The different approach that Bidder’s Edge used as compared to eBay’s normal customers
To begin with, it is very important to know that every profession no matter what it is has a code of ethics. This is a crucial aspect since it helps in compromising the differences between the individuals as well as organizations in a particular industry. Therefore, it is important that you intensely research on the code of ethics from other website owners in order for you to be credible and succeed in this profession.
In this case, you may notice that Bidder’s edge concentrated on website and webpage linking in order to be prosperous in its business. This attracted many customers to its site since it made it easier for them to take on comparison-shopping. When it comes to comparison-shopping, most if not all shoppers want items at the lowest price possible Hence, the emergence of bidder’s edge was like an answered prayer. On the other hand, eBay’s main business is to provide items online to make it easier for shoppers’ This basically means that it only put up items for buyers to buy with no further services hence the big difference.
How linking and other Bidder’s edge acts were a main concern to eBay
It is however important to note that Bidder’s edge had another underlying business alongside linking websites, which was of course very beneficial to the linked websites as it increase the number of customers tremendously. In addition to this business, it went ahead and searched for on – auction items from other websites and posted them on its very own website. This as explained by Desjardins and Heartman (2008), is also known as white collar crime which basically means that it is professionals who are involved in this crime (p.12).
The means used here is that of deception: in which bidder’s edge pretends to be so philanthropic that it just offers the linking service to other organizations but in the process uses its server to search for auction products and goes ahead to place them on its own website. This is unethical because fewer customers will see the need to go to the other websites when they already have all the items in one hence the concern by eBay.
The traditional trespass to personal property
It is also evident that eBay had allowed Bidder’s edge to gain access to some of its products but it definitely did not allow for the “copy and pasting” of items from its site to the Bidder’s site. However, you realize that Bidder’s still went ahead and crossed the line which can be termed as trespassing the personal property of eBay’s site. Therefore, with its determination to stop this given the irreversible losses and damage it would experience, EBay had to go to court and filed a petition against Biddy’s edge. The damage that this would impose on eBay’s site is that of slowing down its servers as well as leading to the loss of important data from its system. These servers being the most important components of the entire system are the property of eBay (Cheeseman 2006, p.9)
The difference between the text’s definition of trespass to personal property and the Californian definition
The state of California has defined personal property trespassing in almost the same way that the traditional theory has (Ferrel et al, 2006, p. 2 ).The servers being the property of eBay need to be protected from such illegal yet professional hooligans.
References
Cheeseman,H. (2006). Contemporary Business and Online Commerce Law (5th ed.). New Jersey: Irwin publishers.
DesJardins,J. & Hartman,L. (2008). Business Ethics: Decision- Making for personal Integrity & Social Responsibility (2nd ed.). U.S: McGraw Hill.
Ferrel, L., Fraedrich,J. & Ferrell, O. (2009). Business Ethics: Decision making and cases. Ohio. Nd: Nelson Education.