EBay to Ban 3 More Categories for Auction

Internet auction site EBay Inc. has moved to ban three more types of transactions, only the third time it has acted to bar entire categories.

The San Jose-based company said individuals and firms that are not copyright holders won’t be allowed to sell backup disks that frequently come with the purchase of software, or digitized music files that could be burned onto blank compact discs by the buyer.

It also banned the resale of movie reels. The steps follow contacts by copyright holders and government agencies, EBay said. Earlier, the company banned the sale of firearms, and this month it banned sales of alcohol and tobacco.

Of the site’s previous software disk and music sales, “a large percentage were indeed violations of intellectual property rights,” spokesman Kevin Pursglove said.

In an unrelated move, EBay said it would create new categories for fine arts and other high-end collectibles in which purchases would be partially guaranteed by one or another established auction house.

Sellers would have the choice of consigning goods to those auction houses or seeking bids themselves, and the dealers would have to meet certain requirements to qualify for the EBay “Great Collections” program.

The move upscale follows EBay’s purchase this year of Butterfield & Butterfield, an old-school auction house based in San Francisco.