Questionable Broker Ethics

[Warren Milberg]

I was recently surprised to have a fellow H28.5 owner ask me why my boat was for sale. It is not. It seems he saw a picture of me and my boat in an ad on Yachtworld.com. In looking into the matter, I did, in fact, find the ad in question, posted by the Gratitude Yachting Center brokerage in Rock Hall, Md. A picture of me sailing my boat was posted as the lead photo in an ad for another H28.5 which suggested the boat for sale was my boat. I called the broker, who was at first defensive about this image, stating "he took all the pictures of the boats in his ads." When I told him who the actual photograher was, when and where it was taken, and that I had the original set of images, he agreed to take the photo in question off the ad.

Be careful, stuff happens out there in cyberspace....

 

[FastOlson]

Brokers often use brochure pics and correctly label them as "sistership" photos. That seems honest, even tho not very helpful to a prospective buyer who wants to see photos of the exact boat for sale before committing hours of time to drive somewhere to see it.

What the broker did in your example was different, and unethical.

If his potential listers and lookers knew this they would really hesitate before doing business there.

(Different venue, but as I get old(er) I appreciate all the more instructions we would routinely get when serving on jury duty, i.e. that catching a witness in one lie required us to doubt anything else that they said. Over the decades, that has proven to be good advice for the wider world outside the courtroom, too.

LB

 

[kenn]

I once found an ad on a local realtor's website showing my elderly neighbour's house for sale. The picture was theirs, the address was theirs, but there was something funny with the name. Turns out the actual listing was for the same number house on a sound-alike street, and they just grabbed filed info for the wrong house. Still, very unsettling.

It happens... gotta be vigilant. Especially with everything so available online.

There are ways to protect your online image from being poached for use on another site, but none are foolproof.

 

[Mike Turner]

When we sold our Rob Roy yawl earlier this year, I used (with permission) in an Internet sales listing, a photo a friend had taken of my wife and I sailing the boat across Mobile Bay. It's a great photo.

If you Google "Rob Roy yawl" now, you can see that photo all over the Internet. Others have used it to illustrate their sales of sisterships (but without "sistership" designation), and at least one commercial entity is now using the photo regarding charters of the boat. Only one person ever asked me for permission to use it. So far I haven't seen any brokers use the photo.

So, yes, once something is out on the 'net, there are those who will appropriate it for their own use.

Sure is a nice shot, though...

 

[Alex Dare]

sistership

At the minimum, if the broker didn't have any good photos of the actual boat and decided to grab a photo off the net, he should have listed it as "sistership".
Problem is, somebody drives several hours to see a boat they saw on the web then are disapointed when they get there as it doesn't have the bimini and dodger shown in the pics, has the deep keel not the shoal, no spinnaker...ect.
At that point, suggesting..."didn't you read the listing"...probably isn't going to go over well.

 

[RichH]

Id be damn proud that someone thought that MY personal boat was good enough to use for such a picture.
It becomes an oligarchy of shysters when everyone is soooooo legally thin-skinned that every thought and every action by one person is 'objected to' by someone else.

 

[PotomacDaysailer]

Id be damn proud that someone thought that MY personal boat was good enough to use for such a picture.
It becomes an oligarchy of shysters when everyone is soooooo legally thin-skinned that every thought and every action by one person is 'objected to' by someone else.

It may be a compliment, I suppose, but consider:

1. The entity using the image of your boat to sell another is misrepresenting the boat for sale;

2. When you go to use your own image, nobody believes that your boat is really the one in the picture!

So I'd say there is ample grounds to object in these cases, as opposed to the types who are always on the lookout to sue someone and score a legal jackpot, who rightly deserve disdain.

 

[BarryL]

I'm shocked!

Hey,

I am shocked that a broker would do something unethical!

Barry

 

[Seattle Scott]

Make me an offer

My brother in law is in the hopital but he wants me to sell his boat. Not sure of kind of boat but brother in law says it is great. Make offer.

 

[bffatcat]

Questionable ad pics by brokers

Well guys these are tough times for a lot of us. Especially yacht brokers who probably are not doing well now a days. necessity or should I say desperation becomes the mother of invention

 

[Joe]

I got my avitar off the net, should I be concerned that I've offended the Royal Navy?

 

[Alex Dare]

pics

I stole my avatar pic off the net too. My dog is actually much cuter!

 

[Joe]

I stole my avatar pic off the net too. My dog is actually much cuter!

I'm sure, but you should still identify it as a "sistership" heh, heh

 

[Rich Stidger]

My avatar is my own. I really doubt anyone else would want it, so I think I'm safe......

 

[Billbeard]

My Avatar was custom designed for me by my Super talented Sister Sharon

 

[HEINZIR]

I got my avitar off the net, should I be concerned that I've offended the Royal Navy?

You mean that is not your boat? I'm disappointed!

 

[gettinthere]

you should have waited till the boat sold and then claimed a percentage of the sale!

The Rob Roy picture is copyrighted by the creator. If others are running commercial enterprises and using stolen images in the advertising, they owe the creator of the image.
First, ask for reasonable payment for the use of the photo. $200 to $500. Then if they refuse, contact the local office of the US attorney. It's up to $40,000 per use fine from the feds for copyright infringement. Per use would be per view!

Theft is theft, regardless of what you think. Same for pirated software.

 

[Warren Milberg]

Rich H:
I can't help but note your proximity to Rock Hall. Do you have any knowledge of, and/or relationship to, the broker in question there? Also, please note that I never indicated or suggested any legal action for what I deem to be the unauthorized, and possibly illegal, commercial use of the image of my boat. I merely asked that the picture be removed from the ad, and it was. My purpose here was`to inform other sailors of the practices of this broker so that they may make more informed choices about using this broker.

 

[RichH]

Not a problem.
No I dont have any knowledge of any brokers at Gratitude ... although I will state that Gratitude Yacht Center apparently has the wide-spread reputation of being an expensive 'rip-off' for boat work, etc. performed.
If one feels the need to protect oneself from such, then one must consider to 'copyright' anything that can be 'public'. Without copyright and if the 'work' enters the public realm you really dont have a leg to stand on.

 

[larryw]

Casually perusing classified ads to get an idea of what my boat is worth, I came across a pic of it that I had taken in a for sale ad. Turns out the broker had just snatched it off a forum site, much like this one. When I informed him of his error, he took it down right away.