Amazon Affiliate Sites Shut Down Due to Massive DCMA Threats
This DCMA issue has been brewing for some time, but I’ve not seen anyone else blog about it. Numerous Amazon affiliates have had their sites shut down and have lost income. Why? For displaying product info on their sites that is provided to them by Amazon in the AWS datafeed. Big merchants like Sony and Crutchfield, (that are getting free advertising on affiliate sites) are sending Amazon affiliates and their hosting companies DMCA legal threats to remove product pictures and descriptions OR ELSE! The legal notices are sent by NetEnforcers simultaneously to the site owner and ISP/hosting company. One of the big problems is that many of the hosting companies have over-reacted by pulling the affiliate sites without notice - creating lost income for the affiliates. Affiliates are threatening a class action lawsuit. Jeff Mueller, one of many affiliates weighing in on the Amazon Associate Message Board says:
How much is NetEnforcers costing you? “I also got a threat for NetEnforcers. I didn’t even know my site was removed from the www by my host until I checked my stats and saw no sales and a fraction of hits that I should have had. I went to my site and saw the same thing several thousand other people did, “Account Suspended.” I think I might qualify for the class action suit :)”
The affiliates are displaying datafeed product info that they receive from Amazon and are authorized to use. NetEnforcers should be going after Amazon, not the affiliates. Amazon is trying to fight back and posts this to affiliates on the Amazon board:
Netenforcers.com sending “legal” threats “Associates - It has come to our attention that some participants in the Amazon.com Associates Program have received letters from an entity called “Net Enforcers” or from a law firm working on behalf of Net Enforcers. In these letters, Net Enforcers alleges that certain product images or other web site content violates their clients intellectual property rights. Some of you have received these letters because of images or other content that you receive from Amazon.com as a result of your participation in our Associates Program. We believe these claims regarding Amazon Web Services are simply wrong, and we are committed to working with you and Net Enforcers to help resolve these issues. If you would like Amazon.com to respond to Net Enforcers on your behalf, please contact us at associates@amazon.com, and include a copy of any letters you have received from Net Enforcers regarding Amazon.com content.”
Mike Lepore posts a good overview of the situation at the Dathorn forums Please beware of Net Enforcers hoax “Net Enforcers then makes the claim, without showing any documentation thereof, that they represent certain manufacturers, and they instruct site owners immediately to remove, for example, all images of Sony products. Innocent people are being put out of business by hosting companies that are quick to take these frivolous claims at face value, and immediate suspend accounts. Some amazon associates are discussing plans to take legal action to stop the harassment.”
Are the merchants really going this far to protect their brands and copyrighted content or is there a bigger deeper conspiracy theory as some suspect? “Their partners are marketplace software developers whom directly compete with Amazon for new marketplace-based businesses. Their strategy may be to undermine Amazon’s marketplace and push marketplace-based businesses over to eBay.”
I will be following this story closely and will post any new news in the 5 Star forum. Amazon affiliates that have any other comments or updates about this issue, please post in this thread.
Help spread the word on this issue by DIGGING this story.
#1 Marktd.com wrote on Thursday, June 15th, 2006:
Amazon Affiliate Sites Shutdown in Massive DCMA Hoax
Numerous Amazon associates have had their sites shut down and have lost income. Why? For displaying product info on their sites that is provided to them by Amazon in the AWS datafeed. Big merchants like Sony and Crutchfield, are involved. Class action …
#2 cumbrowski wrote on Thursday, June 15th, 2006:
Hey Linda, first of all kudos for the elegant solution with the WordPress log-in to be able to comment. That’s a standard feature, isn’t it?
The first thing that needs to be determined is what orders did the Trademark owner give to Netenforcers.com?
Did Netenforcers.com just do what their clients ask them to do or was Netenforcers.com making some of the “calls” themselves?
Since the ISP got a notification, you have no choice but to remove the content first or you will be shut down by the ISP with almost absolute certainty.
After that would I contact Amazon AND the Trademark owner and explain the situation.
I would ask the Trademark owner, if the actions Netenforcers.com took against you was ordered specifically by the TM owner or if he was entrusting Netenforcers.com to take care of the monitoring and the decision who is considered a violator and who is not for the TM owner without providing specific guidelines.
In the first case is the TM owner to blame and in the second one Netenforcers.com.
Case two cries for legal action against Netenforcers.com since they are supposed to be the online experts. They should know much better than the average joe shmoe who is infringing the Trademark and who is not.
Only two reasons can exist for this failure. Deliberate performed steps being fully aware that their action is “dirty” or a complete F**k-Up by somebody who might be an ex-employee of Netenforcers.com already or will be.
The trigger for the whole thing that makes people and companies fear that they get issues with Google, if their content is flying around on the Internet. fear about is actually something else.
I quote myself from my post at an private forum I can not link to:
#3 Linda Buquet wrote on Thursday, June 15th, 2006:
Thanks for weighing in Carsten. I fixed that quote problem and deleted 2nd commment as not needed.
Good summary of the issue! Anyone else have thoughts?
#4 e-marketing news » Amazon Affiliate Sites Shutdown in Massive DCMA Hoax wrote on Thursday, June 15th, 2006:
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#5 TopAffiliate wrote on Thursday, June 15th, 2006:
WoW. I would be livid if my site was taken down without “real” justification. This is absurd.