The links issue is really troubling.
Last week I tried to get "Live Help", couldn't, and emailed my question. Later I got through to Live Help and asked about the "legality" (under new policy) of linking to Wikipedia articles for educational purposes regarding book subjects or authors, when it would be too much to copy the text to the listing. Live Help told me it would still be okay to do so, that it wouldn't be considered a violation.
A couple of days later I received an answer via email which says:
"In regard to your question, unfortunately you would not be permitted to include in your listings a link to a site that contains more information(such as a biography of an author of a book you are selling on eBay).
If you are in a situation where the text you wish to include in your listing seems excessive (such as an entire wikipeida entry as you
mentioned) it is possible that not all of that information is essential to the listing. Please keep in mind that when listing on eBay you must
only include the most accurate, relevant information.
Including information that is irrelevant to the item or is excessive and not relevant to the sale of your item is not permitted."
I asked directly about counters like Sellathon and received no response.