Ebay and copyright infringement

To: Anna Tims <consumer@guardian.co.uk>

Dear Anna,

I'm a senior lecturer in the University of East London, and I was working till a few weeks ago in the Open University.

As part of my job duties, I have been writing teaching material for the past several years.

All the teaching material that I write is, according to the specific circumstances, my copyright and/or copyright of the institution for
which I'm working. Most times, the teaching material will be prepared by a team including several academics.

For what regards my work in the Open University, our team has traditionally produced assignments in which the students are given an unfinished work and asked to complete the job. For example, in TT281, course that I have chaired for several years, students have been given a static XHTML web site and they are asked to add further development.

This clearly implies that any student assignment will include components on which they do not have any copyright.

Looking on ebay, I have seen for years hundreds of student assignments sold, and in the last months a former student of mine
(http://myworld.ebay.com/karl242424) has been selling my assignments, with his solution (not even a brilliant one).

I have asked ebay, through their Vero programme (ref. id: KMM34852038V75549L0KM) to remove the student's assignment, as I there was absolutely no way to complete the assignment without using my own work.

This is the timeline:

• Vero report sent on the 30th of January
• 2nd email sent on the 3rd of Feb (I bought the product more or less at that time, but the user has been selling other copies in the meantime: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=karl242424&ftab=AllFeedback&myworld=true)
• I sent a fax with some data that they asked me to fill on who had the copyright for the product
• The product that I "bought" (but not paid, and not receive) has been on my list of items to pay for several weeks, till it disappeared a few days ago, without me paying for it
• The user is still selling copies of my assignments (and of other lecturers), and ebay is making money out of it.

Moreover, in a business in which an auction typically lasts only a few days, how can they take action only after weeks?

Ebay is full of assignments illegally sold, and Ebay is profiting on it and not taking any action.

What about the money that the user has made selling material that he had no right to sell?
What about the money that ebay did on his sale?

I would ask for a fair and deep evaluation of this and similar cases, with a compensations of the parties that suffered damages.

Best regards,

    Andres