If this seller is willing to steal a copyrighted image and then totally ruin it with art work that many kids would be embarrassed by, how much can you trust him to tell you the truth about what he is selling? Looks like he is your neighbor, Daniel.

I didn't notice that before. I quess he is. I wonder why he did what he did? I see he did three others.

The terrible art work isn't going to help the sale of the piece. It's very distracting.

They still are using a copyrighted image, in fact they are defacing copyrighted images..

The artwork is so bad I didn't even realize is was done on top of Pauls clouds.

I sent Ebay Email to the seller asking why he/she did what he/she did. No answer yet. Maybe because my mail was a bit on the tacky side?

bobo

I've asked eBay to take down the listings using the cloud photos. Should be done within 24 hours. I requested they do the same to some earlier postings by this seller and it was done.

Thanks, John. You did good.

bobo

Thanks, John!!

I've been notified by eBay that the listings have been removed.

BTW the main reason I don't want someone to use my cloud background images, isn't just because they are copyrighted, but those are images of my lighthouses.. They are not a image of the actual lighthouse that someone is selling. They are in fact guilty of false advertisement when they use my images.

A buyer has the right to see only an image of the actual lighthouse that is being posted on eBay or no image at all..

I saw those listings and I knew right off that they were Paul's photos with pre-school trees drawn on them. I sent a letter to Ebay letting them know about this seller's antics. I see they have now been removed.
I am glad ebay is not letting this sort of thing slide.

Do you think that these type of sellers are just to "lazy" to take a picture themselves of the lighthouse they are selling are trying to hide something from a potential buyer?

When I see these "silly" auctions I just pass on it. Not worth my time checking out the particular auction for obvious reasons.

The reasons for using the Harbour Lights 'official' photos by Paul could be:

1. The seller is unfamiliar with the product and did a search and found the official site and couldn't imagine finding or making a better image than that
2. The seller is lazy or is not lazy, but doesn't want to take the time
3. The seller is not a good enough photographer or doesn't have the right equipment
4. The seller believes that ANYTHING on the Internet is in the "public domain"
5. The seller is under the misunderstanding that if you MODIFY a copyrighted image, it's OK to use it as you want
6. The seller thinks that it's unlikely that they will be caught -- and what is the punishment anyway?
7. The seller's piece doesn't look nearly as good as the one in the photograph, so they'll have a better chance of selling theirs if they use this 'stock' photo.
8. OR the seller believes that since others are doing it, it must be OK for them to do so

The use of Harbour Lights images has really declined. A few still appear. If you see one, please email me a LINK to the listing and I'll follow up with eBay.

You must be registered with eBay as the "VErified Rights Owner" (VeRO) to have a listing removed for violating rights.

Read More About eBay\'s VeRO Program

John
To add to your list. (A variation of number #6)
9. Maybe different sellers kept using the HL pictures because nobody has actually stopped them from doing it before. Once the word gets out that seller products are actually pulled of off ebay for using copyrighted pictures hopefully this will slow this up from happening as much.

Good job of enforcing a legal right that ebay sellers have been abusing for years, using copyrighted pictures.

John can anyone report sellers on ebay that are using HL copyrighted pictures or must it be a HL affiliated person.