It sucks but what's the message? "The big corporation doesn't care about us or fair business practices"? Wow, NEWS FLASH, huh?
This policy, which appears on eBay's website under the heading "Items That Promote Hatred, Violence, Racial or Religious Intolerance," says, "
eBay will judiciously disallow listings or items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial or religious intolerance, or items that promote organizations (such as the KKK, Nazis, neo-Nazis and Aryan Nation) with such views
Under this policy, eBay may in its discretion, remove items when the item or description graphically portrays violence or victims of violence, and lacks substantial social, artistic or political value."
Religious intolerance? 50% of heavy metal bands can get pulled off right there, can't they? Violence? Shit, there goes another 25%. The article is a bit disingenuous in acting puzzled why Ebay would pull stuff that doesn't have large swastikas all over it.
What, Ebay is supposed to be an accurate judge of social, artistic, or political value?
The interesting thing is, if Ebay can do this, so can other large internet companies. I suppose there's going to be some fun when Myspace decides it needs to take measures to "protect the children" using its site.
How many people will be in trouble if Paypal (owned by Ebay these days, right?) decides to monitor what's being bought using its service? I can't afford to directly accept credit cards (LotFP costs more than enough as it is so passing more cost on to the buyer is out of the question), and I doubt many people are going to be sending cash through the mail in this day and age...
While the events described in the artlcle may be true, the editorial slant of the article is silly... Yeah, victims of the uncaring, ignorant mainstream corporation. So what's the answer? Complaining to Ebay and raising hell, fighting to be able to use (and give profits to) the very people shitting on you, or adjusting business practices so you don't need to use the bastards?
