Selling photography and images of celebrities ("Celebrity Material") often involves both intellectual property rights (like copyrights) and rights of publicity (a person’s right to control commercial exploitation of his or her image, likeness etc.) which may be owned by people other than the person listing the item for sale. Sellers need to be certain that their listings comply with third party copyrights and/or rights of publicity.
Activity on eBay is required to follow this policy, the eBay User Agreement and all applicable laws, as well as respect the rights of third parties. If it doesn’t, eBay may take action consistent with applicable laws and the eBay User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: Removing the listing or other content, issuing a warning, restricting activity or account suspension.
Some Examples
The following items may not be listed on eBay:
- A CD that contains 100 images of top celebrities that you downloaded off of the Internet
- A VCD of different video clips and still photographs of a supermodel that you recorded from television
Why does eBay have this policy?
eBay has this policy because it is illegal to sell unauthorised copies of media, including software, music, video games, and movies. Additionally, it may violate a person’s right of publicity to compile and sell images of them. When you list an unauthorised copy of media items, you are breaking the law and infringing the intellectual property rights of a company or individual.