Song of the South - Stopped by eBay

Wow, this is wierd. Thought you guys might be interested.

All of the talk about Song of the South by Steve and others in a previous thread peaked my interest and I went and bagged an LD off of eBay. I won the auction, sent the money, and got the disc. Great transaction all around.

Then, today, I received this email from eBay:


Dear Jon R. Urban,

The following listing:

3327333875 - Song of the South - Disney - Rare Japanese LD

was removed by eBay because a member of our Verified Right Owner (VeRO) Program notified eBay that the listing potentially infringes its copyright, trademark or other rights. We strongly urge you not to complete this transaction.

You can get more information on the VeRO Program at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/vero-program.html

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding in this issue.

Regards,

Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay Inc


What do you think of THAT?????
Sounds like Disney is on the warpath!

 

......... or Grant is!

-Jeffrey

 

Fortunately, Jon, you completed the deal and have your LD. But this is a crock: since when does eBay care about infringement? You could choke on the bootlegs and counterfeit CD's and Lp's that are rampant, yet they're worried about a legit Japanese laserdisc? Why, because Disney gets its nose out of joint? Ridiculous. Disney shouldn't have an ounce of clout with eBay. Sounds fishy to me, but that's the kind of paranoia Disney can strike into otherwise sensible people.

ED

 

The Curse Of Eisner.

 

No, but you're right about it being a 'program.' Very simple: any rights owner--from a little guy to a monolith like Disney--can fill out a form listing their intellectual property they do not want bought and sold on eBay. Because eBay lists zillions of items a year, they can't catch everything but, if an obvious title hits the computer database, the red flag comes up and that listing is removed. Just to prove how inadequate the system is, by the time Jon and the seller made the transaction, it was too late: Jon gets a notification later, but not in time to stop it. And, once the deal is done, eBay can do nothing. What's less clear is what constitutes infringement. Is it infringement just because a copyright owner says it is? Maybe, maybe not. The whole thing seems absurd, since so many items fall through the cracks anyway.

ED

 

That's just plain ridiculous Jon.

 

I think eBay may be confusing products here. The Japanese laserdisc was an official Disney release. There should be no restrictions as to how it can be bought and sold. Someone may have complained that it was a bootleg copy, confusing it with the commonly available dvdr

 

How freaking stupid can you get? You can buy and sell whatever you want. You wanna buy it, do it. Sell it for profit, do it. Disney can sit and spin.

 

Ebay has no consistency concerning what they pull or don't pull. How the person lists it matters a great deal, I think. I wonder if you can list the Aerosmith album "Live Bootleg" without it being canceled due to the word "Bootleg" in the title.

I'm glad you got your LD. I don't know how ebay doesn't catch all of the obvious bootlegs that are auctioned. Very weird!

 

What's even stranger is that a quick search of eBay listings returns many questionalbe VHS copies of this film, along with more LD copies, clearly all available for sale.

I've been buying/selling on eBay since 1998 (that's where the oblio98 comes from), and this is the strangest communication I have ever received.

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Da!

 

Jon, this was probably a mistake on someone's part. If you do a quick Ebay search, not only are there several other SOTS LDs for sale now, but a bunch recently sold as well... and they weren't shut down. Someone must have thought the one you bid on was pirated. Very silly nevertheless.

What's ironic is that there are also a bunch of SOTS DVDs (hah!) on Ebay right now!

Ray

 

One of the waitresses on the "Alice" TV show?

 

Pretentious Bul***t...Give me a break.

 

Here is more info I found checking this out:

Q. What about legitimate Disney videos, VCDs or DVDs released outside the United States?

A. You cannot sell videos, VCDs or DVDs that were released for sale in other markets. These are called “parallel imports,” and it is a violation of federal law to import or sell product in the United States that was released for sale in other markets.

Q. What about Song of the South?

A. Song of the South has not been released for distribution in the United States in any home viewing format. Any listing that offers any video, VCD or DVD of Song of the South for sale in the United States may be suspended. Any listing that offers Song of the South “converted” for viewing on NTSC video players or Zone 1 DVD players is an illegal copy.


Check out the Disney police info here:

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/disneyvero/

I guess that this confirms that Disney indeed is behind this. What is REALLY bizarre is that this auction was concluded and the deal was done, with +FB from and to both parties.