Ecommerce Copyright Law: Part 2
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By Vanessa Salvia, 4/18/08
[Please see part 1 of this 2-part article series, ‘Ecommerce Copyright Law Part 1- What Is a Copyright, and How Is My Property Covered?’ for an introduction to the subject of copyright law.]
One reason that the web has become so successful is that it allows people to be anonymous if they choose to be. We can use photos that don’t really look like us to represent ourselves and call ourselves any name that we like. We can leave comments anonymously, visit websites without signing in or signing up for anything, and anonymously create content that is seen by millions on such sites as Wikipedia.
This anonymity also makes it easy to copy someone else’s work, and in many cases the theft either goes unnoticed or ignored. But when you don’t want to ignore it, what are your options?
Copyright Infringement: Case Study
While in many cases involving legalities it really does pay to have an experienced attorney on your side, copyright law is one in which you can often get results on your own. In part one of this article series I mentioned that one of our clients had noticed copyright infringement of an image on her ecommerce website. She dealt with the issue herself, and I’m going to share with you exactly what she did.
Our client, I’ll call her Nancy, found out because she manages several keyword phrases of the brand names she sells in a Google Alert, and receives weekly reports. One week, a website appeared in her alert so she smartly browsed her competition (as you should do every once in a while). She noticed that this website was sporting the same exact photo that she had on her site of a t-shirt that both sites were offering for sale. There was no question that the photos were identical, as Nancy could compare wrinkles on the sleeves and shadows apparent in both photos. She contacted us for help in determining what to do.
The first thing we advised her to do was to contact the company that is hosting the website, because they can be liable if they continue to host a site that infringes on someone else's rights. She did a little research regarding on-line copyright infringement and wrote a letter herself, which she sent to the website owners as well as the web developer and web host. While she did have her attorney look it over, the attorney made no changes and Nancy decided to send it and see what kind of response she got. It was agreed that a letter from Nancy first was a good idea, then, if the infringing website had ignored her request to remove the material the attorney would send a letter.
Turns out, in Nancy’s case that the material was promptly removed, although a few more emails did go back and forth about the text of the t-shirt, which Nancy believed was paraphrased from her creative work. In some cases, though, you won’t always get a prompt or courteous response, or even any response at all.
The Cease and Desist (C&D) Letter
The first step in dealing with copyright infringement is to do what Nancy did and send a Cease and Desist (C&D) letter. It doesn’t have to be long or threatening, but it should notify the other party of exactly what the material in question is, and where it can be found on the website. If you have an attorney, you can run it by them, but this is a notice that you can write yourself informing them of your rights, which most of the time should be successful.
One thing to keep in mind is that even if the material is immediately removed, due to the delay of indexing websites in a search engine, the material will still appear in the search engine's index until the index is updated.
Send this letter by email to the site owner as well as the site developer and host. Make sure you let your own web host know what you are doing.
Here is a link to a sample copyright Cease and Desist letter.
Here’s another one to help formulate an effective letter.
The website of the federal government copyright office is Copyright.gov.
For information on how to file a copyright infringement notification with MightyMerchant/Datahost, please see our DMCA compliance statement, or contact us if you have questions.
*Please note that I am not a lawyer, and this article should be considered as general information only and should not substitute for legal counsel from a qualified lawyer.
About MightyMerchant
MightyMerchant specializes in developing e-commerce and database driven, content-rich websites for small business customers across the US. The company as listed as one of Practical eCommerce Magazine’s "Top 100 Notable Shopping Carts" in September/October 2007. Hundreds of site owners use MightyMerchant to manage their online stores. For more information visit MightyMerchant.com, and for ecommerce knowledge and tools visit the MightyMerchant eCommerce Blog.
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