I suppose most seller on eBay are not aware of the US Copyright Laws which protects the creator of the following works:

Copyrightable works include the following categories:

   1. literary works;
   2. musical works, including any accompanying words
   3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music
   4. pantomimes and choreographic works
   5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
   6. motion pictures and other audiovisual works
   7. sound recordings
   8. architectural works

So all the photos, art work, text, etc. you might see in a sellers auction should be his own.  He should shoot his own photos, write his own copy and in general not copy or plagiarize (To use and pass off the ideas or writings of another as one's own).

Now we now that eBay is full of copyright violations, but I suppose it is so hard to enforce that from going on.  We may have to just deal with it and leave it up to the copyright owners to seek a remedy for the illegal use of their works.

eBay has done a nice job of warning sellers when placing auctions to avoid selling counterfeit copyrighted material and also polices the auctions for improper use of images and will close down auctions that violate these rules.

I just heard of a case today from a local eBay seller I meet at the post office. She was shocked and horrified that eBay has pulled over 50 of her auctions and sent her an email to explain why.  She was selling expensive clothing from a famous clothing chain.  She got the merchandise at great prices by buying their old last year and close-out merchandise, pulling photos of that merchandise from the companies web site and using it in her auction ads.

She has been selling 50 or more items a week and was bragging how well she was doing.  I suppose it is easier to just steal someone elses work, plop it on your auction ad and put them up on eBay, but it is not fair and wrong to do so unless you obtain permission from the company or individual that owns the images.

I shoot most of my photos for my auctions even though grabbing a shot from a web site is easier.  I do from time to time link to a companies web site to direct the buyer to their site for more information on the product. This is certainly acceptable and eBay allows this if you are directing to another site for more information on the product.  It also is a good thing for the image or content owner since it does drive traffic to their site and helps to promote their products or services.

So where can you and where can't you lift information or images.  if you pull specs on a computer for example from the companies web site, this is basically OK. It is not creative content, just information that is readily available on the product, so go ahead and copy it if you need to.

Images are a different thing and are all copyrighted, so here is where you need to be careful.  If it is an image that you just can't take yourself, drop a line to the webmasters of that site and ask if it is OK to use their image in your auction. You will be surprised, many will not object.

Never take another sellers photos or words of a product and use it in your auctions. Not only is it illegal to do so, but it is unfair to them as well.  How would you like it if you spent hours shooting images, writing great ad copy only to find another seller offering the same product as you at $5 less and using all your hard work to sell theirs?  

So in closing the easy way is to simply do it yourself.  Sure, grabbing a company logo for your ad to make it look better might not cause a problem, but running your business using stolen works is definitely a no, no and one day you will get caught by eBay or worse the company owning the images. You could not only be made to remove the images, have your auctions shut down by eBay, but might also be open to legal action and that could cost more then the time you would spend just shooting the photos yourself.

Hey it is a good thing to create your own ads, just look at mine. In the 7 years of selling on eBay I have shot at least 25,000 photos and it gets easier and easier to do this in time.