eBay threatens to delete my account for selling linux

Hello,

Story of my life... First there was windows and it was bad. Got tired, tried linux, found it hard, found this forum, now me love linux and wanted to give back.

So I tried ¨converting¨ friends, and that was not that difficult at it would appear at first. Linux isn´t difficult, it´s just ¨weird¨ for a newbie. Anyway, living in Italy, I was having difficulty finding some distributions to buy. I searched eBay and could not find much (I mean downloaded coppied CDs, such as Fedora, Ubuntu etc). So I decided to setup my own business. Not all people have BroadBand. I downloaded some distributions, such as Mandrake, Ubuntu, Knoppix and started selling them on eBay for 1,99 euro (for the 4 pack CDs of mandrake) + shipping. I was thinking even on contributing the extra money I would gain to various linux projects or distributions. But I had no luck:

The same day I got the threatening email from eBay that had cancelled my auctions, as I was selling things that were against the eBay regulations! And that if I am to continue I will be permanently suspended! I sent an email back to eBay telling them that:
- all software is under GPL licence, free to distribute and even sell
- their regulation states that you can distribute software (or other stuff) if it is ¨public domain¨ and I think that this is what GPL is all about

I haven´t received a reply yet, but searching on italian ebay forums I have found other members having the same problems. So users say that got answers like:
¨ You are not the owner of the software, thus you can't sell it"
" GPL is not shareware, you can only sell shareware"

What do you think? I don't understand much about licences and stuff, but isn't GPL exactly "pubblic domain"? Only Linus can sell linux on ebay? I can't wait till I get ebay's answer on the subject so I can post it here, but if you have any suggestions on what should I do with ebay... I don't mind about having my ebay account suspended, I couldn't care less, but I do care not being able to continue distributing linux...

Sounds like a perfectly legitimate business to me. I think that ebay doesn't understand the GPL very well.....

I dont know... I know it´s not illegal, I think they know it too, they just say that it is against ebay regulations

but isn't GPL exactly "pubblic domain"?

Definately not.
The owners of the copyrights license the software to you under the GPL.

The guy I bought Red Hat from was banned.

Shareware == Freeware == GPL == LGPL when it comes to distrobution!

Originally posted by 2damncommon Definately not. The owners of the copyrights license the software to you under the GPL.

And what rights does this licensing give me? Do I have the right to sell it? Do I become an owner? Or better does this give me the right to sell it on ebay? Because from what I have understood, I can sell it. I have bought Mandrake 10.1 official from a guy that has his own site, outside ebay and sells distributions. I think this is legal..

The GPL spells it out fairly clearly. Ebay just doesn't want to know... There are issues regarding making the source available, modifications, etc that the gpl covers...

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

As it says:

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

And what rights does this licensing give me? Do I have the right to sell it? Do I become an owner? Or better does this give me the right to sell it on ebay? Because from what I have understood, I can sell it. I have bought Mandrake 10.1 official from a guy that has his own site, outside ebay and sells distributions. I think this is legal..

Take a look at the GPL itself or the GPL FAQ.

I bet M$ has something to do with it. No not really but wouldn't surprise me if they were behind it though.

I have included in my email to ebay links to GPL licence and linux distributions as well. If they do care to read on I´m sure they will see it. I will post ebay´s reply as soon as they care to send it.

You won't be the first to try. Ebay is playing real dumb on this one... They just did a blanket ban to cover their bum because some lawyer told them to...

Here is my thought. The software is free Okay, The Media cost money, The labor cost money. You are being paid for media and labor, not linux. Maybe you can sell CDRW & DVDRW media and to prove that they work, you have Linux Installations on them to prove the media works.

Just a quick basic thought.
Brian1
" Google the Linux way @ http://www.google.com/linux "

yeah, but at the end of the day ebay are providing the service for people to sell items. if they dont like what your selling because it might get them into a lawsuit then thats ok. its their service - their rules, they dont owe anybody anything, customers dont have a right to sell things on there. ie. even if your business is legitimate(which its probably is), if they dont think its suitable for them, they have the right to kick you. i take it they didnt mention if they said it was illegal or not...

Of course they don't provide this 'service' out of the goodness of their hearts. They do it for money, quite a bit of it. They do quite well out of it. They make certain choices for various reasons. They ban pets because of public uproar and they are banning software because they fear piracy and MS. It still doesn't make them right or mean that people can't complain or protest their actions. They may have the 'right' to kick people off, but people still have the 'right' to complain or avoid them or try to get them to understand. It would be easy for them to cover GPL in their terms... They will not get into a law suit for someone selling GPL software.

So then why are there 20 pages of results for Microsoft Windows:
http://search.ebay.com/microsoft-win...26QQsofocusZbs

I didn't realize windows was public domain? Something fishy is up here.

EDIT: I just had a search for 'linux' and there are plenty of linux cds on sale at Ebay. So why are they picking on Ptrs!OP?