TechWag

I have been working on a book on how to be an Amazon seller, some of the tricks and tips that I have learned in nearly a year of selling books on Amazon. Just as I was getting into getting the proof developed with the publisher, along comes a person threatening to sue because they were quoted in the book. The interesting debate about Fair Use, permission, and the rest of it, and in looking at what passes the “reasonable person test”, the book got pulled.

Specifically this is the area that I seriously would run into trouble with. From the Copyright Office notice on what is fair use the following four rules apply in determining what is and what is not fair use. The interesting part is that I can punch holes in the argument on why you want to sue me based on these four rules.

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes

I would fail this test, as it is a book for commercial purposes, in other words, I plan on making money off the quotes that I would have used. While it would be great to call it educational, and the express purpose of the book is to educate people on how to be a better Amazon seller, it still falls under commercial purposes. The idea of writing the book is to make money.

The problem here is that this will require a substantial rewrite of the book to deal with this, and rather than directly quoting, provide the resource name, and where they can get additional information. While not optimal, this would seem the best way to work on removing potentially infringing information out of the book, and getting back into the publishing track.

2. The nature of the copyrighted work

The nature of the copyrighted work, the quotes are pulled from a forum, that has a clear copyright notice on the Amazon site, but since the quotes were pulled from there, it is possible to ask Amazon for permission to quote from the seller’s community. This would be the optimal way of getting around this, and the copyright office points out that if in doubt, seek permission, or show that you made every single attempt that a reasonable person could make in getting permission to use their content.

3. Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

There are 4 specific quotes that need to be seriously revised to meet the substantiality portion, while the “300 word limit” was more of a secret handshake, with the nature of copyright rules, fair use in flux, with the confusing court cases around them, erring on the side of caution here is a much better idea. Cutting down or removing the quotes in its entirety would be the best way of going around this in lieu of getting permission from Amazon to use quotes from the system.

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

This one is interesting, and could go either way in terms of how it is interpreted, the effect on the potential market is negligible. There is no Amazon book that is an excerpt from the sellers community, Amazon has not monetized the site at all, no ads, and the community participants self post information there. What would be a detriment though in the longer run would be if people thought they could be or would be quoted in a book, the loss of trust in the forum. While public, the impression that I get is that people believe that they are talking in a trusted community of peers, and to have their information published in a book is a breach of trust. That would have an influence on the marketability and use of the Amazon Sellers forum in the longer run, people might stop using it, which could have an influence or impact on the 3rd party sellers system used at Amazon.

Interesting in how you can look at things to go for or against the idea of “fair use” when looking at how the publication of words and idea’s in a book is somehow more substantial than the information that is put on a public forum.

In the mean time, the book has been pulled as a just in case, and a substantial rewrite needs to take place to meet a definitive “reasonable person test” when it comes to fair use.

Tags: Amazon, sellers, 3rd party sellers, community, book, fair use, copyright, publishing, pain

Tags: education, business //