eBay Bows to Apple, Nixes Auction for Proto-iPod
eBay officials took down an auction listing for a pre-release beta copy of the first-generation iPod Tuesday after being informed by Apple the attempted sale would violate the company’s intellectual property rights.
Mike Evangelist, who writes the WritersBlockLive blog, “was one of a bunch of internal testers for the iPod,” according to a post describing the result of his attempt to sell his device on eBay. After internal testing for the iPod was completed, all the beta testers were given opportunities to turn in their beta units in exchange for an official first release device, but Evangelist never did.
Facing “some unexpected expenses,” he figured selling the rare piece of Apple history on eBay would net him several hundred dollars. “There was great interest in the auction before it was pulled,” he writes, adding “I expected the final price to easily exceed the $450 reserve I had set.”
After the auction unexpectedly disappeared,he received a note from eBay saying “The rights owner, Apple, Inc., notified eBay that this listing violates intellectual property rights. When eBay receives a report of this type of violation, we remove the listing to comply with the law.”
So now Evangelist is just selling the thing through his website. From the several pictures he has available on the site, it looks to be in great shape, too.
At press time, the device remains unsold, with a high bid of $700.
Via EdibleApple
