I did write to Amazon and explained the situation. Hopefully I will hear back from them soon. Peter mentioned something about Amazon still might have my book review somewhere in the back pages, even though I deleted it already? I am hoping they do. If not, perhaps I will get a solid answer from them about whether the author is an “Affiliate” or not. Armed with that information, I've made my case. From the quick turn the authors legal counsel made away from the agreement issue, I think I hit a nerve on that point. Time will tell.

There are ways to make his life miserable, but so far I like the C&D letter idea. While googling on this topic, I saw one somewhere. Now all I have to do is find my way back to it again! I wonder how long before I hear from Amazon?

Thanks for the well wishes Christine. I'm glad I happened across your site here. )

Sharon

He is a “maroon!” lol Who knows what his reasons are for digging in heels on this. What he keeps telling me is, he has the right to do so. His lawyer and I are in a dialogue and I'm beginning to wonder about his capabilities. He shared some of his research with me and he is citing cases from 1966, 1986, 1981, and the youngest one being 1991. Sorry, but I find this hilarious! And they don't even apply to our issue! Rather than simply tell me what kind of agreement he has with Amazon, he has switched gears, claiming Fair Use now. I have a sneaking suspicion I hit onto something with that “Participation Agreement” In most cases, Fair Use would not allow for the copying of the complete book review. He also said that since I quoted from their book (very minimal), I don't see them “whining”! lol Oh, and once I used any of their quotes, my book review is fair game. It's really been something else.

BTW, I know both of these fellows (on the internet, not in person) and have for awhile. I've recently changed some of my views and they are not playing nice now that I'm (in their eyes) some kind of enemy. So there is some personal stuff going on in the midst of this but I'm not mixing the two and have limited my talks about the copyright issue to their uh… legal counsel. (I still can't get over the dates on these case's he is bringing up! Anyone can google and find more current information about copyright laws! Goodness! lol)

Thanks for well wishes!

Sharon

It's not in the book author's best interest to use a review that the writer wants removed. He's innocent to the ways of Google. You could, if you were so evilly inclined, “google bomb” him and his site with horrible reviews, etc. If he were a smart author, he'd comply with your wishes immediately. It isn't worth the risk of pissing off Amazon and it isn't worth the risk of pissing off the wrong, ultra-connected person on the web. This guy sounds crazy, though. Book sales are so touch and go these
days. Authors don't want to make stupid moves like make a fan angry … it
will wind up on Facebook, Live Journal, MySpace, Twitter, etc. You
don't want the first entry of a Google search to return anything but
your website.

Write to Amazon, but perhaps also write the book author a C&D letter. A Cease and Desist letter is quite effective in most cases. It's a legal letter that is an official warning by you to the offender. It's a matter of due course in a legal case. Judges will expect you to give a person fair warning before you sue them. If you need templates of a C&D letter, just search the internet or ask around. A lawyer can write one for you too, for usually a small fee. If you have a friend who is a lawyer, have them write it for you but sign your own name. Send it to the book author. Most people will immediately stop using your content once they get a C&D.

Good luck.
-Christine Cavalier, PurpleCar
http://www.purplecar.net/

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>>He called me deceptive and a few other choice things and didn't answer the question, so there isn't much cooperation on their end.

I believe that Bugs Bunny would say “What a maroon!” Why would he want to start a fight over this?

Good luck w/ your battle — I hope you prevail. Irrespective of whether or not he is legally right, it bothers me that he is using a deleted review against the review author's wishes to enrich himself.

Thank you for the feedback. I am going to write to Amazon to clarify the situation. I did go to Amazon's “Partication Agreement” which is for those who sell product, and it clearly states they are also under the same privacy terms as the buyer, or in my case, the one who wrote a review. In one section of the agreement, it clearly distinguishes between an Affiliate and a Participant, so I asked the author to clarify whether he was an Affiliate or a Participant. He called me deceptive and a few other choice things and didn't answer the question, so there isn't much cooperation on their end. But, if I find out they have violated my copyright on the review, then they have more to lose than I because they could lose their right to sell the book at Amazon. I don't know if they've even thought about it that far down the road or not. Who knows.

