My ballhead just got pulled for copyright violation. When I asked the Manfrotto email provided I was told it was because I wasn't a authorized reseller? Are you kidding me?
"Manfrotto 808RC4 3 way Pan/Tilt Head w/ 232 Quick Release Plate/Adapter"
My description was nothing more than saying it was used as can see by the scuffs and missing one cover off the pivot point and that it still fully functioned.
It was my own personal image, taken with my iPhone sitting on my kitchen table.
Exact same thing just happened to me. You can contact the eBay vero team and they will assist you in getting the "violation" removed from your account (at least they did for me). They were quite helpful and said they'd forward the issue to their legal team to follow-up with the company. Like you I believe the First Sale Doctrine (should) protect us.
fwiw, I created this account /just/ to reply to this thread, but I see now (as my Dad has been telling me for years) that there is quite a healthy community here!
From what I can tell from talking to eBay they very much want to make contact with Manfrotto to inform them that these sorts of sales are not violations. For my part they asked me to not re-list for the time being and removed the violation from my eBay account. I suspect if it can't be worked out I'll just purchase tripods from other companies that make similar equipment that aren't using these sorts of practices.
I contacted ebay as well and they removed the violation from my account as well. She didn't think anything was wrong with it. I forwarded my manfrotto response onto vero as well.
Yeah, JFox, It'd be interesting to know how many of these Manfrotto sent out. I bet lots of people just say.. "oh, ok, I guess I can't sell this widget (or whatever)" b/c think they are doing something illegal.
As a follow-up eBay reinstated my listing. Weird. So it looks like what happens is that there is some sort of back-end by which companies can de-list items they find in "violation". In this case, from what I can tell, someone on the de-listing side may have been just a tad overzealous. That is simply one person's opinion.
I was admonished by Arca-Swiss for using their name (Arca-Swiss compatible) in a review of a Sunwayfoto product. Their legal department said it was a copyright violation.
I'm an authorized Takamine guitar dealer and the USA distributor trolls Ebay and Amazon looking for unauthorized dealer sales and MAP violations so I'm afraid the retail industry is getting increasingly Draconian.
Gochugogi wrote:
I was admonished by Arca-Swiss for using their name (Arca-Swiss compatible) in a review of a Sunwayfoto product. Their legal department said it was a copyright violation.
.
I think he general term has now become ' A-S Style Clamp' . although to say something is compatable with an Arca-Swiss plate should not flag up .
as for the OP's issue .
Ebay should be a bit more proactive in their dealings with companies that report so called infringments .
at the moment it seems their response to any report is to pull the listing first and argue the toss later . if an item is genuinely listed as USED then it is 2nd HAND . so no company can claim it is being resold wrongly .
Do Ford or any other Car company ask for a listing to be pulled if you list your car on ebay when you are not part of the dealer network ?
I have a universal Manfrotto plate on ebay right now, and so far no problem. That company has just made it a lot easier for me to decide future purchases as I won't be buying anything of theirs.