http://aecnews.com/articles/2477.aspx
Link: Watchdog Agency Public Citizen Agrees to Represent eBay Seller Vernor in Suit Against Autodesk.
Watchdog Agency Public Citizen Agrees to Represent eBay Seller Vernor in Suit Against Autodesk
Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 2:11 PM
By Randall S. Newton, Editor-in-Chief
Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader, has agreed to represent Timothy S. Vernor, the eBay seller who filed a federal lawsuit against Autodesk after the company on several occasions took action to stop him from selling used copies of AutoCAD Release 14 on eBay. (((It's not Autodesk per se, it's the principle of the thing. Can I sell the plasticware in the dang box, or does shrinkwrap fake-agreement rule?)))
Public Citizen will take on the case at no charge to Vernor, who has until now been serving as his own lawyer. (((The sign of a dedicated crank. No wonder this one is going to the mattresses.)))
This is not the first time Public Citizen has represented an eBay seller. The advocacy group has identified elements of the Vernor case as one of its key litigation priorities for 2007.
A statement on the Public Citizen site reads as if it were written specifically for the Vernor case: "One of the many advantages of the Internet for consumers is the competition it creates. When Internet shoppers can easily compare the prices of hundreds of dealers online, it is difficult for any one dealer to get away with charging more. Thus, prices fall and consumers benefit. Not surprisingly, however, some companies don’t like their prices being undercut on the Internet and have devised a variety of strategies to squelch unwanted competition.
"One common strategy is to use the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) to interfere with legitimate competitors. eBay implements the DMCA through its "Verified Rights Owners" (or VeRO) program. Although the program is designed to allow intellectual property owners to assert legitimate claims against sellers of counterfeit merchandise, corporations sometimes exploit the program to curtail unwanted competition by small online retailers. Abusive DMCA claims threaten the First Amendment right of online merchants to truthfully advertise their goods, and ultimately hurt all consumers by reducing the availability of cheaper generic products.
"Repeated wrongful claims can also lead to the termination of a seller’s eBay account. For small online merchants who depend on the Internet to make their living, this kind of termination is the equivalent of them showing up at their stores to find all their goods out on the curb.
"And without the resources to fight back in court, these small online sellers usually have no way to dispute the company’s claims. Public Citizen staff attorney Greg Beck is assigned to the case. Before entering law school, he worked for four years as a computer programmer, including a stint as a software engineer at Microsoft...." (((Look out! The lawyer may actually know something!)))
