Someone is stealing my images

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Seller_veUfohGRcMVDU

Someone is stealing my images

I have discovered another seller that has used my images my brand registered listing. The product itself doesn’t state my brand (which is how they can get away with using it) but they are definitely my images.

How can I take action against the seller?

I’m concerned that Amazon will come back and say that I no longer own the images etc, but have read one or twice that sellers have been successful in proving to Amazon that they still hold the copyright to their images and have had Amazon take against on their behalf.

Has anyone been successful in escalating this and getting the listings that are in breach suspended?

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15 replies
Tags:Images, Listings
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15 replies
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Seller_Hzp8CMWaCk46F

This happens a lot to me. I have never successfully managed to get the issue resolved via Amazon. I did however manage to get them removed Via that traders local trading standards. I reported them and sent evidence of the copywrite and trading standards made them remove the images on Amazon.

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Seller_veUfohGRcMVDU

Does trading standards share the details of you with the seller? I don’t want to start inviting the possibility of further abuse where they come back to retaliate by making fake orders etc or doing the image theft in bulk.

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Seller_ZjZ4slOF0jHpk

Although there is no DMCA in the UK (there is a similar EU directive - EUCD), the host (in this case Amazon) can be held liable for hosting images they do not own, or have been given permission to host (by you creating a listing and uploading them) but are using them in a manner you did not give them permission to do (i.e. used on another listing). Though I’m sure there’s something buried (probably) in Amz’s T&Cs that says they can do what they like.

But if you created the images, or commissioned them (and the comp/person who created them passed copyright to you), then you own the copyright. Copyright cannot be taken, only given. And you have it automatically on anything you create (with minor caveats).

If you have the originals, you can run them through https://brandfolder.com/workbench/extract-metadata and will extract the date created and any other meta data included (such as the camera or phone taken with). So if the date is well before their listing, you have proof your images were created before they listed. If you commissioned the images, then either in the contract, or in a simple 'letter/email, you can check if you’ve been passed the copyright. If it’s not explicit, just ask who took them to put something short in writing you can pass to SS.

As Amazon’s servers are all over the place, including the US, then DMCA would apply and you could send what’s called a Takedown request to the MDs email. Search the web, plenty of templates.

I dunno if SS are clued up enough to know what DMCA or EUCD are, but you never know. Might be worth mentioning. I’ve used it many a time on sites that have stolen my images. If they ignore, I then use a company called Pixsy to go after them (if they can - commercial, not in Russia, China, etc.).

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Seller_ZjZ4slOF0jHpk

In that statement, you’re only granting Amazon (and its tax avoiding add-ons, etc.) the right to use, not the company using them on their listing. The law is on your side. I’d be surprised (amazed!) if Amazon considered sellers to be “affiliates”.

If you can manage to speak to someone it tends to be better (though not always). Getting poorly trained SS staff to try and understand can be worse than the issue you want resolved. If you can get hold of a good call agent, then you’d maybe have more luck.

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Seller_bxGApda6j8zcZ

Taken from this URL:
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/help/hub/reference/G201361070

"A person who authors an original work usually owns the copyright for that work. If you take a photo of your product, you generally have copyright protection in the photo that you took and you can use that photo on your product detail page to sell that product. However, if you find a photo on someone else’s website, you should not upload that photo to a product detail page without the other person’s permission.

Example: The owner of the Pinzon brand took the photos of the sheets shown below and owns the copyright in the images of the sheets. If a seller were to copy these images to sell their product on another product detail page, that seller could be violating the rights owner’s copyright in the images of the sheets."

If we see someone using imagery we have taken in our photo studio then we report them using brand registry. Note, we are the brand owners and design and manufacture the products.

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