What about misled copyright infringments?

[drmaximus]

What about misled copyright infringements?

Here's an example of a real successful sale on Ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=47131&item=3183276076

What recourse/rights do successul bidders actually have if they had purchased the item(s) under the belief that (quoted from Ebay auction): "NOTE TO EBAY STAFF AND VeRO members: We are the legal copyright holders of ALL aforementioned items in this ad. As instructed by our Attorney (held on retainer) we are hereby stating that "we are allowed by law to sell all items listed in this eBay auction, and hereto acknowledge that we have the legal authority to TRANSFER any and all re-sell rights to the auction winner" and it turns out the statement was false?

 

[RJ]

Right, doc. It gets to be a mess.

If you notice, that eBay seller acknowledges, "NOTE: Everything in this package was bought here on eBay!!! "

All it takes is one jackhole to "sell reseller rights" to something they don't have legitimate rights to mess everything up, and turn possibly hundreds of people into unknowing copyright infringers.

I believe the original copyright holder would be able to sue every infringer, or at least make them cease from using the product. Those users would then have to seek relief from the person they bought from originally. It's similar to buying stolen property. Once you are notified it is stolen, you have a certain responsibility.

 

[Rob]

If I had paid for something and they said I had full rights, and it later turned out they had stole it from somebody else, I wouldnt remove whatever it was from my site.

If Ive paid for it...

 

[.edu]

Most of those ebay packages are pretty much the same. Common sense

 

[armstrong]

Originally posted by RobSCM
If I had paid for something and they said I had full rights, and it later turned out they had stole it from somebody else, I wouldnt remove whatever it was from my site.

If Ive paid for it...

Even after being notified that you basically have stolen property? Do that and the copyright holder is within his rights to file a criminal case against you.

 

[RJ]

Originally posted by RobSCM
If I had paid for something and they said I had full rights, and it later turned out they had stole it from somebody else, I wouldnt remove whatever it was from my site.

If Ive paid for it...

But bottom line is you didn't pay for it and were duped by the 'seller'.

If someone sold you a copy of vBulletin with 'full resale rights', and you later found out it was a commercial program selling for $160... what would you do? Also look at it from the perspective of the original copyright holder and creators.