The following text on VeRO was copied from eBay:
eBay is committed to protecting the intellectual property rights of third parties and to providing its users with a safe place to trade. eBay created the Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program so that intellectual property owners could easily report listings that infringe their rights. It is in eBay’s interest to ensure that infringing items are removed from the site, as they erode buyer and good seller trust.
If you are a Verified Rights Owner and want to report a listing issue, see Reporting Intellectual Property Infringements.
To avoid creating listings that would infringe on intellectual property rights:
- Take eBay's tutorial on Intellectual Property Policies and VeRO.
- Read eBay's Guidelines for Creating Legally Compliant Listings.
- Review list of VeRO Program Participant About Me pages. Many VeRO Program participants have created an About Me page that contains information about their policies protecting their intellectual property rights.
- Do not use another member’s pictures or descriptions without their permission. For more information, see Item Description and Picture Theft.
Listings removed through VeRO
If your listing was removed through VeRO, and you believe that your listing was removed in error, eBay suggests that you first try to contact the rights owner directly. (The email notifying you that your listing had been removed should have included the rights owner's email address.) Only the rights owner understands their products and intellectual property rights. If the rights owner agrees that they made a mistake, have them email eBay and eBay will allow you to re-list your item.
- Avoid having your listing removed through VeRO in the future. Review the list of VeRO Program Participant About Me pages. Participants have created an About Me page that contains information designed to help you understand why they requested the removal of your listing.
- How eBay helps to ensure that listings aren’t mistakenly removed. A rights owner reporting through VeRO must be registered through VeRO before reporting items to us. Rights owners sign legally binding documents when reporting items to eBay.
- How your personal information may be released. eBay will never give out your credit card information, except in rare cases when required by a court, or law enforcement agency. However, eBay’s Privacy Policy states, "we can (and you authorize us to) disclose your User ID, name, street address, city, state, zip code, country, phone number, email, and company name to eBay VeRO Program participants as we in our sole discretion believe necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy, or other unlawful activity."
Do you understand the rights owner’s claim, understand eBay’s policies, and still believe that the rights owner made a mistake in reporting your listing? If so, please email us .
As far as used bookstores are concerned, there have been court cases (I'd have to look them up again, but they're there) which have established the legal right of such bookstores to re-sell previously owned books. As long as the seller isn't making copies of something that is still within copyright, it is perfectly legal to resell a book. As a dealer in used, rare, and antiquarian books, I have been challenged several times by Witnesses who were upset that I was selling something that they "give away for free!" I have had to point out that most of what I do sell was at one time sold by the Witnesses themselves, and can show them the price lists to prove it. Even the freebies can be resold if there's a market for them, especially since they aren't as free with their literature as they used to be.
Cathy Koenig