones who agree with you and criticism of American behaviour does not constitute 'hate.' I think we've been here before. > > (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.) > >This is a nonsense example. Yahoo does not have to obey French law in the >US. ebay does, however, have to obey US law in the US. This is a problem that will have to be dealt with. Offensive sites may not be sacrosanct simply because they are in another country where their activity is legal. If ebay is doing something offensive to the French, do the French then have the right to protect themselves by 'sabotage'? After all, they do not have to leave their shores to do it and they have demonstrated their willingness to go to these lengths (remember the Rainbow Warrior?) Where is an internet crime committed - at origin or destination? AndrewF
