American Airlines sues eBay seller for hawking pilot training CD

Posted on Fri, May. 25, 2007

By TREBOR BANSTETTERtbanstetter@star-telegram.com

blz0rt, you may need a lawyer.

American Airlines has filed suit against an unknown person who uses that screen name and hawked a pilot training CD on eBay this month.

According to the suit, filed in State District Court in Fort Worth, the CD is included with training materials American provides to pilots.

Pilots are barred from distributing them outside the company. eBay halted the auction at Americans request, but AA is worried the item might pop up again. So American asked the court for an injunction prohibiting the CDs sale. The airline also wants blz0rt to pay its attorneys fees.

The training CD is highly valuable and proprietary, American says in the suit.

Although the seller remains unknown, there are clues to his or her identity.

According to eBay, blz0rt is in the United Kingdom, and is currently selling items including a DVD documentary on the making of the Airbus A380, a Chinese economics textbook, and a rare Joan Crawford movie called Trog, suggesting the seller is a Chinese-speaking British aviation enthusiast with a passion for shlocky 70s horror movies.

Its not the first time American has gone after employees for distributing training material online. Last year, American sued YouTube and Google over a flight attendant training video that was available on the site and had become enormously popular with viewers.