[CQ-Contest] Dealing with eBay

[Walter O'Brien / W2WJO]

I won't comment on why or whether ebay should or shouldn't filter ads, 
some would construe it as a free speech issue, BUT I can say from a 
number of years worth of experience with eBay and protecting the rights 
of recording artists in the music industry, eBay was VERY, VERY 
RESPONSIVE whenever we found illegal or bootleg material on any of our 
artists. If you, or me, or anyone in the ham community finds illegal 
stuff being sold on ebay, especially considering your post specifying 
what they forbid, they will probably pull the item within MINUTES - 
they always did for us.

Prohibited items isn't as simple as when you are, or represent, the 
owner of "intellectual property" or copyrights, but Mike is right - go 
to that link, there is even a place to send them an email reporting the 
violation! Believe it or not, they'd quicker pull something than go 
through the headaches of being found to allow illegal sales.

As with most things like this, it's up to those who complain the most 
to get out and do something about it.... if we all keep an eye on it, 
and it will decrease.

73 Walter W2WJO

On Feb 5, 2004, at 9:28 PM, cq-contest-request at contesting.com wrote:

> From: Mike Gilmer <n2mg1 at yahoo.com>
> Date: February 5, 2004 11:28:45 AM EST
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Cc: wrt at dslextreme.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Dealing with eBay
> Reply-To: n2mg at contesting.com
>
>
>> Ebay is not the police.
>
> True, but they have a policy:
>
> http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/electronics.html
>
>
>> CB amplifiers
>> The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
>> does not permit the use of power amplifiers
>> with Citizens Band radios. Therefore, eBay
>> prohibits any listings of the following:
>>
>> o CB amplifiers
>> o Amplifiers specified for use on the 11
>>   Meter band
>> o Amplifiers designed for use in frequencies
>>   24 MHz to 35MHz
>> o Amplifiers posted within the CB category
>
> Riley H at FCC responded to my email to say that in
> his experience, eBay was fairly responsive to reports
> of CB amps.
>
> That said, it would seem to me that if eBay REALLY
> wanted to stop this, they could easily write
> software to detect several different words in the ad
> that would trigger a "look see".  However, perhaps
> they prefer to have users report the violations so
> that they can appear above the fray.  Or something
> like that.
>
> Anyway, I'll pursue this for a while and see what
> happens.
>
> Mike N2MG
>