Hendrickson

Hendrickson v. eBay, Inc.

Good Law

165 F. Supp. 2d 1082·2001 WL 1078981·60 U.S.P.Q. 2d (BNA) 1335·2001 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14420

United States District Court, Central District of CaliforniaSeptember 4, 2001CV 01-0495 RJK (RNBx), CV 01-3412 RJKCalifornia6,942 words

Opinion

Kelleher, J.

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS EBAY INC., MARGARET C. WHITMAN AND MICHAEL RICHTER’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT OR, ALTERNATIVELY, MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

This case involves a matter of first impression in the federal courts: whether one of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) affords protection to the operator of the popular Internet auction web service, www.ebay.com, when a copyright owner seeks to hold the operator second arily liable for copyright infringement by its sellers. On August 20, 2001, the Court heard Defendants eBay, Inc. (“eBay”), Margaret Whitman and Michael Richter’s (collectively, the “eBay Defendants”) motion for summary judgment on the copyright and trademark claims in the consolidated Hendrickson v. eBay, Inc. et al. cases. After the hearing, the Court took the motion under submission. After considering the papers submitted by the parties, the case file and oral argument, the Court hereby GRANTS the motion.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

eBay provides an Internet website service where over 25 million buyers and sellers of consumer goods and services have come together to buy and sell items through either an auction or…

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