ebayers beware

Thanks Kathryn, I'll do that. I really hate to see this happen to anyone, and especially Cathe, as it's taking money out of her pocket as well. As she only made money on the orginal, and this person is making money on each copy. I don't know what type of deal Cathe has, but generally royalties are pretty low. I know for the author of a book they get 10% of the cover price, which means if you pay $20, the author makes $2. Which is kind of messed up, but that's what I've been told by a few of the professors around here that also write books.

From what I've been able to find this person keeps selling the same DVDs over and over again. I know there are some ebayers who order a mass amount of Cathe DVDs, and then sell them, but these are usually still brand new with the shrink wrap, they aren't marked used. For me it's just hard for me to see someone with 10 used Slow and Heavy DVDs, and not wonder what is wrong. I mean how the heck could you get 10 used S & H DVDs, I don't see all that many people willing to give theirs up, and if they are they usually want about the same price they paid for it.

I have the DVDs right now on my desk, my client is so embaressed and frusterated with the whole thing, has asked me to handle it. Which I'm not sure is any better I have some info on what to look for, with copied DVDs but how about getting the person in trouble I'll think I'll take your advice and see what Cathe says. Basically all I want to do, is make sure my client at least gets her money back or DVDs that are at least playable.

Thanks Kathryn

Kit
 
One way you can watch for people who could be doing this is to click on the the seller's feedback. Attached to the feedback at the far right margin is the item that the feedback referred to. For a period of time (don't know how long) you can click through to see which item it was that was sold. If you see the same DVD/VHS's being sold by this person then I'd be very suspicious.
 
Kit,

After I got the eBay ID from you, I checked him/her out and I had actually looked at this person's auctions but I never bid on any because of the payment method. It was a direct payment to the person's e-mail which I didn't like. You used PayPal but it had to be a money transfer if I read it correctly. I pay with either my debit or credit card through PayPal period. No direct transfers.
 
How did they copy the Mix-n-Match and all of that? I didn't even think there were fake Cathe's on ebay b/c I couldn't see how they could copy something such as Chapters & Mix-n-Match. Wow. I'll definitely be more careful now. Thanks for letting us know.
 
i make back-up copies of all dvds that i purchase (there is a one time personal use backup copy "fair use" provision to the law) and keep all my originals wrapped up safe in their cases so that i never risking hurting the expensive damned things.

cathe's dvd's arent even copy-guarded, i cant imagine why not, not thats its hard to overcome that, but she should at least add that little disincentive to those who would rip her off
 
>Since there are so many and I decided to get my clients
>permission to post the ebayer that scammed her. The ebayer is
>3801
>
As soon as you posted this, I had a feeling it was going to be this ebayer. She/he does this "reserve not met" thing and keeps listing the same DVD over and over, again. S&H was listed this way so many times. OK, now I see what all of you have been saying all along about buying DVDs over there. I won't be bidding anymore unless it's "new" and "still in shrink wrap" and I can get it cheaper there.

Thanks for the heads up!

Dallas
 
I was so upset. Kit, your cross finger did not help me. Guess what, the first thing I went home, I checked out the dvd I bought from this 3801. It was purple!!! I could not wait to log in computer asking him to refund my money. I have bought almost 20 cahte's dvds from ebay. I checked last night. Each one is silver except this one from 3801. I can not believe how could people dare to sell pirate copy over ebay, such a public place. I only thought pirate copies only being sold in the steets of NYC...x(

I sent the report to paypla and ebay. I am waiting for the result...

Any suggestions what should I do next?

Thanks

WantFit
 
WantFit,

Do turn them in and do try to get your money back. You may want to inform Cathe of this as well. As I had sent her, the info my client gave me, so Cathe could turn them in as well. I'm sure if enough of us complain, and especially Cathe, they'll be shut down. What amazes me is this seller is still trying to convince my client it's her DVD player, and that's why the DVD won't work. And that's even after my client wrote them and explained that the DVD is a fake, and went down the list I gave her, so the person would understand that they weren't dealing with some dumb blonde that they could just easily confused. She did get her money back, but now she wants to push it to the max, and see if we all can get this person out of ebay.

Oh for those who are wondering, yes my client took a look at the person's ebay score. It was 99.1% good feed back, and this person had a lot of sales, which is the reason she thought she was a good ebay seller.

