ddarwish1 Using Copied Images on eBay

ddarwish1 of Troy, Michigan, United States, stole our 1892 Austrian 4 Florin 10 Francs Restrike Gold Coin Obverse and Reverse photograph to use on eBay, without our permission, to try to sell his own. Totally dishonest. Image theft is endemic on eBay, and most sellers appear not to care whether their buyers are deceived.

High eBay Feedback is No Guarantee of Integrity or Honesty

When we wrote this page, this eBay member’s feedback was 314 with 99.4% Positive Feedback according to eBay.

eBay Copyright Thieves

Many eBay vendors use our coin photographs to sell inferior quality coins on eBay. These eBay members are dishonest and should be avoided.
We believe eBay profits from IP rights infringements (copyright theft), and does so knowingly, only removing infringing items reluctantly, if at all.

What’s Wrong?

We invest a great deal of time, effort, and cost into creating some of the best photographic coin and gold bar images on the internet. We strongly object when lazy and dishonest people decide to use them without a by your leave or thanks, doing so in competition with us. It is always possible, even likely, that sellers who steal photographs do not own a similar item, and have the intention to totally defraud potential buyers.

Copyright theft is dishonest. We recommend you avoid doing business with dishonest dealers. The vendor is not only cheating us by stealing our copyright images, he is fraudulently or ignorantly misleading and deceiving all potential buyers. Gaining pecuniary advantage by deception is the definition of fraud.

Sample Listing

1892 Austria 4 Florin/10 Francs Gold Coin (.0933 oz of Gold). Specifications: Year : 1892 Coin Diameter : (mm) 19-1 Thickness : 0.9 Demination : F10 Mint : Austeria Weight : 3.2258 gram Bullion : Yes. Finess : 0.9 Year: 1892 Denomination: ₣10 Weight: 3.2258 gram Fineness: 0.9 Coin Diameter (mm) 19.1 Thickness: (mm) 0.9 Mint / Brand: Austrian Bullion: Yes Additional Info: Restrike All 1892 dated Austrian gold 4 Florins 10 Francs are Austrian Mint official restrikes Year: 1892 Denomination: ₣10 Weight: 3.2258 gram Fineness: 0.9 Coin Diameter (mm) 19.1 Thickness: (mm) 0.9 Mint / Brand: Austrian Bullion: Yes Additional Info: Restrike Year: 1892 Denomination: ₣10 Weight: 3.2258 gram Fineness: 0.9 Coin Diameter (mm) 19.1 Thickness: (mm) 0.9 Mint / Brand: Austrian Bullion: Yes Additional Info: Restrike

Seller ID:

ddarwish1

Item Number:

111050419688
360641516901

Date:

21st April, 2013

Description:

1892 Austria 4 Florin/10 Francs Gold Coin (.0933 oz of Gold)

Price:

$205.00 (approx £133.39)

The seller was asking for a starting price of $205.00.

Even before eBay’s greedy 10% selling fees, and possible PayPal charges, the seller would almost certainly have been much better off selling the coins to us, instead of stealing our photographs.

Username:

Place:

Update – 23rd April, 2013

We received this letter from eBay regarding the listing.

Hello Amy, Thanks for sending us your Notice of Claimed Infringement(NOCI). My name is Ryan and I’m happy to help with this query.We’ve looked into this item, but it doesn’t appear to infringe your rights for the reasons you chose. We’re committed to helping intellectual property owners protect their rights, so we’d like to ask you for some more information.You reported this item and chose reason code 4.2111050419688

This listing doesn’t appear to be infringing for this reason because

– the listing appears to be taken from the following website operated by Gainesville Coins in the US:

http://www.gainesvillecoins.com/products/160462/1892-austria-4-florin/10-francs-gold-coin.aspx

If you still feel that this item breaches your intellectual property rights for the reason you chose, please reply to this email with more information. If you want to report a stolen item, please copy this link into a new browser window:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/stolen.html

Thanks again for your email. If you should have any further questions or concerns regarding this or any other VeRO related matter, please do not hesitate to contact us again at: vero@ebay.co.uk. As always Amy, we appreciate your support in helping to keep eBay a safe and reputable place to buy and sell.

Kindest regards, Ryan ByraneBay VeRO Team

We have replied to them giving them the link to our Gainesville Coins page.

Gainesville Coins in Multiple Copyright Infringement