Robert Hendrikson, a filmmaker with his US company Tobann
International Pictures, sued eBay in the US District Court of Los
Angeles alleging that eBay was liable for copyright infringement by
allowing pirated copies of DVDs and videos of a Charles Manson
documentary to be sold on the auction site.
eBay argued that it was protected under the DMCA, which exempts
“qualifying internet service providers” from copyright infringement
claims. However, critics of this argument claim that because eBay
has a policy in place to monitor the content of its auction sites
for infringing material, it has made itself ineligible for
protection under the DMCA.
The judge in the case rejected Mr Henrikson’s arguments, and
stated that that by acting in a mere conduit capacity, eBay does
not operate like conventional auctioneers who vouch for the quality
of the items they sell. It does not posses the right or the ability
to control the sale of pirated material on its site, therefore it
should be protected by the DMCA.
Similar reasoning has previously been applied in US lawsuits
which absolved eBay from any liability for fraud on the part of
people who use the auction site.
