Apple Has eBay Kill Off Auctions Of Steve Jobs Figure It Doesn't Like
from the is-this-really-worth-it? dept
Remember, a few weeks back, how Apple went after a Chinese company making Steve Jobs figurines and forced it to stop selling them? As you might expect, the attention from the legal threat only served to create much more interest in the figurines, and the few folks who got their hands on them before the offering was shut down, quickly moved to eBay, where they started selling for thousands of dollars… until Apple complained and eBay killed all of the auctions under its VeRO program. This actually strikes me as a bit odd. I could see Steve Jobs making the request, but should eBay listen to a company that requests a takedown of an individual’s likeness, even if that individual is the company’s CEO? After all, Apple does not own Steve Jobs’ likeness…
Filed Under: figurines, publicity rights, steve jobs
Companies: apple, ebay
Comments on “Apple Has eBay Kill Off Auctions Of Steve Jobs Figure It Doesn't Like”
Bodyguards wanted
I look like Mr.Jobs, what’s going to happen to me?
A commenter on a different site noted it’s because the base of the figurine is an Apple logo, which is a big no-no
Bodyguards wanted
Maybe you could start selling figurines of yourself. 😉
Meh
I’d be flattered. That’s a pretty cool figurine. Maybe Steve doesn’t like it because it isn’t Skeletor looking enough.
Re:
I noticed this as well which could easily be rectified with a small change in design.
As for the company being told to stop, I’m very surprised they’re not running to their government to ask for protection against anti-trust, monopoly, and legal threats from businesses.
Perhaps this is the only way such issues can be corrected, given education fails in the US Congress… daily.
And now its a collectors (or apple fanatic) premium item and it will be eternal, and the chinese will make clones of the chinese clones.
Apple can easily make the request (there are plenty of apple related items on the figure). Jobs doesn’t even have to start and Apple already has it resolved. Even if they remove all of the Apple related things, the California laws on use of likeness would come in and again shut it all down.
For anyone to say “what’s the harm” shows that their likeness has no value. It is a company trying to make money off of someone else’s likeness and popularity without considering if they want to be part of it or not.
How hard is that to understand?
Wonderful
Apple, a billion dollar corporation. How did you spend your morning? Killing off a figure of our CEO “we didn’t like.”
Apple…still run by two-year-olds!
He has a big head.
I don’t get it — that’s actually a nice likeness. I’d almost consider getting one for an Apple fan. Is Apple jealous that they didn’t “invent” it first?
The Free Market at Work?
An emerging trend, companies frustrating other companies from selling products? Recently Time-Warner and Netflix entered into an agreement to delay the release of DVD rentals. The free market is supposed to be about delivering product to the consumer through competition. Now we have Apple attempting to influence E-Bay auctions.
PS: The “correct: solution? Apple buys all the figurines.
Change you're twitter display picture?
Would it be a good time to have a “change you’re twitter display picture” campaign then? Let us all be jobsians… LOL
maybe they do
“After all, Apple does not own Steve Jobs’ likeness…”
or maybe they do…
Re:
My only question is, Why should a Chinese company give a damn about a California law?
maybe they do
There’s a new clone of Jobs each year, based on the Apple II model. 😀
Steve Jobs is not just Apple’s CEO; he also appears in a great many Apple advertisements aimed directly at the public, making him very much part of the Apple brand. Maybe his contract somehow explicitly transfers his publicity rights to Apple (is that possible?)…
Meh
Maybe Steve doesn’t like it because it isn’t Skeletor looking enough.
No, the head isn’t big enough. 🙂
Lot of fuss about nothing
Jobs really ought to get a life and have his sense of humour chip re-implanted. Whatever this guy does, he always comes across (to me, at any rate) as being terse and totally lacking in social graces. If it was me, I would be laughing my head off and I would would certainly consider the life-like model a great compliment and very flattering.
Makes him look like the shark he is.