DMCA Violations and Amazon Associates question

Dispel

Dispel

New member
Oct 21, 2008
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Sydney
www.muaffiliate.com
My host has suspended an account of mine which was hosting an Amazon Associates affiliate site. The host received a DMCA infringement notice from a certain company, so 24 hours later the host shut me down.

quick summary of infringement:

Identification of Infringed Material:
Photograph of copyrighted artwork.
...

XXXXXXX.COM currently hosts photographic images of [brandX] copyrighted artwork, including but not limited to our copyrighted signature art piece, the "brandX". This was done in conjunction with a commercial site selling XXX; the commercial aspect negates any fair use claims. brandX may assert it's rights under the DMCA to have the material removed. As well, XXXXXXXXX.COM uses brandX trademarks in a manner that we believed may lead their customers to gain the initial impression that their site/product were either owned or otherwise endorsed by brandX or brandXYZ, LLC. In an of itself, this appears to be a violation of point three of GNAX's acceptable use policy.
Click to expand...


Note that the domain name does NOT contain the brand. The site does NOT contain the brand logo. The site does NOT look like its affiliates with the brandX - there's a disclaimer at the top stating so.

It all comes down to a "photographic images of [brandX] copyrighted artwork" of their "copyrighted signature art piece" which my designer integrated into the banner. The rest of their claim is a bit of a stretch - problem is the hosting company does not exactly dwell on these details before shutting you down.



My only real question is this. If they send a DMCA infringement notice to Amazon could Amazon shut down my Associates account?

Basically I can simply move this site to another host, who will simply ignore the DMCA infringements notices. I just don't think the brand will get off my back even if I remove the offending photo of their 'art piece' - they're already getting pretty finicky here, its hardly prominent and the host doesn't exactly look into this shit closely - they seem to just shut down the account first, ask questions later. So rather then fuck around with this for weeks, I can just move the site.
My only concern is that they'll go directly to Amazon.

Assuming they worked out to actually do that, would they be in their legal right and would Amazon give a shit?
 


Fair Use of Trademarks

It sounds they're saying your site is confusing to the user, which isn't against any laws as long as you're not raping their trademarks.

Their accusations sound unfounded. Lawyers on retainer usually send these out to justify their pay and hopefully get your shit shut down.

Just change hosts and ignore everything they send you until it's a lawsuit in which case the shit has gotten real and you should shut it down.
 
just redo the banner bro. replace the piece of work with a generic or altered variant.
 
Example of non-acceptable versus acceptable backgrounds for your website.

notlegal.jpg



legalg.jpg
 
Contact them and explain you are an affiliate trying to help sell their products and want to work with them to find a solution that works for you both.
 
Oh dear, just take the banner off and make a new one. How much money and time does it take? Lawyers are born idiots and they need to sue someone atleast one a month to justify their fat ass paycheck. Move to a new host, fix the issue.

Dont worry about amazon much, they won't go that far i believe.
 
kingfish said:
Contact them and explain you are an affiliate trying to help sell their products and want to work with them to find a solution that works for you both.
Click to expand...



I wasn't very clear in my initial post. The company in question has nothing to do with the products I'm selling.

Its like this. Say Al Qaeda put on an awesome Jihad every October in Chechnya. Well fuck, mofos are gonna need so AK47s right? Fortunately Amazon sells those.

So I have a store called ak47sforsale.com

And on it a page called ak47sforsale.com/thejihadak47store.php


And in the banner of course I have the black flag of Jihad, some crescents, bin Laden's head and shit, you know.

So Al Qaeda are like "Akhi. We trademarked that "black flag of jihad" shit and The Jihad is also trademarked and so are any images of bin Laden taken at The Jihad. In fact any photos taken at The annual Jihad(tm) are not to be used for commercial purposes, inshallah. Dont make us put a fatwa on your infidel ass."

Al Qaeda don't care that I'm an affiliate or that their Jihadists are using my AKs. They're all about the killing and the Caliphate and shit. Don't want their event associated with non-affiliated commercial ventures.


So if I remove the black flag of jihad from the banner they'll complain about something else. Like the photo of a mountain from Chechnya - they'll claim its from the 'event' (i think it might be, not sure where my designer got it). Or the mention of "The Jihad" or whatever. The host dont look too deep - they seem to just go ahead and shut the account down first - they don't like a fatwa any more then the next guy.

I was about to get another banner done last night. Then figured just moving it to my Turkish account would be easier - as long as they don't try to get my Amazon account shut down.

I already had a previous complaint with the site - one of the terrorists last year saw his face (actually his friend did and told him) in the banner. At that stage I had "the jihad" in the domain too.


So yeah, playing the banner changing game won't please them - I think they have a problem with my store, period. They'll probably complain that the page is titled "The Jihad AK47 Store" next and so forth.
 
You don't have to move hosts. Change yoru banner, and inform your current host you have complied with the DMCA notice and removed the offending content and you wish to be reinstated. Simple as that.
 
lol

Look fags. My boyfriend is on the banner and he has the brand logo tattooed on his cock, which features prominently on said banner and I am not changing it because he'll cry.

All I want to know is this. If the company in question contacted Amazon, would Amazon give a shit, ie suspend my account if I don't comply? I know how to deal with a DMCA infringement notice, in regular cases. This isn't one.

As in has that ever happened to anyone here or anyone you know? In fact, anyone had an Amazon Associates account suspended for any reason?
 
Here's the issue. Under no circumstances is Amazon going to go out of there way to protect a random affiliate. The cost to even evaluate whether they are at risk is infinitely greater than just telling you to fuck off.

Thus the question becomes, are these lawyers smart enough to pull your amazon account info and report you? Probably not, but if they did, would it cost you more than dumping this banner or this site?

So take % likelihood of getting reported * $ lost if reported = expected revenue lost. Compare this to the cost of dropping the site or banner and there's the answer.
 
Amazon will kick you out if contacted for DMCA violation. They dont a give a fuck about a small affiliate considering they got literally thousands promoting their business everyday.

Dont mess with amazon on this one.
 
Yeah, Amazon will likely shitcan you if they get a notice, but most likely the company is too stupid to contact Amazon. At least, that has been my experience when dealing with DMCA notices.
 
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