Inkscape sold in Softwarepackage

It is legal to sell copies of Inkscape. The terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification of Inkscape are listed in the GNU General Public License [1]. Redistribution for free or for profit is specifically allowed, as long as the license is included and the source code is made available.

[1] <http://inkscape.org/COPYING>
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowMoney>
<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html>

There might be some violations of the license in the details of the ebay offer. You didn't provide a link to the specific item sold on ebay and searching via google reveals a list of 20 similar items [2]. One of them for example [3] has a copyright notice that possibly is in violation of the GPL ("All items contained are either released under the GNU GPL or contain our protected IP. Any copying, duplicating, reproducing, licensing or sub licensing is prohibited" [3]).

In such a case ebay could be notified of the violation the seller is doing, otherwise selling would be ok. A common thing to do is comment on the sale that it is GPL and the true free version is at <http://www.inkscape.org>.

[2] <http://compare.ebay.com/freehand-illustrator-pro-svg-software-vector-graphics/like/180466823934>
[3] <http://cgi.ebay.com/Pro-Freehand-Illustrator-SVG-Drawing-Software-2010-MAC-/190401557599>

In general it is a common issue that affects many open source / free software projects. See also GIMP's page about selling [4] and a recent discussion about a similar report (GIMP sold on ebay) on the GIMP developer mailing list [5].

[4] <http://www.gimp.org/about/selling>
[5] <https://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/lists/gimp-developer/2010-September/thread.html#25588>

See also earlier questions about Inkscape, GPL and selling:
<https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/48075>
<https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/80505>