EBay Admits It Screwed Up in Censoring Anti-Bush Artist
Harry Hope
From The Progressive, 8/8/03:
http://www.progressive.org/mcwatch03/mc080803.html
EBay Admits It Messed Up in Censoring Anti-Bush Artist
After Canadian artist John Steins posted his "Axis of Weasels Art
Cards" on eBay in July, the company removed his listing, telling him
it violated the company's policy on using the names or likenesses of
individuals without their permission.
After a furor erupted in Canada over this apparent censorship, eBay
has now relented.
"We probably made a mistake on this one," Kevin Pursglove, senior
director of communication for the company, told The Progressive on
August 7.
Steins was featuring eight hand-printed lino-cuts:
George Bush was the ace of spades,
Paul Wolfowitz the king of spades,
Donald Rumsfeld the queen of spades,
Ari Fleischer the jack of spades,
Condoleezza Rice the ten of spades,
Richard Perle the nine of spades,
Tommy Franks the eight of spades, and
Dick Cheney the two of spades.
In his eBay description of the cards, he said they were "were in
reference to the controversial 'most wanted Iraqi' playing cards
issued by the U.S. military."
At the bottom of his eBay description on each card was the following
sentence:
"I firmly believe that much of the evil in the world is found in the
American White House and the liberties and freedoms of Americans are
being eroded by this heinous, warmongering administration."
Describing the George Bush card, Steins wrote:
"Every time I see Bush's moronic grin I think of the little Iraqi boy
with his arms blown off by American troops, or the contents of a
girl's skull oozing out on to the desert sand with her dead eyes
looking onto a futile battlefield. I also think of the American mother
learning that her son or daughter will be coming home in a body bag.
For what?"
He also called Bush a "war criminal" and an "idiot."
On July 19, Steins got an e-mail from someone in eBay's "Customer
Support (Trust and Safety Department)."
"We would like to let you know that we removed your listing . . . for
violating our Faces, Names, and Signatures Policy."
"I am very disappointed with your decision to remove my listings,"
Steins wrote back to eBay.
"My items are a parody/satire of the U.S. Government and its officials
and therefore should fall under the fair use provision in copyright
law. Especially since they are caricatures that exaggerate and parody
the likeness of political figures. The manner in which you are
applying your rule in my case would suggest that a political cartoon
of Donald Rumsfeld or George Bush would be an infringement on his
likeness and therefore would be disallowed on eBay."
He closed his letter by writing, "Please do not cave to pressure from
a few that cannot handle free speech in the form of political satire,
no matter how distasteful it may be to them. Believe it or not, there
are still some Americans left who will defend the right of freedom of
expression and social commentary. I think it would serve eBay well to
do the same."
Steins got an automated response from eBay, "which really annoyed me,"
he says.
"Eventually, a moderator did reply, with the same message toeing the
company line."
On August 7, he received a different response from "Customer Support
(Trust and Safety Department)."
This one said, "Your listing(s) contained gratuitous comments
inappropriate for eBay listing descriptions."
It cited language from the eBay user agreement, which states,
"Listings may only include text descriptions, graphics, pictures, and
other content relevant to the sale of that item."
Leaving aside the question of whether Steins's comments were "relevant
to the sale" of his cards, Steins says eBay has a double standard.
"It's not hard to find other gratuitous statements, like 'Support Our
Troops' and 'God Bless America.' I have nothing against those. God
should bless America, and the troops should be supported. But those
are political statements. My personal views were censored because they
were unpopular ones."
Steins says he has received "borderline death threats" from his
posting on eBay.
"You will die a slow and painful death," one person wrote.
Steins did not go quietly.
He and other web users raised a stink about his apparent censorship by
eBay.
And Steins was interviewed twice on CBC radio to discuss his case.
(He was on "Sounds Like Canada" and "As It Happens," which are
comparable to NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered.")
On August 8, eBay contacted Steins and relented.
Here's how Steins recounts the communication on his website,
thebushadministration.com, where you can also see his lino-cuts.
"NEWS FLASH!!! -- EBay capitulates! I received a phone call from an
eBay representative today (Aug. 08/03) who told me that they will not
pull my 'Axis of Weasels' prints if I decide to list them on eBay in
the future. She also asked that I restrict my personal political views
to the 'About Me' page and not as part of the product description. I
believe this is the result of the national press & radio coverage this
story has garnered, as well as the many e-mails I have received from
visitors to this site stating their intent to complain to eBay on my
behalf. For that I thank you and I delight in the fact that the 'small
guy' can make a difference!"
Stein calls the news "a very good ending."
He says he's thinking about reposting his prints on eBay, though he
says his wife is concerned about his personal safety.
____________________________________________________
Good to see eBay admit they were wrong. I'm sure they'll never pull
that shit again.
Harry
Tabernacle
Hey if you are using Ebay to buy anything (other than a few hard to
find items that is) you got to be nuts! Seeing as most of the items on
there are so Over Priced to begin with that when you then include the
S&H in most instances you end up getting the item CHEAPER if you
simply drove down to a local store and bought the damn thing off the
shelf!
Tempest
And then there's stories like this one:
The strange case of eBay, zippymilk and the missing DVDs
By John Leyden
http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/32222.html
Hundreds of eBay UK users are up in arms after handing over money for
DVDs to the same Norfolk-based seller who banked their cheques, but
failed to deliver the goods.
Patience is wearing thin among the estimated 800 customers of zippymilk
(AKA Adrian Bailey, 33, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk) who are growing
tired of a succession of excuses he has offered for the non-arrival of
goods they secured in eBay auctions.
--
"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or
religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.
Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."
Samuel P. Huntington