Thanks again for the feedback. When I get this straightened out, I'll let you know the results.

Sharon

You should write to Amazon and tell them that this author has taken content from their site. I wouldn't take his word about being a licensee of the work. If you deleted the review, it shouldn't be there for the author's taking.
Good luck and let me know how it goes.

-Christine Cavalier, PurpleCar

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Anyone know if the author of a book offered for sale on Amazon, is considered an “affiliate” and/or a “sublicensee” of Amazon? I appreciate any thoughts on this.
Thanks! Sharon

Amazon does, in fact, sell your reviews. This is a different system than affiliate selling.

Amazon charges sites to access their catalog. Along with the catalog, they include some reviews. I'm not privvy to the formula (or what coders call “algorithms”) that choose which reviews get packaged along with the catalog, but be assured that the user reviews are offered as a part of that catalog. Amazon would sell less catalog rentals if people stopped writing free reviews for them. The reviews are what set them apart from other ISBN/product code catalogs.

This really comes down to how one views the internet and how to use it. Reviews are work. Getting the “freebies” of which you speak is now a forbidden practice, as per new FTC “guidelines.”

I'm not in it for free books. I can get my books from the library or buy them myself. The amount of “freebies” of stuff I don't even want or have space for doesn't compensate me for the work of reviews. You obviously don't have the same opinion about that, and that's cool. Lots of people enjoy seeing their name in the Amazon review areas, even if their reviews end up on the back pages. The thrill of that for me faded a long time ago.

-PC

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I eventually became an Amazon affiliate myself but I haven't exactly exploited it. I make a modest amount of money that I receive as credit to buy stuff from Amazon. At one time, I looked into the rules for posting Amazon reviews on my own blogs. I discovered that these rules are actually quite strict and I couldn't just cherry-pick which reviews I wanted. In fact, although Amazon reserve the right to do anything and everything, affiliates are restricted to taking reviews off the main product pages, and they must refresh their affiliate pages at regular intervals. If you're familiar with Amazon's product pages, you'll know that some products have hundreds of reviews. Only a few of them are featured on the main product page, the rest being buried on continuation pages – or back pages, as reviewers call them. Reviews on back pages can't be used by affiliates. Reading what you've posted, it seems that even the reviews on the main page can only be used in the way that Amazon supplies them. So while Amazon's TOS make it appear that they can do what they like with my reviews, that's just a catch-all piece of legal jargon. From an affiliate perspective, things are somewhat different.

Amazon do not own the copright to my reviews. I own the copyright, but by posting my reviews to Amazon, I have granted them nonexclusive rights to distribute those reviews. The nonexclusive bit is crucial – it means that I can post my reviews (or quote from them) elsewhere, and I can give permission for other people to use my review on their own website or blog, whether or not they are an Amazon affiliate. On my own blogs, I prefer to post links to the Amazon Permalink pages containing my reviews, rather than to copy and paste my actual reviews. (There are several reasons for this, not least that if I edit my Amazon review, I don't have to edit my blog version). If I choose, I can use this method to discuss other people's reviews, since I'm merely linking to an Amazon page rather than copying from it. But I rarely do that.

As far as I know, Amazon do not sell the reviews they distribute. The affiliate scheme makes money for Amazon on the products sold. So if you buy something from Amazon having arrived there through a link provided by an affiliate AFTER signing into Amazon, the affiliate gets a small commission but you pay the same price as if you'd signed in to Amazon in the standard way. Amazon presumably get extra traffic through these affiliates so this extra traffic pays for the commission.

I am sad that you have decided not to review on Amazon, but that's your decision. As a prolific reviewer, I have made contacts around the world as well as getting those freebies. I've also had plenty of aggravation but the pleasures outweigh the aggravation otherwise I'd have quit years ago.

One other thing – Amazon never truly delete anything as far as I know. Your deleted reviews are still there, hiding from view. Amazon even remembers the dates, so if you decide one day to review the same products from the same account, they'll be given the dates of the original reviews. Somehow, I don't think you'll be doing that.