eBay textbook ban hurts homeschool teachers

Our friends over at WorldNetDaily are reporting that eBay has banned the sale of teacher's edition textbooks on their site. eBay claims it is a new policy meant to keep students from getting their hands on the answers to problem sets and tests.

Readers of my book The PayPal Wars realize that I'm often critical of eBay's management for being bureaucratic and out-of-touch. I think that's exactly what happened here. (And possibly some complaints from textbook publishers who would prefer to sell new books to homeschool teachers?) Regardless, it's a really bad move. eBay has gone from its original laissez faire approach of declaring itself "just a venue" to actively policing activity on its site -- beyond what even nosy government regulators could ask.