Chicago (IL) - Auction site Ebay has bowed to pressure from the International Fund for Animal Welfare Tuesday, as the company announced that it would ban all sales of ivory products from its site. The decision came only hours before the IFAW released a report entitled “Killing with Keystrokes.” The new rule will go into effect beginning in 2009.

The conservation group’s report tracked online movement of the sale of ivory products, and found 7122 online auctions, advertisements and messages attempting to sell ivory. Ivory is of course the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus and walrus.

IFAW originally accused eBay as being the source for 83% of all ivory identified by investigators, and a total of 63% of all trade focused upon by the investigation. However, the IFAW also mentioned that a comprehensive tally of Ebay’s sales would raise that tally even higher.

"This demonstrates one of the key issues in global Internet trade: a strong policy without adequate enforcement is ineffective," the group said. "This very lack of policy enforcement may in fact make eBay the largest digital marketplace in the world for ivory that may violate national or international law or Web site policy."

While this story tends to stray a little more to the conservation angle than the tech angle, it is interesting to see the influence that the long standing conservation world has on the relatively new Internet industry.

I have always felt...

Oct 21, 2008 13:45     

...that you could get away with selling a baby on ebay. They talk a good game, but as pointed out, almost zero enforcement equates to a policy that might as well not exist. I stopped supporting this website years ago, over this. craiglist is not a huge improvement, but at least there the users can police these things away themselves.
Scott report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -7

Idiot

Oct 21, 2008 14:09     

Scotty, you're an idiot. You can report stuff on eBay just like you can on Craigslist, and at least there is a strong company entity willing to read your complaints. Craigslist is far worse than eBay in this sense.
John report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +6

Ebay is good for nothing

Oct 21, 2008 14:37     

The people at Ebay are not experts in anything. They wouldn't know ivory if they were hit in th head with it. This is the problem with Ebay is that are very reactionary so they are probably going to remove everything that has the word ivory in the title, even if it just describes the color. Ebay is going down because of how they are treating their sellers. How is taking ivory off Ebay going to help anything? people are just going to find a different way of selling it.

Joshua report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

re:john

Oct 21, 2008 14:41     

I wont insult your intelligence, to me you have a right to an opinion. Yes, you are correct, my simplistically stated opinion is wrong, Actually ebay has a fricken WONDERFUL reporting system for dealing with these problems... It's really first class, a gem of the purest form of innovation... Just ask the people that concern themselves with the illegal sale of ivory. You may be an ebay fanboy all that you like, but the fact is they find everything from classified military hardware to, well, illegal ivory on their website all the time. I would be willing to bet you that I could find one hundred patently illegal things selling there, let alone prohibited items by their TOS, at any given moment. Things like F-15 parts. We deny them to Iran for a reason... I'll say it again. A policy that is sloppily enforced might as well not be a policy at all.

Scott report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Moron

Oct 21, 2008 14:43     

Beam me up, Scotty, you freakin' moron!
James report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -2

Idiot 2

Oct 21, 2008 14:44     

I agree, craiglist is far worse than e bay!! E bay is making the right decision, may be a little late but better now than never!
digitalwarior report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

GOOD FOR IFAW

Oct 21, 2008 14:51     

This is great....plenty of good stuff on ebay..no need to promote violence against animals
GINGER report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Oh I see.

Oct 21, 2008 14:53     

I cant respond to someone calling me an idiot? Without calling them a single name? Fine, fuck you and fuck your website, too. I have actually been seriously considering finding a daily tech news source where they actually proof-read their own material. Bad spelling, incorrect grammar, hell, missing whole fricken WORDS are common in about a quarter of the... for lack of a better term... articles published here. Not to mention manipulative, misleading titles, from time to time. Bye now, assholes.

Scott report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -3

moron

Oct 21, 2008 15:00     

Johnny-boy, you're a moron. Ebay rarely actually takes any action on reports, and when they do, it takes roughly a year before any sort of investigation and up to 2.5 years before any steps are taken to achieve any sort of action beyond the "investigation". I've been through this. I know others who have been through this. I paid for a violin that I never got. I've since read dozens of people getting robbed by this person and communicated with several of them and Ebay has at the most contacted some to basically tell them to deal with it themselves. I for one, have been told to call the police and let them handle it. That person's Ebay store is still up and running to this day. ...Kudos to you, Scott. Craigslist actually take action by at the very least removing postings and access.

Ben report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

John, Scott was right!

Oct 21, 2008 15:26     

You've apparently never been burned by the "strong company entity " you are defending. Yes, I am sure they are willing to READ the complaints, but they are in search of the "Almighty Dollar" and if they can find any reason to exclude themselves from investigation or keep a customer paying them, then it doesn't take a lot of imagination why they ignore valid complaints. Ebay is maneuvering themselves of out business because they just aren't the same company they were 5 - 7 years ago. Back then there was an excitement about Ebay and what it provided to everyon over the internet. It actually gave people a reason to be on the internet. But they have burned so many people and raised their rates so many times to offset the declining usage that it is marketing itself out of business. They are running out of NEW customers that are unaware of the fine print that excludes Ebay from liability. Just watch, when their stock starts dropping, stockholders will start bailing.

Jimmy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Some ivory sales are perfectly legal everywhere

Oct 21, 2008 15:30     

The blanket prohibition of ivory sales on eBay ignores the fact that all Alaska Natives are authorized to own, carve and sell walrus ivory as a subsistence craft. Internet sales are perfect for native people in farflung villages, who supplement their income with authentic native art that uses the whole animal they've hunted and killed, instead of just the meat. People who don't know what they're doing manage to do so much harm to others. It's a sahme

Linda report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

The Politics of Business

Oct 21, 2008 17:01     

They are playing politics to try to improve their image to buyers. csdxdThe same way they stopped allowing ham radio equipment and CB radio stuff to be sold. I tried to sell my late father's Ham radio equipment and they pulled it several times even though it's not illegal to buy sell or possess. They can't be reached by phone. When you contact them over their web site they always tell you to resolve the problem by yourself. They basically do nothing. What a pathetic business model. Also the seller is not allowed to charge the buyer for the convenience of using Paypal which is not a convenience to the seller anymore whatsoever. Ben, Everytime I sell something over a hundred dollars lately or computer parts, Paypals holds my money for weeks after the items are delivered. I have 100% positive feedback. Their web site is full of bugs. I have to call them everytime I do a transaction lately. Paypal customer service seems to be in Philippines now. You have to call 8-10 times to resolve a simple problem. I'm going to stop accepting Paypal or ask people to send me payment outside of ebay

J. Doe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Ebay canceling listings

Oct 21, 2008 18:38     

IHMO, ebay is very effective at removing listings much to the point of it being really annoying. They won't let you sell software meant for distribution for a new computer, ect... (Read their terms of use.) So Scott, ebay is very capable of enforcing a policy.
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