Forum Moderators: not2easy
I sent him some an email telling him to stop, and emailed the bidders to let them know they had purchased stolen software. I requested they ask for refunds from the seller, and in exchange I would send them free copies. At least one of the three got his refund, and the seller emailed me to say he would no longer sell it.
Now I find he is back to selling our software on ebay again- but he changed the product photo and a bit of window dressing. And he is using private auctions so I can't reach the bidders to let them know. I have zero doubts it is still 99% our stuff under his new cover- it took us over 6 months to produce this product, he had it on sale in only weeks.
In fact, he has a slightly older version, and I can even point out where the bugs are, which I guarantee he doesn't know about and couldn't fix if he did!
How can I end this? I sent in the ebay VERO form to claim our IP, but he may be able to bluff them into believing we have two different products.
Anyone know any good ways to approach this? Any help will be much appreciated.
You might also post a message on eBays Q&A board and let the sellers there know whats happenned so they will keep their eyes open for it happening again. They seem to have various nefarious ways of dealing with naughty sellers.
Are you allowed to post the auction number here?
Icicle
You should consider getting a lawyer and taking action against this guy. You apparently have a clear-cut case, since you can identify the bugs in the older version. Therefore, you may even be able to get an attorney to take the case on a contingency basis, which means he gets paid (quite a lot) from the judgement if you win.
If you have a registered copyright for your software, the seller may be liable for statutory damages and well as actual damages. If you have not registered your copyright, do so now. It is cheap insurance.
Don't mess around with this. Get competent legal assistance.
More copyright threads [google.com] on WebmasterWorld. And even more still [google.com].
United States Copyright Office - Library of Congress site [loc.gov]
Jim (I am not a lawyer)
1. Report the listing to eBay.
2. Join eBay VeRO program, this will require you to fax them an application, later you will be able to just e-mail them. VeRO members can block listing in a few hours.
3. Constantly watch eBay categories, subscribe for new listings reports, etc - your thief may register under new name and re-sell again.
4. Report him to his payment processor - this is a killer step especially in case he already sold a few items. We managed to terminate PayPal and 2checkout accounts of our thief. We were lucky to be 2checkout merchants also and we were selling this software through them for over 2 years with high sales volumes, so they terminated his account right away, no questions asked. We also recommended them to refund the orders and contact buyers informing about our company.
5. Report him to his hosting provider, if this doesn't work report to higher-level hosting. Sooner or later they will have to respond.
6. Call him (if possible) and prepare a few short statements telling him that you're not going to leave him alone selling your product.
7. If this is your software - you should be aware of the code structure and bug and ... :) security holes ;)
Be VERY careful with this though.
8. Be persistent, block him all the way, everywhere and anywhere. Register your copyrights, and finally use a lawyer.
Hope this helps.
p.s. It's a shame that eBay, being a good idea turns out to be a place for stolen software reselling. They seem to have some instruments to stop this, but they definitely not sufficient, so they better think of some more principal solutions.
Always go after your thief - don't let him even breathe!
