Ebay Parasites who Abuse The Kindness of Celebrities

Ah, Diana Rigg took time to autograph a photo.

Well, let's go into business, shall we? Let's duplicate it and sell it on eBay.

Sure, eBay has a rule that you aren't allowed to duplicate photos and sell them, but, "we're just a venue, how do we know if the seller has permission?"

By asking? Of course not. That would make too much sense.

You should be able to red-flag a parasite like this, and eBay, once alerted, should say, "Hey, do you have PERMISSION from ANY of the hundreds of stars on your list? Who told you to start duplicating photos?"

If you check this swine's list, you'll see hundreds of names. It sure looks like this is a professional business that has paid for licensing. BUT IT HASN'T.

Note that they even put a watermark on the photo to prevent some other dung beetle from copying the copy.

What would happen if Diana Rigg called up eBay to complain?

First off, she couldn't, because eBay doesn't publish their phone number and doesn't encourage contact at all, whether by phone or e-mail.

But if she did manage to get through, she'd be told, "jump through some hoops, fill out our forms, give us your contact information and phone number and address and anything else we feel like demanding. Then when you see somebody stealing from you, e-mail us. We'll get around to checking it out in a few days. We might stop the auction or send you a "we need more information" form. The seller might make it a "buy it now" and actually sell it before we get around to it but, heh heh, we're JUST A VENUE."

Once Diana stopped this auction, would that send a message to eBay that this seller needs to explain the 100's of similar auctions? Of course not. Ebay doesn't have that morality. They aren't inquisitive. They're "just a venue."

A greedy, nasty, moneygrubbing venue where a maggot can collect (or merely download) celebrity photos and start duplicating them as posters or prints.

Mrs. Peel, new Internet laws are NEEDED.