Used book intellectual property issues
I am a relatively new used book seller on Amazon. I am doing ok but have had a couple of IP issues where someone has complained about the books I am selling and say that it is infringing on international property. Amazon sends an alarming message saying they are investigating my account.
These are used books so clearly I don’t have the exact authorisation etc - how do you even get one? I have tried to argue with their compliance team saying that how can any used book like this have the authorisation or paperwork.
I have removed the listings for now and clearly I might be being dense here so any guidance or advice would be greatly appreciated as I don’t want to give up selling them.
Thanks
25 replies
Seller_YSVJTvJFHSin4
Could you post the notice that Amazon actually sent you? Or let us know the ISBNs of the books they specified? This sounds most improbable.
Intellectual property rights cover only the publishing of copyrighted books - it does not affect the selling of them. Anyone can sell books. No licence or permission is required. It is thus very hard to believe that Amazon “investigated” your account on this basis. What was the result of the “investigation”?
Seller_mxez2L8QjE6WW
What is the title / bibliographic detail of the book they are complaining about. We’ve been selling used books for 25 years and have never had such a complaint!
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
Are you sure that the email was definitely from Amazon and wasn’t a scam ?
I too am a bookseller and have never heard of anything like this happening before.
Seller_P9WE9DmQhKbaT
Not a defence but an observation
A few of these seems to arise from books which are virtually self published. I guess that in a few of these cases that the author/ publisher doesn’t deal with the established book wholesalers at all and perhaps even turns all the online distribution over to Amazon themselves & perhaps also signs a deal with a single high street operator such as The Works.
Seller_FZGXk0T0R1rRV
Hi all,
Hi - here is the message I received from Amazon. I have taken out the name and email of the person that made the complaint as I am sure that Amazon would take a dim view of sharing them. Thanks for your help!
Hello,
We are contacting you because we received a report of copyright infringement from the rights owner listed below. Sellers on Amazon.co.uk are not allowed to create listings or detail pages that infringe copyright.
We removed the content listed at the end of this email. We may let you list this content again if we receive a retraction of the complaint from the rights owner. Their contact information can be found below.
If the rights owner agrees to retract their complaint, they must send the retraction to us at notice-dispute@amazon.co.uk.
If you believe that the reported content does not infringe the rights owner’s copyright, you may email notice-dispute@amazon.co.uk with supporting information.
We consider allegations of intellectual property infringement a serious matter and your account is under review. If we receive more complaints about your listings, we may not allow you to sell on Amazon.co.uk.
To learn more about this policy, search for “Intellectual Property Violations” in Seller Central Help.
ASIN: 0425201139
Title: Death in Hyde Park (Edwardian Mystery)
Seller_72Sy9T6sEfmjl
you have to be a little careful sometimes of IP rights.
there is the right to resell an item but there is no right to use the artwork on a cover of a book or album.
so you are perfectly within your legal rights to sell a book and describe it based on a title or something that is text based. But you have no right to take a photograph or scan of the cover of the book and upload it. The artwork is not covered by right to resell if the rights holder of the artwork objects.
this is how sometimes you can find it really hard to sell media.
Used book intellectual property issues
I am a relatively new used book seller on Amazon. I am doing ok but have had a couple of IP issues where someone has complained about the books I am selling and say that it is infringing on international property. Amazon sends an alarming message saying they are investigating my account.
These are used books so clearly I don’t have the exact authorisation etc - how do you even get one? I have tried to argue with their compliance team saying that how can any used book like this have the authorisation or paperwork.
I have removed the listings for now and clearly I might be being dense here so any guidance or advice would be greatly appreciated as I don’t want to give up selling them.
Thanks
Used book intellectual property issues
I am a relatively new used book seller on Amazon. I am doing ok but have had a couple of IP issues where someone has complained about the books I am selling and say that it is infringing on international property. Amazon sends an alarming message saying they are investigating my account.
