Illustration by Christoph Niemann When I'm shopping on eBay, is it OK to use a "sniping" service — automated ware that swoops in to place my (winning) bid in the last few seconds?
In a word: yes. Sniping works on a simple psychological principle. By waiting until the last second to bid, you keep other potential buyers in the dark about your motives, and thus prevent a bidding war. There's a sizable industry of online services — Powersnipe, Bidnapper, and EZ Sniper — that, for a fee, will deploy fearsome, tireless robots to swoop in at the final moment and snatch victory for you. Bonus: eBay does not prohibit their use. Legally, you're in the clear.
Ah, but do you need to snipe? Is it worth the fee — or the precious time you'll spend sitting by the computer if you do it manually? It depends on what you're bidding for. Jeffrey Ely, an economist at Northwestern University, found that with inexpensive, widely available items — like DVDs of recent movies — sniping doesn't really affect final prices. In those types of auctions, sniping's not worth the cost.
Where you do see a return on your investment is with goods like antiques, wine, and collectibles — whose actual worth you have special knowledge of. In those cases, you don't want to tip your hand. If you're still fuming about losing that limited-edition Hello Kitty pencil sharpener, you'll probably have to snipe because everyone else will be: A friend who sells antiques on eBay full-time estimates that most of his pieces valued at more than $100 receive their winning bid in the last 10 seconds — and "the majority of those are done with sniping services." Snipe away.
I bought Hotel California 15 years ago and have since lost the album. If I download the MP3s online without paying, am I breaking the law? I mean, I did pay at one point.
Technically, you were allowed to make a backup copy of that CD. But in this situation, what you're doing is replacing it with someone else's backup copy. Whether that's kosher hinges on the doctrine of fair use. And good luck figuring out what that means — case law doesn't exist yet for this scenario, because the answer would inevitably terrify either content makers or copyright reform activists.
So what do the experts say? You're on shaky ground. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann — probably the most download-positive attorney on the planet, because he defended the music-sharing service Grokster before the US Supreme Court — thinks "you'd have an uphill fight on this one."
The marketplace already offers easy ways to replace your misplaced album. Like, say, iTunes. Or Wal-Mart. Similarly, just because you owned the 8-track version of Hotel California doesn't mean you're entitled to a CD copy for free. "I doubt a judge would conclude that every music purchase comes with a free insurance policy against loss," Lohmann concludes.
So pony up, my friend. Such is the state of copyright today: You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
Is it OK to lie in my IM away message? Sometimes I put "On the phone" when I'm actually playing World of Warcraft.
Lying is bad, and this kind is essentially the same as calling in sick to go fishing. You would never do that, would you? But you don't have to volunteer the truth, either. A sin of omission isn't as bad as a sin of commission. How about putting up a literary quote instead? Or a joke that's clearly, if wittily, untrue? "Abducted by aliens" will keep 'em guessing — and if you really are playing Warcraft, it might be close to the truth.
*Need help navigating life in the 21st century? Email us at *mrknowitall@wired.com.
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