Is this ebay practice legal?

[Saulbadguy]

I see this all the time and ebay doesn't shut them down..

DVD sets of Seinfeld, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (excluding episodes released on DVD), Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, etc...

Well..is it legal? Ebay usually comes down pretty hard when you sell a blatant copy of a DVD that has already been commercially released.

 

[IndieSnob]

Originally posted by: Saulbadguy
I see this all the time and ebay doesn't shut them down..

DVD sets of Seinfeld, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (excluding episodes released on DVD), Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, etc...

Well..is it legal? Ebay usually comes down pretty hard when you sell a blatant copy of a DVD that has already been commercially released.

It is, as I have read in copyright laws, illegal to trade or sell for profit anything that is not part of the public domain. Taping is legal, under broadcast tv copyrights, but any exchange of money or merchandise is in fact legal. Alot of people try to get by these kinds of laws with selling emulators and roms also, because they think that because they no longer produce the system or game, that it's part of the public domain.

 

[StageLeft]

No, it's like asking if it's legal to sell DVDs of the first star wars movies, just because they're not out on DVD.

 

[Saulbadguy]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
No, it's like asking if it's legal to sell DVDs of the first star wars movies, just because they're not out on DVD.

Must be legal by Ebays standards, as they are all over...

 

[mugs]

Text
Your question has already been answered, but read it anyway, it's worthwhile.

 

[vegetation]

Must be legal by Ebays standards, as they are all over...

eb*y has minimal staff to police auctions. They rely on the free labor of whiners to investigate any auctions that shouldn't be there.

 

[Saulbadguy]

If the work has no commercial value, the violation is mostly technical and is unlikely to result in legal action.

Well, what about this? What if its an episode of an old TV show that only ran for a season or something, and no commercial release and no plans for it? I suppose its still illegal, but you could probably get away with it rather easily as this guy says.

 

[TallBill]

I had a buddy banned from ebay for selling DVDs of Family Guy before the DVDs existed.

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
No, it's like asking if it's legal to sell DVDs of the first star wars movies, just because they're not out on DVD.

Like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=617&item=4191215667&rd=1

 

[Ness]

It doesn't matter if they are commercially available or not, it is copyright infringement nonetheless.

Copyright infringement carries a penalty in itself, there is no need for monetary losses to be proven to press charges.

 

[DrPizza]

It seems that no one is cracking down on it... but, AFAIK, the penalties can be pretty severe if they decided to suddenly crack down. What's the statute of limitations?