Someone on eBay bootlegs your DVD

[MWpro]

I sell a unique and originally created DVD on eBay in the U.S. and caught someone clearly bootlegging my product.

I suspected for a few weeks and then bought a copy and yep, it was bootlegged.

This is clear copyright infringement. He has sold 6 illegal copies so far, and is most likely doing this with other people's products (the ones that he has listed multiple times over the course of the last month).

Here is how I plan to proceed:

-Cease and desist letter through email and registered mail telling him to immediately stop selling these illegal copies, notifying him of potential copyright infringement penalties (criminal and civil), and asking for compensation for the business he cost us (price of the DVD x 6). I know a substantial amount about law and can handle this pro se, but I will hire a lawyer if he refuses or this escalates in any way.

-Contact his local police department or Attorney General's office to report his bootlegging. Hopefully they will file criminal charges.

-Contact the USPS to report mail fraud since he used their service to send me and others the illegal copies.

-Contact eBay and report him for this bootlegging activities, hopefully get him banned.

-Contact PayPal and get my purchase of the bootlegged DVD (to make sure it was bootlegged) fully refunded since the item was not as described.

-Leave negative feedback on eBay for my purchase of the bootlegged DVD warning others not to purchase from him.

-Contact the other companies that I know he is definitely bootlegging from and also other parties that he may also be bootlegging from.

Did I miss anything or would you recommend any alternative course of action? I will basically be doing this on the same day in order to give this guy the biggest wake-up call of his life.

Disclaimer: I know this is not a legal message board and most of you aren't lawyers. I will not blindly follow any legal advice without further researching it myself or getting approval from an attorney. I am simply looking for general guidance or input on my proposed course of action.

[creative craig]

Ask him if you can collect your purchase, if he is local or you don't mind travelling a little then pay him a visit!

[piatkow]

Confronting the guy on his doorstep can be risky. He might become violent or he may claim to the police that you were threatening violence.

I don't know what agency is responsible for these issues in the USA. Over here you would go to his local Trading Standards office.

(edit)
If he is bootlegging then he is unlikely to be paying tax on the imcome. Your tax authorities may be more inclided to invesigate than the police.

[edited by: piatkow at 11:08 am (utc) on July 22, 2009]

[HRoth]

All you really need to do is contact ebay. It won't get him banned. They just take down that particular item. To me, it is a waste of time to do all that other stuff. This kind of person does not wake up. They just make their self-justifications and go and do it again. I had this experience with someone who downloaded my site and sold it as a book she "wrote" on ebay. A few years later, she did it again. On ebay and through her b&m store. Things like this don't seem to result in any banning by ebay.

[engine]

I would certainly add the cost of time to research and track down, and the cost of your legal team to the bill.

[MrHard]

Send the letter, hope he is spooked enough to stop, and move on.

[jecasc]

I think you are doing the right thing. To many let fraudsters of the hook to easy. Especially since the effort involved to do all this things is not very big nowadays.

I always gets me angry when I read on forums for example about fraudulent credit card chargebacks and people simply move on when their dispute of the chargeback with the credit card company does not get through. The least you can do is invest 10 minutes to report the fraud to the police. In most countries the police have websites where you can do this. I have done this many times and more then once I had the money on my bank account in no time. Most of the "part time fraudsters" don't like it when a police car stops in front of their house to investigate or they get an invitation from the police or the prosecuting attorney to show up for a hearing.

Be careful though, when contacting other companies. Don't accuse him of bottleging, simply tell them you found his offer on ebay and ask them if its genuine. You never know: If you contact 10 companies accusing him of bootleging and only one of the items was genuine, this could come back to haunt you.