Comments on: Start-up hopes to outdo eBay with online market

Wigix believes its Nasdaq-style, community-boosted trading system is better than eBay's auctions for selling most things. But the company faces formidable challenges.

[macfan8888]

Wigix Content Stolen From EveryMac.com

Wigix's Apple Mac content is all copied and pasted from EveryMac.com. The SKU owner is listed as Wigix Inc. so it is clear that this has been done in-house rather than by anyone in the community. I wonder what other sites Wigix has copied content from?

If Wigix steals its content from other sites how can anyone trust that the company won't steal your money?

[msimoens]

A little out there

Trusting them from stealing your money. Come on. Copying info
and stealing money are two totally different things. You've never
copied someone else's info for anything?

[Shankland]

I asked Wigix about this...

We'll see if they have any comment to add. Can you point to a couple specific examples?

[burtonjunky]

Maybe...

Maybe that's the description straight from Apple? Go to Wigix and search for another product (I chose GameCube). Then Google part of the product description and see what you find. The description for the GameCube matches quite a few other sites.
All in all, I don't think it's worth getting your feathers ruffled.

[JCPayne]

You're awfully fast...

How do you know *they* stole the design???? How do you know they didn't buy the design from one of those Template sites- which itself might be selling the designs of others???? You're awfully fast to say Wigix is to blame without even knowing the full story.... Gosh you're sooo like the U.S. media. know facts-- to back up your accusations but quick to out with it.

[JCPayne]

You're awfully fast...

How do you know *they* stole the design???? How do you know they didn't buy the design from one of those Template sites- which itself might be selling the designs of others???? You're awfully fast to say Wigix is to blame without even knowing the full story.... Gosh you're sooo like the U.S. media. You claim to know the facts-- but have nothing to back up your accusations.

[Reen Sterling]

Crazed Macfan8888

I went to the Wigix site, I found that Wigix is not selling the items they have listed in the catalog. How can Wigix steal your money? The descriptions on the items listed in the catalog are product descriptions which should be universal - is that stealing?

[lingsun]

Most eBay competitiors are dead

Yahoo gave up their auctions. There isn't a strong #2 in online auctions. I'd be surprised if the startup that's mentioned will do any better, even with a different format.

[new_media_works]

Is it permissible to describe a book by the cover description?

Isn't that what amazon.com does?

Frome the reasoning applied above, I guess book publishers could complain that amazon.com is "stealing" their content, but they don't.

Interesting question though.

:) nmw

[macfan8888]

Amazon.com Licenses Third-Party Content

That's an interesting question, but it's not comparable because book publishers give permission to book sellers to use the cover description to sell their books. In the same way, Apple gives permission for authorized resellers to use Apple's marketing descriptions.

For third-party content (New York Times book reviews, etc for example), Amazon.com licenses this content and attributes it to the source. This is why if you want to sell books through Amazon.com on your own site (affiliate, etc) you can't copy New York Times book reviews on your own site just because they are on Amazon.com.

Wigix has copied hundreds of descriptions from a third-party site (EveryMac.com) without attribution. That's stealing. Wigix isn't using a cover description they're using the equivalent of a third-party book review without attribution.

[macfan8888]

Text, Not Design

Again I'm talking about text, not design. Wigix has copied and pasted blocks of hundreds of originally written text from a third-party website without attribution.

[purple_reading_giraffe]

Site asks for ebay and paypal IDs and passwords

I have a real problem with this site. They are asking registrants to GIVE them their eBay and PayPal login IDs and passwords, and it was on an unsecured server. They look like either a huge phishing scam or amazingly STUPID people.

[purple_reading_giraffe]

eBay/PayPal info no longer requested for registration

Thank you for listening and removing this eBay/PayPal request from your registration pages. I would keep the functionality available should your users request it at some point, but not at registration.

Also, thank you for securing your registration page. Just one tiny detail - the link from your main page shows (when pointed at using Firefox) as http:// instead of https:// -- however, if clicked it does load a secure page. There might be a few that will believe the link reporting that it goes to an unsecured page and not click at all.

[FirstResponder]

Not content, not design, but text?

First, you said it is content, not design. Then you said it is text, not content or design. Curious, I revisited both Wigix and Everymac awhile ago. Like other readers, I see many, many identical descriptive words from the manufacturer being used in both sites. So how can one say a text is originally written when it is composed primarily of product features from the manufacturer?

[macfan8888]

Text Content, Not Design

Wigix has stolen text content from EveryMac.com. Text is a type of content.

EveryMac.com has originally written descriptions and Wigix just copied and pasted hundreds of these descriptions onto their site without attribution. That is theft. It is the difference between research and copying and pasting. Anybody can see that.