Stardate 20010604.2132 (On Screen): Ms. Hilden doesn't have a sneaky enough mind. (Rather stunning considering she's a lawyer.) EBay objects to users making phony bids to push up a price on an auction. Bidders dislike this, too, so they've been good about reporting phony bids to EBay. EBay also doesn't like having people include links on their auctions because it opens the possibility that the deal could be closed outside of EBay, cutting EBay out of its commission. But for short-sighted users, this is a good thing. So Ms. Hilden correctly concludes that users are unlikely to voluntarily report linkers.
But Ms. Hilden is a bit too trusting of human nature. Her idea is that EBay should directly reward people who turn in linkers, with for instance a reduced or eliminated commission for one auction. She misses the point that the link could be a setup precisely to earn such a reward. Someone could create two EBay accounts, post an auction with a link on one of them and then report it with the other. Bingo: free auction.
She also considers the idea of a Napster variant where anyone could ban anyone else for trading copyrighted music — or anything else. This doesn't police a system, it converts it to full scale warfare. People will reenter with new identities and then ban those who banned them; coalitions will form; in other words you'll get Player-versus-player battles. (Perhaps even guilds.) (discuss)
