Internet piracy can be defined as any activity by those who copy and offer for sale other artists' work for profit. What determines an act of piracy is willful intent......an individual knowingly and willingly steals from others despite attempts by the internet's artist community to appeal to their sense of decency and integrity. Current federal legislation regarding relief from internet piracy is vague at best, and costly and time consuming to enforce. Most true artists and craftsmen can't afford modern society's version of retail justice, so pirates prevail, and in the end......the consumer loses.  

No artist wants to spend a lifetime developing skills and applying talents to a given project, only to have others take advantage. Similarly, no one wants to be limited to a range of goods that are inappropriately cloned and offered in a poor quality version.  Without a practical way to identify oneself in the marketplace by one's own individual merits, many artists eventually give up and move on. Add to this the plague of *madeinchina* fare that affects nearly every ebay category, and it becomes obvious what the future holds in terms of choices available to the consumer.
 
Without delving into political overtones, we enter a void in quality consumerism. The ebay community belongs to us as consumers. We determine what's right and wrong, and in a larger sense, we determine the  destiny of the ebay venue. We have the power to maintain a level of integrity that we expect and deserve, by simply avoiding those who would exploit it.