These are used books so clearly I don’t have the exact authorisation etc - how do you even get one? I have tried to argue with their compliance team saying that how can any used book like this have the authorisation or paperwork.
I have removed the listings for now and clearly I might be being dense here so any guidance or advice would be greatly appreciated as I don’t want to give up selling them.
Thanks
25 replies
25 replies
Seller_YSVJTvJFHSin4
Could you post the notice that Amazon actually sent you? Or let us know the ISBNs of the books they specified? This sounds most improbable.
Intellectual property rights cover only the publishing of copyrighted books - it does not affect the selling of them. Anyone can sell books. No licence or permission is required. It is thus very hard to believe that Amazon “investigated” your account on this basis. What was the result of the “investigation”?
Seller_mxez2L8QjE6WW
What is the title / bibliographic detail of the book they are complaining about. We’ve been selling used books for 25 years and have never had such a complaint!
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
Are you sure that the email was definitely from Amazon and wasn’t a scam ?
I too am a bookseller and have never heard of anything like this happening before.
Seller_P9WE9DmQhKbaT
Not a defence but an observation
A few of these seems to arise from books which are virtually self published. I guess that in a few of these cases that the author/ publisher doesn’t deal with the established book wholesalers at all and perhaps even turns all the online distribution over to Amazon themselves & perhaps also signs a deal with a single high street operator such as The Works.
Seller_FZGXk0T0R1rRV
Hi all,
Hi - here is the message I received from Amazon. I have taken out the name and email of the person that made the complaint as I am sure that Amazon would take a dim view of sharing them. Thanks for your help!
Hello,
We are contacting you because we received a report of copyright infringement from the rights owner listed below. Sellers on Amazon.co.uk are not allowed to create listings or detail pages that infringe copyright.
We removed the content listed at the end of this email. We may let you list this content again if we receive a retraction of the complaint from the rights owner. Their contact information can be found below.
If the rights owner agrees to retract their complaint, they must send the retraction to us at notice-dispute@amazon.co.uk.
If you believe that the reported content does not infringe the rights owner’s copyright, you may email notice-dispute@amazon.co.uk with supporting information.
We consider allegations of intellectual property infringement a serious matter and your account is under review. If we receive more complaints about your listings, we may not allow you to sell on Amazon.co.uk.
To learn more about this policy, search for “Intellectual Property Violations” in Seller Central Help.
ASIN: 0425201139
Title: Death in Hyde Park (Edwardian Mystery)
Seller_72Sy9T6sEfmjl
you have to be a little careful sometimes of IP rights.
there is the right to resell an item but there is no right to use the artwork on a cover of a book or album.
so you are perfectly within your legal rights to sell a book and describe it based on a title or something that is text based. But you have no right to take a photograph or scan of the cover of the book and upload it. The artwork is not covered by right to resell if the rights holder of the artwork objects.
this is how sometimes you can find it really hard to sell media.
Seller_YSVJTvJFHSin4
Could you post the notice that Amazon actually sent you? Or let us know the ISBNs of the books they specified? This sounds most improbable.
Intellectual property rights cover only the publishing of copyrighted books - it does not affect the selling of them. Anyone can sell books. No licence or permission is required. It is thus very hard to believe that Amazon “investigated” your account on this basis. What was the result of the “investigation”?
Seller_YSVJTvJFHSin4
Could you post the notice that Amazon actually sent you? Or let us know the ISBNs of the books they specified? This sounds most improbable.
Intellectual property rights cover only the publishing of copyrighted books - it does not affect the selling of them. Anyone can sell books. No licence or permission is required. It is thus very hard to believe that Amazon “investigated” your account on this basis. What was the result of the “investigation”?
Seller_mxez2L8QjE6WW
What is the title / bibliographic detail of the book they are complaining about. We’ve been selling used books for 25 years and have never had such a complaint!
Seller_mxez2L8QjE6WW
What is the title / bibliographic detail of the book they are complaining about. We’ve been selling used books for 25 years and have never had such a complaint!
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
Are you sure that the email was definitely from Amazon and wasn’t a scam ?
