Plagiarized photos on ebay

I'm currently selling a lens on ebay. I was perusing ebay looking for a good deal on my next lens purchase and come across a guy using MY photo of MY lens. I guess I should feel honored that someone thought my photo was good enough to steal, but I sent off a nasty little note telling him he didn't have permission to use my photo. Do you guys think I'm overreacting, what would you have done?

I'd report it straight to EBay.

Ditto.

Ahhhh, I'd never run into this before and didn't realize you could report this. I found a link to send them a report, which I did. Now it'll be interesting to see if they actually do anything.

He's obviously not selling YOUR lens...He may just have a similar lens to sell, but no good picture of it, but is most likely using your photo for nefarious purposes.

They WILL do something and typically, they act fast. At least that was my experience when I sold on eBay a lot. That seller will get the listing removed as well as a warning on his/her compliance record.

Wouldn't the OP have to prove it was his photo before eBay went to those measures?
Presumably the EXIF data is stripped from the posted shots.

It's easy to prove - whose auction started first - that's your proof.

I've had this happen. I hate it when it happens. I usually send the offending lister a nasty note saying to ask next time. I also now 'watermark' my photos (not fool-proof, but keeps the honest people honest).

Sometimes I want to buy an item where my image was stolen, and then claim the item I received was not the item in the photo, and leave them negative feedback, but that's too much of a hassle.

ebay has a photo policy in place. When you upload a photo into THEIR library you agree to ALLOW the photos you upload to be USED BY OTHER MEMBERS in stock form. The agreement is there - if the OP agreed to this and uploaded "his" photo into THAT library then the other user is perfectly within his rights to use that as it is then a STOCK e-bay photo.

You (anyone) does NOT have to agree to this policy. But this policy is WHY nearly every regular seller of goods on e-bay routinely mark their photos with oversize watermarks. LOL!! The "stock" photo pool on e-bay is where most photos of re-usable photos are stored. You do not have to upload your photos into the stock pool to use them in a one time ad. But - if you DO upload them into e-bays photo area you certainly can EXPECT the photo to be used - again and again.

Hillbille

Hillbille wrote in post #14956424
ebay has a photo policy in place. When you upload a photo into THEIR library you agree to ALLOW the photos you upload to be USED BY OTHER MEMBERS in stock form.....

I just now re-read their policy on this because I wasn't aware of it. They state that unless you specifically opt-out (and I think this is a load of crap) that they have the right to selectively choose images to use in their stock-photo catalog. They didn't say ALL images were included in that, only selected images. But anyway I've now opted out of that.

I also read their policy on using other people's photos without permission, and they state very clearly that it's forbidden.

I wouldn't bother with it. Sounds like you took a standard photo of a lens, not an image to make you money. On the other hand, the other guy may be scamming others because he may not even have a lens to sell so maybe it's a good idea to report it.

That's the least of the problems. He or she could be scamming others using your photos!!!!!

goldboughtrue wrote in post #14956849
I wouldn't bother with it. Sounds like you took a standard photo of a lens, not an image to make you money.

Those images are making me money (in a sense). My auction is doing quite well, and I like to think that's due in part to good accurate photos of the product while putting it's best foot forward, so to speak. (But I do see your point that I don't routinely earn money selling photos)

If nothing else if someone is sleazy enough to do this I question their trustworthiness in giving an accurate description of what they're selling.

Or he's already sold his other gear and no longer has a camera to take a photo of his last remaining lens to sell.

whiteflyer wrote in post #14956957
Or he's already sold his other gear and no longer has a camera to take a photo of his last remaining lens to sell.

Show me someone who doesn't have a camera in this day and age. Oh wait, that would be my Mom (Mum for you British blokes)....