Also for anyone else reading this thread. If you got a DVD any color besides silver on the back side, you have a fake DVD. I checked with 3 different cops, and Cathe herself. Cathe only uses silver for her DVDs. I check with Cathe, as it just sounds better if the owner of the DVDs confirms that the fake ones are fake. Rather then just go by the standards the police use. As I always say, it’s better to check, as may sources as you can, then just try to rely on one.
 
Hi woodahs,

Copying DVDs is very easy. What ever is on DVD 1 (original), you just do drag and drop and it gets put on DVD 2 (copy). There's no editing or anything. If it's on DVD 1, it will be put on DVD 2, there is no question about it, nor stopping it from doing so. Just like making a photo copy of a piece of paper with writing on it. You put the original on the glass of the copier. Push the button it prints it out on a different piece of paper and every thing on the original is now on the copy you made. That’s how burning a DVD or CD works. The computer only sees data, it has no idea what the data is or is suppose to do, it just simply puts it in the same spot on the copy as it was on the original. So the copy will work just like the original, just the color doesn't give as good of a refection. So it's slightly poor quality. But it's all there. Mix & match, chapters, all the credits, the intro. *Everything* Just like a photo copy. The only time it's not all there, is if you used some white out, and erased part of it. Even a 5 year old can make a copy of a DVD or CD, and it will have everything the original had. Just click, click, drag and drop, and you just made an exact copy of a DVD. And yes, it really is that easy.

It's kind of hard to explain unless you actually tried it, or have an strong understanding of how a DVD works. As to the DVD and the computer all it sees is, is 1 or 0, all it's really doing is grab a sequence of 100 1's and 0's from the first DVD and writing them to the other DVD (copy), and it keeps doing this until it's all copied or it's ran out of room. And when you put it your DVD player, all the 1's and 0's get read and depending on the sequence, is what you hear and see on yout TV.

This is one of the reasons why it's so easy to copy. You don't have to worry about images, or sound or voice, or the menu screen or mix and match. As the burner isn't even aware of it, all it cares about is matching up the sequence of 1's and 0's from one DVD to the next. And that’s how you get an exact replica. Very painless for the human, but for the computer and burner it's a lot of work. Which is why it usually takes an hour, to make a copy of a DVD. As it's got to write 60000 1's and 0's or more to the copy. Depending on how much info is on the origional DVD.

Hope that helps,

Kit
 
RE: Same thing happened to me

I was second highest bidder, so when bidder 1 changed her mind, I was allowed to buy it. I then went through the feedback and emailed someone with a negative inout. They told me that they received a copy and was reporting this person. They also said that the comment stating that the problem was resolved was bunk. So, read the comments and you can email these unsatisfied customers!
 
I think you can also get her with MAIL FRAUD. I think that is a better avenue since it is a federal offense. I don't think ebay is going to do anything except refund your money. She/he should be stopped...
 
I e-mailed people who left positive feedback in this seller (3801) site. These people all won the bid for Cathe's dvd (Slow & Heavy, Terminator,etc). They all told me the track side was purple color as what I got. So it seems to me this seller made a batch of pirate copy by using the same blank dvds. Seller's mailing address is Portland, Oregon. Can we file the complain to the police office about this person selling the pirate copies? By the way, how do we file the "mail fraud" complain?

Thanks

WantFit
 
I suspected this on ebay because the winning bid was $25 higher than my highest bid. I was worried about buying these dvds off there and I still received infor from the seller that they would be willing to seel it to me for $40 which was only $15 higher than my bid. I thought this was extremely strange so I read through the comments and saw 3 negative feedback and even some positive that said they thought the dvds were copies. So needless to say I did not go through with the purchase. It just seemed so weird since I was no where near the highest bidder. I think it just makes the whole process that much scarier.
 
I own the software to copy any dvd. It was pulled off the shelves. Anyways, there is a website where you can pull up any cover to any movie and make a dvd label out of it and stick it on the dvd. They do look just like the originals. When you replay these "burned" dvd's there is a screen that pops up letting you know that it is a copied version, but it still let's you play it. I got the software so I could prolong the life of my originals.
 
Actually these copied DVDs don't show a screen saying copy or anything else. They go right into the menu screen just like the origional. If those DVDs had a copy warning on them. I'm sure this person would have been shut down long before this. As I'm sure people who've paid good money and pop it into their player and it comes up with this is a copy. Would hit the roof. Though if I remember correctly there are still a few DVD copiers programs for Linux that allow you to copy the whole DVD, and not have a copy warning or anything. I think there is one for Mac too, but as far as I know the one for Windows was pulled off the shelves. But then again, it's not all that hard to tweak Linux and make it do anything you want.

Kit
 
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