I too am a bookseller and have never heard of anything like this happening before.
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
Are you sure that the email was definitely from Amazon and wasn’t a scam ?
I too am a bookseller and have never heard of anything like this happening before.
Seller_P9WE9DmQhKbaT
Not a defence but an observation
A few of these seems to arise from books which are virtually self published. I guess that in a few of these cases that the author/ publisher doesn’t deal with the established book wholesalers at all and perhaps even turns all the online distribution over to Amazon themselves & perhaps also signs a deal with a single high street operator such as The Works.
Seller_P9WE9DmQhKbaT
Not a defence but an observation
A few of these seems to arise from books which are virtually self published. I guess that in a few of these cases that the author/ publisher doesn’t deal with the established book wholesalers at all and perhaps even turns all the online distribution over to Amazon themselves & perhaps also signs a deal with a single high street operator such as The Works.
Seller_FZGXk0T0R1rRV
Hi all,
Hi - here is the message I received from Amazon. I have taken out the name and email of the person that made the complaint as I am sure that Amazon would take a dim view of sharing them. Thanks for your help!
Hello,
We are contacting you because we received a report of copyright infringement from the rights owner listed below. Sellers on Amazon.co.uk are not allowed to create listings or detail pages that infringe copyright.
We removed the content listed at the end of this email. We may let you list this content again if we receive a retraction of the complaint from the rights owner. Their contact information can be found below.
If the rights owner agrees to retract their complaint, they must send the retraction to us at notice-dispute@amazon.co.uk.
If you believe that the reported content does not infringe the rights owner’s copyright, you may email notice-dispute@amazon.co.uk with supporting information.
We consider allegations of intellectual property infringement a serious matter and your account is under review. If we receive more complaints about your listings, we may not allow you to sell on Amazon.co.uk.
To learn more about this policy, search for “Intellectual Property Violations” in Seller Central Help.
ASIN: 0425201139
Title: Death in Hyde Park (Edwardian Mystery)
Seller_FZGXk0T0R1rRV
Hi all,
Hi - here is the message I received from Amazon. I have taken out the name and email of the person that made the complaint as I am sure that Amazon would take a dim view of sharing them. Thanks for your help!
Hello,
We are contacting you because we received a report of copyright infringement from the rights owner listed below. Sellers on Amazon.co.uk are not allowed to create listings or detail pages that infringe copyright.
We removed the content listed at the end of this email. We may let you list this content again if we receive a retraction of the complaint from the rights owner. Their contact information can be found below.
If the rights owner agrees to retract their complaint, they must send the retraction to us at notice-dispute@amazon.co.uk.
If you believe that the reported content does not infringe the rights owner’s copyright, you may email notice-dispute@amazon.co.uk with supporting information.
We consider allegations of intellectual property infringement a serious matter and your account is under review. If we receive more complaints about your listings, we may not allow you to sell on Amazon.co.uk.
To learn more about this policy, search for “Intellectual Property Violations” in Seller Central Help.
ASIN: 0425201139
Title: Death in Hyde Park (Edwardian Mystery)
Seller_72Sy9T6sEfmjl
you have to be a little careful sometimes of IP rights.
there is the right to resell an item but there is no right to use the artwork on a cover of a book or album.
so you are perfectly within your legal rights to sell a book and describe it based on a title or something that is text based. But you have no right to take a photograph or scan of the cover of the book and upload it. The artwork is not covered by right to resell if the rights holder of the artwork objects.
this is how sometimes you can find it really hard to sell media.
Seller_72Sy9T6sEfmjl
you have to be a little careful sometimes of IP rights.
there is the right to resell an item but there is no right to use the artwork on a cover of a book or album.
so you are perfectly within your legal rights to sell a book and describe it based on a title or something that is text based. But you have no right to take a photograph or scan of the cover of the book and upload it. The artwork is not covered by right to resell if the rights holder of the artwork objects.
this is how sometimes you can find it really hard to sell media.
