sprock
01-05-2007, 12:27 AM
Hi All,
A friend of mine is openning a website that may take the auction industry by storm (hopes and dreams huh? lol) and I decided I would be the first to use the site.
Then it dawned on me ... I may get myself into legal hot water, so I wanted to post the concept and possibilites here and get some feedback.
We all know there are bad eBay sellers and buyers all over the place, but the eBay feedback system being as limiting as it is sometimes can't give a person the whole picture as to what has happened.
Here's a case in point ...
I recently ran into a buyer (who turns out to be a competitor) who purchased my information, sent me emails praising my product, and then turned around and gave me a negative.
That's just the start ... he then proceded to hold that negative over my head to try and get more than he purchased, telling me if I cooperate with his request he will gladly remove the negative.
I said NO WAY and replied to his negative stating he was a malicious competitor.
While my friend was developing his site I thought my issue would be the perfect launch for his site, the site is just about ready to open, and when I went to gather the details of our conversations back and forth (this competitor) I noticed he was back to selling the same stuff, (BTW it's info products) so I decided to purchase one of his auctions under my buying ID, and I discovered he has stolen my information and is passing it off as his own.
This guy even copied my image formatting (changed the colors) as well as several things that I have been doing to make my auctions unique, in essence he has also stolen my USP.
When I looked at the information I noticed he had changed the layout and enough of it so that I can't get him for copyright infringement, but as I scrolled down in the info I notice he has stolen parts of my information and has them written word for word in his new guide.
(I am in the process of filing a VERO complaint)
I then added this informormation to the complaint at my friends website.
Here's the dilema, in the complaint I have posted the exact email messages that transpired between me and this person. I have searched all over the web to see if this could be something I might get into legal trouble with and can't seem to find anything.
Does anyone know if posting email conversations to a public forum is against the law of not.
BTW ... the website is http://www.onlineauctioncops.com
It will be a site where buyers and sellers can go to issue a complaint against a buyer or seller. Kind of like Rip-off-report but for auctions.
If anyone is interested in seeing my report before the site goes live PM me and I will give you the link. ( I can't post my eBay user ID in a public forum yet, I still have to let my members know about it ;) )
Any thoughts . . . Scott
A friend of mine is openning a website that may take the auction industry by storm (hopes and dreams huh? lol) and I decided I would be the first to use the site.
Then it dawned on me ... I may get myself into legal hot water, so I wanted to post the concept and possibilites here and get some feedback.
We all know there are bad eBay sellers and buyers all over the place, but the eBay feedback system being as limiting as it is sometimes can't give a person the whole picture as to what has happened.
Here's a case in point ...
I recently ran into a buyer (who turns out to be a competitor) who purchased my information, sent me emails praising my product, and then turned around and gave me a negative.
That's just the start ... he then proceded to hold that negative over my head to try and get more than he purchased, telling me if I cooperate with his request he will gladly remove the negative.
I said NO WAY and replied to his negative stating he was a malicious competitor.
While my friend was developing his site I thought my issue would be the perfect launch for his site, the site is just about ready to open, and when I went to gather the details of our conversations back and forth (this competitor) I noticed he was back to selling the same stuff, (BTW it's info products) so I decided to purchase one of his auctions under my buying ID, and I discovered he has stolen my information and is passing it off as his own.
This guy even copied my image formatting (changed the colors) as well as several things that I have been doing to make my auctions unique, in essence he has also stolen my USP.
When I looked at the information I noticed he had changed the layout and enough of it so that I can't get him for copyright infringement, but as I scrolled down in the info I notice he has stolen parts of my information and has them written word for word in his new guide.
(I am in the process of filing a VERO complaint)
I then added this informormation to the complaint at my friends website.
Here's the dilema, in the complaint I have posted the exact email messages that transpired between me and this person. I have searched all over the web to see if this could be something I might get into legal trouble with and can't seem to find anything.
Does anyone know if posting email conversations to a public forum is against the law of not.
BTW ... the website is http://www.onlineauctioncops.com
It will be a site where buyers and sellers can go to issue a complaint against a buyer or seller. Kind of like Rip-off-report but for auctions.
If anyone is interested in seeing my report before the site goes live PM me and I will give you the link. ( I can't post my eBay user ID in a public forum yet, I still have to let my members know about it ;) )
Any thoughts . . . Scott