Described as “badly written porn” or even “mummy porn”, has achieved a certain popularity. The E L James novel focuses on the relationship between a domineering billionaire and a young, Anastasia Steele, an innocent student happy to indulge her sugar daddy with his penchant for blindfolds and handcuffs.
Due to the interest Fifty Shades Of Grey and the sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed it’s not surprising that they’re available for sale on eBay. Sadly however it’s not just the paperbacks themselves being listed, but also eBook versions in direct contravention of .
Digitally delivered goods and items which are transferred electronically are not permitted on eBay and the policy specifically adds that they “must be supplied on a physical format for instance a CD or hardcopy. The option of delivering the item by email or digitally must never be included”. Most of these listings simply promise to email the content and don’t offer any physical form of delivery at all.
In addition it’s likely, especially in view of the prices offered, that the sellers do not legally own the content that they’re selling.
As an aside there are also a number of Fifty Shades of Grey bookmarks and keyrings incorrectly categorised as books, not to mention a number of sellers abusing the duplicate listings.
The Internet boom was in part fueled by the desire for erotic content and it appears that it’s as popular today as it was back in the 1990’s when Internet access started to become main stream. Where there’s money to be made, especially where it’s easy money providing salacious eBooks, people tend to get greedy and ignore what’s right.
Sadly of course eBay have made it hard to report items in bulk, so if the copyright infringments offend or if the listing policy breaches irk you it’s hard to notify eBay of the transgressions. On the other hand if you’re in the mood for a little light relief of a saucy nature then you can grab so long as you’re aware that you’re buying illegal copies.
One Response
You might point out that these are illegal copies, but I note you’re happy to take click through commission on sales of them.