ITIL on eBay: an IT Skeptic Special Report

Here was I worrying about whether I had enough ®s on my ITILs, while out there on eBay there are people perpetrating the most appalling copyright violations and abuses of trademark. Here are a couple of examples. To the two thousand or so of you who bought stuff from these guys: SHAME!

The most outrageous one is probably Stanley Wong of Hong Kong (that won’t be any help in nailing him: I knew about three Stanley Wongs when I lived there). Stanley sold me a zipped package that included the training materials of two Australian providers DataJar and itilics, both with the copyright information clearly displayed, and neither of whom were aware he was at it. 973 people have purchased products from our Stanley since January, and not one has complained about copyright on his feedback, let alone notified eBay. People like safestuff1, rozmcc , gemaunie and hundreds of others... What is happening to the world? Have we become so ethically barren?

Here is his store. I notified eBay that he was selling pirated material some time ago but nothing has happened. Check it out: it is a robber’s cave of stolen IP.

And at the top of his eBay listing:

***AttentionTo eBay: I am the copyright owner of these files and they will be electronically delivered to the buyer. This is not a violation to any eBay's policy. I have the legal right to sell this exam files! Do not pull this listing, as it does not violate any laws, rules, or copyright agreements in the United States and certain other countries. ***

For sheer gall it is hard to go past the second one: happy-n-helpful and his InFaith Store (really). May the Lord richly bless you too, h-n-h! Our happy-n-helpful is re-selling the free pocket-book distributed in .pdf form by itSMF. What happened to that good Christian upbringing at Mount Saint Mary College, Chas? [and people think they can hide behind eBay!] You see happy-n-helpful is located in the good ol’ USA, Maineville Ohio to be exact. So I hope itSMF USA’s lawyers are reading this [After some of my recent remarks about itSMF USA they probably are]. Go get him boys!

People had a soft spot for Ronnie Biggs, or Bonnie and Clyde, or Australia’s Alan Bond. If you must rip people off at least do it with a little panache, and do it on a grand scale [oops, that must be the Aussie in me talking!]. This dickless sneaking around with sad little piles of stolen IP, peddling them like a thief on a street corner – it is beneath contempt. Ten bucks a time! These two guys live in the USA and Hong Kong: if you can’t make that kind of money honestly in those countries, you’re an idiot.