As the article/message chain clearly shows, the author did submit an infringement report to that link. In fact, so have I.

As the author posted a screenshot of, you get an email reply after some time saying something to the effect of "We have reviewed and removed the content"

...except, nothing was removed. The infringing content is still there. The exact same thing happened to me. Same exact email.

Edit, here's my email from Amazon: https://i.imgur.com/mzXycfk.jpg -- nothing was actually removed.

I looked at the thread and it appears that the product ID (ASIN) that was the subject of the original takedown request was not the same as the ASIN of the the subsequent complaint. If it appears on multiple catalog pages, or a subsequent violation is alleged, each ASIN must be reported.

Unfortunately this is the downside of being an IP rights holder - policing is a PITA. (Amazon, do their credit, does offer a brand registry, but that protects against trademark infringement, not copyright infringement.)

In your case, assuming they did not do exactly what they said they would do (remove the infringing content from the specific listing page referred to by the ASIN), I'd have your attorney send a takedown notice to the following address:

  Copyright Agent
  Amazon Legal Department
  P.O. Box 81226
  Seattle, WA  98108

If your content is on multiple product listings, you'll need to identify each ASIN.

Ah! Good catch! I didn't see that the ASINs were different, yup, you have to report each ASIN.

I'll keep that address in mind for next time. Thanks!

So nothing stops a copyright infringer re-uploading the content with a new ASIN? I think only a hefty fine for both the infringer and Amazon would make them think twice about doing it again.

The DMCA expressly gives entities that publish user-generated content a “safe harbor” exemption from such liability if they handle authorized takedown requests in a reasonable amount of time.

Exactly! So Amazon makes money from our work. And they even makes us lose time with reporting items that simply change numbers. What a shame!

Do you really want platforms to decide what can be put and what can't be? How should they decide that an article is IP infringement and what isn't?

I hope that Amazon, in case of repeated violations, will take down the sellers, giving the information to right enforcement organizations. If changing the ASIN is enough to continue, no surprise if it becomes the counterfeiter heaven. This is a serious matter, counterfeit electronics can damage things and peoples, even kill them creating fire or discharging lethal electric power.

I am guessing your case was also similar to this comment here [1]. Amazon must have removed as requested and responded back to you saying so, however, the seller bypassed with a new account and uploaded again. You may be able to check.

PS: I haven't read the OP yet since it's behind Facebook login.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18780734

Interesting. I wonder if they have some kind of automated system to reupload images after an infringement takedown, because I recall checking the ASIN maybe 20 minutes after I received that email and it was still there. The infringer did not seem very sophisticated at all so I'm not quite convinced, but that is certainly a possibility I had not considered.

Also, I grabbed the thread from the OP in case you were interested: https://imgur.com/a/L1gFAqy

A company training its staff to forward copyright complaints to the appropriate channel is trivial.

Expecting all customers of a company to be magically educated about the proper channel for copyright complaints is much less realistic imo.

A company making profit from counterfeits making counterfeit reporting unintuitive sounds a bit suspicious.

Right? Amazon is first and foremost a logistics company. And we’re being told “oh you gotta send it down the proper channel to get a response.” BS.

If amazon can deliver a million packages a day, they should damn well be able to forward a complaint to the department it belongs in. What a joke.

First, you’re mixing up counterfeit goods with copyright violations. They’re not identical. Different bodies of law, but it’s easy to confuse the two.

At any rate, if you’re an IP rights holder, knowing how to deal with violations is table stakes for your legal representative. Googling “amazon copyright notice” gives you the correct page link near the top of the first results page.

I have reported the item on their correct page. By the way you can try to report it yourself right now. You cannot. You simply get the message that the ASIN or URL is wrong.

To be clear, to my knowledge, this is not Amazon’s policy. Their policies are clearly laid out here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/help.html?...

So you’re telling the people reporting things it’s /their/ fault that this activity is thriving? Amazon bears no responsibility for taking a complaint like this in /any/ channel and making an appropriate response? Come on.

This isn’t a mom and pop store. This isn’t a company that can’t figure out logistics. This is amazon. If they don’t forward these complaints to the right place of their own volition, then they aren’t working hard enough to abide by the law. Fair is fair. Corporations need some responsibility to go with all their privileges.

You're not wrong, but Amazon isn't going to do the government's job for it. If they can get away with stealing, they will.

Breaking safe harbor rules, stuffing & adding counterfeits,...

The only issue is outings that it's too costly to sue them and they'll find a way to weasel their way out of it.

I don't really see how Amazon is breaking safe harbor rules. The case law surrounding OCILLA makes it very clear the service providers have no obligation to seek out copyrighted content on their site and instead rely near exclusively on reports from copyright holders.

I am the artist who's work is sold illegally on Amazon. There is no excuse for Amazon. Absolutely none. 0! I have reported the URL. It never changed. I don't know when the ASIN changed but the URL remained the same. The new ASIN or URL cannot be reported. I am getting the message that the ASIN is wrong whenever I am trying to report it. I am getting silly answers from silly people who are bullshiting me. They have a seller who is selling fake products. What a serious company does is to close his store. Especially when they learn that an item that is take off is up again. After days of complains I decided to complain on Facebook. They are bullshiting me there as well. It's a real shame!

The ASIN is embedded in the listing page URL, so if the ASIN changed, so did the URL. Out of curiosity, what’s the current URL?

If you’re tired of chasing an infringer, why don’t you hire an attorney to engage Amazon’s legal department? You might end up with a more satisfactory result than by constantly playing “whack-a-mole” with reporting individual listings. You can also separately report a seller by following the instructions here: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/help.html?...

I will see what I will do. However the problem is much bigger. Amazon should take down a shop when they know that the seller is simply changing the ASIN. But this isn't the only problem. I tried to report 10 different items. It was possible to report just 3. Their system isn'r recognising the other 7 ASINs. So Amazon really has a system that makes difficult to impossible to find your right. Hiring an attorney costs money. They know it and this is why they are making it as the only option.

Aside: Thank you for all the help here! These comments are amazingly helpful. Do you have a blog or other repository of this knowledge such that we can search for it there? Though I have no issues with Amazon now, I can imagine I may have some in the future. Searching through old HN comments to try to find this data is, well, sub-optimal. Again, thank you!