UPDATE by quirke 06-15-08
The accused shop, Ulljasbeads.etsy.com, is no longer active on Etsy.
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UEN has received an outline from Etsy seller Abeadisborn detailing an apparent case of fraud on Etsy, alleging that another Etsy seller has been purchasing and re-selling lampwork beads from other artists under the claim that she had made the beads herself. The following information has been published with permission of the author.
On April 19th, 2008, I received an email from a fellow glass-bead maker on Ebay. She had asked if I was aware of someone purchasing my handmade lampwork beads through Ebay, and selling them in her own Etsy store, claiming to have made the beads herself. I was quite shocked, and had to investigate further. This link: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200215772276&category=34070 shows my Ebay auction, won by the alleged IP offender, gerbera28, aka Ullja/Melek Kuntze. By request, I made this auction available as a “buy it now” for the customer, because she said she was in need of the beads very quickly. The beads were mailed to: Melek Kuntze [address removed], with a delivery confirmation of 9101 7850 9140 1537 7553 85, which were delivered to the home at 5:24 PM on April 22, 2008 in [location removed].
After investigating further, I found this indeed was true. This link: http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=8440928 is the link to the altered by Etsy sale information, of my beads. Sold by Ullja Kuntze, gerbera28. The attachment with this email is the original sold information page, screen printed, BEFORE Etsy made alterations to the description. Also attached, is the PDF file of the documents I faxed to Etsy, on May 27th 2008, pertaining to this matter.
After contacting other fellow lampworkers about this occurance, many beadmakers like myself, found evidence of this happening to them as well. It became a very big issue, and more complaints were sent to Etsy.
I followed Etsy’s Intellectual Property Right claim guidelines, by faxing them all the pertinent information pointing to this Etsy seller, and provided them with the proof, showing her fraudulent activity on Etsy. Etsy’s attorney, Sarah Feingold, called me to confirm that she had gotten the fax information, and the matter was being looked into. Shortly after, I noticed about 72 sale listings at Ulljasbeads.etsy.com, disappeared. Those listings were of the same nature as mine. They were handmade lampwork beads, made by people other than her, and she knew she was caught. I have a PDF file of all Ulljas Etsy listing pages, before they were removed. If you need them, please let me know so I can send you a copy.
To date, Ulljasbeads.etsy.com is still an active selling member of Etsy. She is still advertising other people’s handmade lampwork beads on her website, located at http://yhst-59139618684516.stores.yahoo.net/ - if you follow this link, the blue encased floral bead featured on her front page, is still being displayed, whos copyright belongs to someone other than her, who has also filed an IPC complaint on her.
In case the screenshot linked to is unclear, the text that was removed from the sold listing reads “All my beads are made by me in my private glass studio in Milan Italy… kiln annealed overnight for durabilityand strenght and Dremel cleaned for you”.
The listing that Abeadisborn refers to as being altered by Etsy may be one of the listings that Etsy has admitted to altering (see our previous coverage here).
From Etsy’s Copyright Policy:
B. Once Proper Bona Fide Infringement Notification is Received by the Designated Agent, it is Etsy’s policy:
1. To remove or disable access to the material infringing upon the intellectual property;
2. To notify the user that Etsy has removed or disabled access to the material; and
3. That repeat offenders will have their infringing material removed from the system and that Etsy will terminate such users’ access to the service.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Ironically, the bead seller accused of fraud with their bead shop also owned a bakery shop on Etsy, and that shop has been shut down.
What did the bakery store do that is worse than what the bead store is doing? Why shut one and not the other?
June 14th, 2008 at 12:40 am
There are MANY MANY other artists that Ullja did the same thing to. Etsy has the proof of several fraudulent transactions that transpired from ulljasbeads.etsy.com and they have yet to shut her down… it’s inexcusable.
June 14th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Supposedly Dawanda shut down a store she had there…it seems that a site newer (i think) than Etsy has a way to properly handle such allegations.
They really need to get their act together. These are livelihoods at stake, nevermind the fact that their ethics are currently in question.
June 14th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Thanks to Abeadisborn, for sharing her experience, and to quirke, for posting this article. The word really needs to get out about this.
The handling of this situation by Etsy is unconscionable. Where is the support for the independent artisan trying to make a living by her/his craft? Where is the consequence for not only defrauding Etsy buyers, but blatantly and flagrantly breaking the TOUs?
Editing those sold listings did nothing to protect the injured parties. It covered-up the evidence of impropriety and, as of this moment, allows the unscrupulous seller to continue to profit at the unlawful expense of others. A great deal of harm has been done. Do the admins not care that sellers feel abandoned and betrayed by Etsy and have emptied their shops?
This is shameful.
June 14th, 2008 at 12:01 am
If they edited the listing to comply with the DMCA complaint, which seems to be their contention from what Matt said, then that means they admit the seller did violate another person’s IP rights. (actually more than one other seller’s rights were violated)
So if Etsy admits that, why can’t they close down the store for that violation?
They have closed stores for so much less!
June 13th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
When I read Matt’s sensible comment about the editing sold listings thing, I assumed he was talking about instances where, say, someone has sold a Hello Kitty item and the copyright owners have insisted the image of the item and perhaps the brand name be removed from the sold item. That makes perfect sense to me and is a good reason to edit a sold listing.
But this incident seems like a very poor use of that ability by Etsy. If anything they should have put in a note which was clearly written by Etsy to state that the seller did not make the item - and they should have left in the lies by the seller, IMO.
And, yes, a seller who is clearly behaving in a fraudulent manner (which is very different to just being naive about copyright law) should be removed. Given all of the shops that have been removed for little or no reason, it’s insane that this one should remain in the circumstances.
By the way, I’m very interested in how someone can be an expert baker in one country and an expert glass maker in another at the same time. I suspect Etsy needs to look beyond this one shop to see what else has been going on!
June 13th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
A google cached page of the green beads listing on Apr 30, 2008, right before they sold.
The text is a little more readable than the screenshot, but it clearly claims that she personally made the beads herself. This text has ben removed after the item was sold, by Etsy.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Yeah, and the etsytools folks receive death threats and are forced to shut down a voluntary service but a conniving seller fares well…it just ain’t right! Where are the cheerleaders now? I believe someone mentioned in one of the forum threads that this “goes to the very ethical core of Etsy”. This is when everyone needs to be circling the wagons and defending the site and the handmade movement by getting rid of fraudulent sellers. They should be clamoring for Etsy to do something about this!!
June 13th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I don’t understand why sellers who commit proven fraud more than once are permitted to continue to sell on Etsy, while sellers with excellent reputations and no history of trouble are shut down without warning over a single non-delivery report.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
“That repeat offenders will have their infringing material removed from the system and that Etsy will terminate such users’ access to the service.”
But they haven’t have they?
This screams lawsuit!