I need some legal advice, please?

Okay...I have a little situation that I need some advice for... I signed up to work selling for a dropshipper...Basically, he had a website with some items on it, I got on eBay and listed the items. When they sell, people payed me through Paypal and I would pay the dropshipper, give him the names and addresses and then he would take it from there. He has a warehouse in the US that he uses to store the items.





Well, recently, he had added some 'larger' items that would bring in more profit. One in particular was a set of Rosetta Stone software. I would list it at about $300 and I bought it from the drop shipper for about $200.





Well, I sold about 30 in a week's time. Now, the problem is, eBay cancelled all my auctions and kicked me off eBay. They also took the liberty of emailing all my customers and telling them that it was fraudulent and that they all needed to call the police, fraud department, and even the FBI!!!





I called my drop shipper and asked him what was going on and why they would do that. I even asked him if they were pirated materials (since one of the customers told me that he had gotten a pirated copy) He won't answer me and tell me whether or not they are fakes. He just keeps telling me that I will win all the disputes on Paypal (since people were getting a little suspicious since I was 'no longer a registered user' on eBay) since they are non-reciepts. That's not the issue...if these are pirated materials, I am in big trouble for selling them!!





Another issue, is these are coming from China. I just assumed since they were from him, he would have them in his warehouse in the US.


Now, I'm not really sure what to do because, if in fact these are pirated, I could be in a whole lot of legal trouble.





Another thing, is if he refunds the money on these, he will only refund what I paid him for. The problem with this is, I had to pay a lot of eBay fees and Paypal fees so, I would be out probably close to $60 for each sale. $60 times 30 is鈥?a LOT!!





I need to know what steps I should take to protect myself! Any advice would be very helpful! Thanks!I need some legal advice, please?
If you get the money back that you paid him, consider yourself lucky. the fees and such you paid out are a price you pay for lack of due diligence in vetting that the products you sold were legitimate and your provider was a legitimate Rosetta Stone reseller.





You have learned an expensive lesson. Software piracy and selling counterfeit merchandise is a big issue, and you need to be aware of the laws and consequences if you intend of be in this business.





If you are concerned about potential legal action, you need to consult a lawyer experienced in trademark infringement and intellectual property rights.





Here is the ';anti-piracy'; statement from http://www.rosettastone.com/global/anti-鈥?/a>





Consequence of Piracy





Software piracy is stealing. If you or your company is caught copying and/or distributing illegal copies of software, you could be held liable under both civil and criminal laws. If the software owner decides to sue you or your company, the owner can seek to stop you from using/distributing its software immediately and can also request monetary damages. The software owner may then choose between actual damages, which includes the amount it has lost because of your infringement (as well as any of your profits attributable to the infringement), and statutory damages, which can be millions of dollars in cases of willful infringement. In addition, the government can criminally prosecute copyright infringement. If convicted, infringers can be fined up to $250,000, sentenced to prison for up to five years, or both. Repeat offenders can be imprisoned for up to 10 years.





To help protect consumers and to safeguard its intellectual property rights, Rosetta Stone庐 investigates and takes aggressive measures to stop instances of piracy.