Stealing and Selling your products on Ebay
This discussion is connected to the gimp-developer-list.gnome.org mailing list which is provided by the GIMP developers and not related to gimpusers.com.
This is a read-only list on gimpusers.com so this discussion thread is read-only, too.
| Stealing and Selling your products on Ebay | Dee Trueman | 11 Jan 00:01 |
| Stealing and Selling your products on Ebay | Brian Allen Vanderburg II | 12 Jan 12:43 |
| Stealing and Selling your products on Ebay | Simos Xenitellis | 12 Jan 14:45 |
| Stealing and Selling your products on Ebay | Mukund Sivaraman | 12 Jan 15:41 |
Stealing and Selling your products on Ebay
Hi,
I bought a disc that I was led to believe was a Professional Photo Editing Software Disc like what you'd go and buy in any computer store, in a nice new box with instruction etc. the sort of thing if you went and bought a windows dics.
When it arrived there was no box and the item was sent in a cardboard disc envolope, when I opened it I was shocked to see that it was a disc which was white with printed words on it from a printing machine, basically the same as when they copy films and do the same thing.
I went online and typed in all the details of what they had on the disc and
though I would email you straightaway as this is going to be getting you a
seriously bad name, and he's been doing this for quite sometime, with over
530 so far.
This ebay user is copying all your free downloads, and then he's printing
them onto discs and selling them, I'm not sure of all the prices but the
one I bought was £5. He has 13 items on his sale list, all copies.
If you would like to track him and have a word with him I am more than
happy to give you his details, They will be enclosed at the bottom of this
email.
I have been looking for something like Photoshop but much cheaper for a
long time and when he said he had a disc that is the same as Photoshop but
much cheaper, in fact when I think about it now the price was to good to be
true, but looking at his advert I thought it was all legit.
I am a photographer looking for a good programme where I can change
backgrounds etc and have been struggling to find one anywhere other than
photobucket, so when I saw his and the pictures where he'd changed pictures
backgrounds etc. I couldn't believe my luck and bought it straightaway.
I am reporting him to Paypal to get my refund but I am going to report him
to Ebay tomorrow to and tell them that I've also reported the matter to
yourselves as I've reported ads in the past like this and never seen any
prompt action so I thought telling you might make them do something about
this seller.
I know people want to make money, I so for sure being disabled after an 8
year battle with cancer and radiation disease, its hard to get out and
about to get pictures that I want but I wouldn't go around stealing other
peoples pictures and selling them, so I get a bit frustrated when other
people can't make an honest living and they think stealing programmes and
software is the way to go.
Anyway here are all the details you need to find this guy
Professional Photo Editing Software - alternative to Photoshop
Seller information
bluegap1111 (
539
[image: Feedback score: 539])
I hope you can do something with this, even just give him a scare, though I
don't think that will stop him looking at his sales.
I hope I've helped in someway.
Your sincerely
Dee Trueman
Stealing and Selling your products on Ebay
I'm checking out this page:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251785591641
He mentions that it is open source software, licensed under the GPL, and even what it is called. From my understanding, the GPL allows selling of software, as long as the same rights of that software are passed onto the recipient and access to the source code is provided.
In my own mind I don't have a problem with people who do this for a reasonable cost if they are providing a good service in doing so, such as selling a CD containing a compilation of various different open source software. I do think it is of bad taste, but probably not a violation of terms, to sell just a single software on the CD as he seems to be doing.
On 01/10/2015 07:01 PM, Dee Trueman wrote:
Professional Photo Editing Software
Stealing and Selling your products on Ebay
As it was said below by Brian, people can sell products containing
free and open-source software,
as long as the source code for certain software components is included.
The list of products at http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/bluegap1111/m.html
are indeed in bad taste.
Apart from GIMP, also Audacity is affected and probably GCompris.
Your avenues to get a refund:
1. The seller does not offer returns, "Returns: No returns accepted". This should have been a red flag.
2. There is a Paypal Money-back guarantee, http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebay-money-back-guarantee/index.html
You need to claim the item was sold "not as described". According to the guarantee:
A ‘not as described’ item should be materially different from what the seller described in the item listing. This includes:
• Different item or version
• Wrong condition e.g. the listing stated the item was ‘new’ when it’s
clearly been used
• Missing parts or components (e.g. a listing for a camera kit stated
it would include a tripod, but it’s missing)
• Defective during first use (e.g. TV didn’t turn on)
• Counterfeit item
• Missing major parts or features, and this wasn’t mentioned in the listing
• Damaged during postage
• Items that arrive much later than promised and can’t be used (e.g.
concert tickets)
You may claim that the packaging (the box) was missing since it did
not come with a box.
The description of the item says "A brand-new, unused, unopened and
undamaged item".
Or, the seller may have missed some of the source code of the
GPL-licensed packages,
thus they would be in violation of the GPL ("the counterfeit clause").
Here you could zip the contents of the CDROM and put them online for
further investigation.
That would be useful to figure out if the seller even made the effort
to recompile GIMP.
Simos
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 2:43 PM, Brian Allen Vanderburg II wrote:
I'm checking out this page:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251785591641
He mentions that it is open source software, licensed under the GPL, and even what it is called. From my understanding, the GPL allows selling of software, as long as the same rights of that software are passed onto the recipient and access to the source code is provided.
In my own mind I don't have a problem with people who do this for a reasonable cost if they are providing a good service in doing so, such as selling a CD containing a compilation of various different open source software. I do think it is of bad taste, but probably not a violation of terms, to sell just a single software on the CD as he seems to be doing.
On 01/10/2015 07:01 PM, Dee Trueman wrote:
Professional Photo Editing Software
_______________________________________________ gimp-developer-list mailing list
List address: gimp-developer-list@gnome.org List membership: https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer-list List archives: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list
Stealing and Selling your products on Ebay
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 04:45:19PM +0200, Simos Xenitellis wrote:
That would be useful to figure out if the seller even made the effort to recompile GIMP.
There is the concept of GIMP and its logo as marks. Its license is the GNU GPL. While this means that another project can imitate it, copy the software, etc., it is not reasonable for a different project to masquerade as GIMP. GIMP has an identity among the general public (good or bad), and if another project uses it by misrepresenting itself as GIMP, it may hurt the GIMP project.
Some forks called their projects CinePaint, Seashore, etc. which are safer names and clearly differentiate themselves from GIMP. GIMPshop is in a grey area.
There are also provisions in the GPL for withholding trademark rights, and in a more lighter sense, avoiding misrepresentation. This can form a basis for going after shady sellers.
*Note that I don't think any developers want to stop GIMP forks that create positive derivatives (GIMPshop included), or interfere with distributions packaging GIMP.
Mukund
