shouting loudly

Here on Ed Foster’s Gripelog, you’ll find a story alleging that eBay is blindly enforcing the copyright allegations of NetEnforcers, a coin-operated IP enforcement shop. (What they call “comprehensive brand protection services.”)

This may be a private IP rent-a-cop going overboard to inflate its enforcement numbers, or it could also represent a copyright owner (in this case, the producers of scuba gear manuals) seeking to demolish the second-hand market in utter violation of the first sale doctrine. I suspect the former.

While the story is as yet unconfirmed, it fits with some of the long-running critiques of eBay. See this six-year-old piece, which critiques eBay’s privacy policy–a policy that is not that different today. Basically, eBay appears to work on the belief that alleged infringers are guilty until proven innocent–with no promise that you’ll be notified if your personal information is disclosed, let alone be given a fair hearing. Contrast this with Verizon (certainly not my favorite company), which took its case to the DC Circuit Appeals Court to keep from divulging customer identities without a court order and left the RIAA to enforce its own copyright claims.

I have emailed NetEnforcers and eBay in search of commentary; I’d like to hear what they have to say. I’m also posting a link to this on GripeLog, inviting the reader to give further details here on ShoutingLoudly.