BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY
Consumers and businesses can buy many things on eBay, and software seems to be a thriving category. But the Software & Information Industry Association says many of those programs are pirated, and it hopes to publicly shame the e-commerce giant into cooperating with the software industry’s anti-piracy crusade.The software-industry trade group criticized eBay for being “totally non-responsive” to its efforts to eliminate fake or copied software from the auction site, says Keith Kupferschmid, the head of intellectual property at SIIA. While eBay has responded to requests for information when the trade group has identified illegal sellers, the software trade group wants the e-commerce company to be more active at the outset when illegal sellers post items for sale, says Mr. Kupferschmid.
For instance, the SIIA wants to buy advertising on eBay’s site that educates shoppers about how to distinguish illicit software from its legitimate brethren. It also wants to eliminate fixed-price purchases of software on eBay’s site and to identify sellers who have had auctions removed because they were selling illegal software, Mr. Kupferschmid says. EBay has refused those requests, he says.
The Washington, D.C., trade group says it even offered to help eBay develop tools to identify illegal software–similar to its own proprietary software tool, which an intern developed for the organization.
An eBay spokeswoman, in an emailed statement, points out that eBay has its own tools to help encourage reporting and removal of items from its site that infringe copyrights. “We have had what we believe to be constructive and fruitful discussions with the SIIA, so we’re surprised by this,” she writes about the group’s comments.
As far as SIIA’s advertising, the eBay spokeswoman adds, eBay had expressed to the organization as recently as April that it is willing to consider such a proposal. “We engage all manner of rights owners, including the SIIA, and we’re certainly willing to listen to any suggested improvements they may have to offer,” she writes.