Hi, I own and run freeproxytemplates.com. I offer free templates for proxy sites, on the condition that a link back to our site, and any sponsor links are kept in the footer. I do not allow anyone to sell or redistribute my templates, unless they form part of an established site. It has come to my attention that someone on ebay is selling my templates. They are simply sending the zip file that is downloadable from my site. They are leaving the footer links intact, but obviously profiteering from my work (and charging people for something that is free). It is clearly written in the readme and on the site that they can resell like this. What are my options now? So far they have sold 4 templates, making $63.10. Should I contact them directly, or should I go straight to ebay? Am I entitled to recoup this money (even if it is to refund to the people that have been conned), or will this be too difficult? How responsive are ebay likely to be? Thanks for any advice, Jon
Ask him to pay you half of the earnings... and let him keep selling them, and you can earn some money
You could tell ebay they are your templates and he is not suppose to selling then. I would also contact the person and tell them to stop selling your templates
Searche has the best idea. Strike a deal with the seller. Let him give a cut to you and if he does not agree, than you can put an end to his money making potential. But first, strike a deal with him for profit sharing. That is what most corporation do when they see patent violation. They try to license the patent unless it is a direct competition and he is taking over your market share.
fill out a Vero with ebay, even if its unfounded theyll yank them. If he relists and you file again theyll ban him. You have to print it and fax it. However if you have competition you can do this as well, even if its unfounded the auctions will get yanked, it works well.
Got a few ideas. 1. A fun one first - If he's downloading them off your site, then obviously if you change the link so he cant find it, he'll just resort to a backup and then another downloading source, so change a the link on your real site, but still keep the old link going to the download (so only he'll be downloading it) then tamper with the files... corrupt them or something, or leave a pleasant but obvious note... so he'll get some pretty bad rep. 2. Put a readme file in the download gaining the attention of the ebay user and alerting them of the illegal copy
Changing the link on his own site could affect the legitmate copies being used on other sites...now if he is hotlinking a picture imagine the fun!
If you want it over and done quickly contact eBay. If you want to punish the seller then try to find the id's of the people who he sold the templates to, and then contact them and let them know that he basically sold them templates that were originally yours and provided free on your site. This will make him look bad and people will start to blog about it. Another alternative is to create a blogspot and wordpress blog about how this guy is ripping people off using your copyrighted, but free templates. This will get indexed on Google. You may also want to make a YouTube video and Google Video about it. I wouldn't deal with anyone who is blatantly violating a copyright. The other alternative would be to contact him, the seller and ask him politely to stop selling your copyrighted content. If he does not comply I would use one of the above options to more or less put him in his place.
Ebay is good about getting the seller off the site as they have a reputation to uphold as well. As far as compensation I would not put to much of your energy into this. If he is knowingly ripping you off than the chances of him being "honest" and giving you compensation are slim. Send him an email though Ebay and tell him you are aware of his tactics and will do everything to stop him now and in the future, he/she will probably move on to something or someone else to cheat, sadly. Terri
Even though he is ripping you off, it could be due to just plain stupidity. I would contact him and ask him politely to stop selling your copyrighted content. If he refuses, then I would followup with a warning of legal action. If he still refuses, then I would contact eBay about the matter. The attempt to contact the user will be recorded in the messaging system. I would forward those messages to your email account as well. If the problem persists then I would keep increasing the magnitude of your efforts. If all else fails take out a classified ad on ebay selling an ebook on why not to buy from [enter the ebay user id here]. If this doesn't get him to stop it won't matter, because users will take notice and be reluctant to purchase from him. Another method would be to purchase from him using different ebay id's and leave negative feedback stating the content was free on another site or that it was copyrighted content. Just more or less keep pressing buttons until the user caves in and stops selling your content.