Amazon IP Copyright Infringement
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How does a counterfeit stack up to the real deal?

9/6/2015

7 Comments

 
I ordered a pillow cover from an Amazon Marketplace store that's known to sell counterfeits. The price is a fraction of what you'd normally pay. And free shipping too. The only catch is that you have to wait a month to receive it, after all it would be traveling on a barge from China to reach the U.S. 
Would it be worth the savings? It would certainly seem so from looking at the hundreds of reviews in that store. Most people are happy with the pillowcase, some even uploaded photos to show it gracing the sofa in their living room.  So I browse their store and found a really pretty one, it had a painting of birds in a tree.
I tracked down the artist and contacted her. She had no idea her designs had been pulled and are now on Amazon.  She said she would let her agent know but as of now the pillow is still for sale in the Amazon store. And may I say it's a best seller.

I place the order for this lovely design and the wait begins. I've become accustomed to Amazon's two day shipping so waiting 3-4 weeks feels like an eternity. But I rationalize, after all I am saving 50 percent and I get free shipping too. This must be the same thought process that goes through a customer's mind when they order these things.

In the meantime I also order the genuine product from Society 6. I receive the pillowcase in a week. 

Amazon hasn't forgotten about me either, they send me a follow-up email beckoning me to order more pillows:
Picture

A few weeks pass and my China shipment arrives:

Picture
I hold the package in my hand and fear sets in. What if there's no discernible difference between this pillow cover and the real deal?  What if the customer reviews are right and these covers are as beautiful as the photo in the listing?

My fears were quickly put to ease as I took the cover out of its packaging and compared it to the real deal.The counterfeit was definitely inferior in quality with respect to the print and the fabric.  

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So I just want to caution customers buying on the Amazon marketplace.  Watch my video to see the quality of these covers, I do a side-by-side comparison to the real thing.  You might be thinking that you are saving money and getting a great deal, but in reality you are getting short-changed.  Shop on Print On Demand sites like Zazzle, Society 6 and Red Bubble. You will get more for your money and you support the original artist who created these works. 

Advantages of buying from Print on Demand Sites (POD)

  1. PODs are authorized to sell these designs.  What you see in the Amazon marketplace are usually stolen and unauthorized, a violation of U.S. copyright laws. Support the artists that create these designs, not the Amazon thieves.
  2. Higher quality printing. PODs use high resolution images to print their products. Counterfeits are produced from low resolution images resulting in poor quality print.
  3. Price. POD sites regularly have sales and free shipping offers which make the prices attractive.
  4. Better product quality. For pillows you get a double-sided print, the Amazon ones are only one-sided.  The fabric quality is a finer weave. The counterfeit was a more course rough fabric similar to burlap.
  5. Shipping Turnaround. Generally you can expect to receive your order within a week unless you upgrade to express shipping. Expect to wait a month for a counterfeit to arrive.
  6. Customer Service. Contacting customer service for Amazon's third party sellers can be difficult. They are generally overseas which creates a time difference and there may also be a language barrier. 
  7. Returns. If there's a problem with the product, perhaps it has a defect, shipping back overseas is quite expensive.
  8. Personalization.  I sell on Zazzle and sometimes for my pillow covers I will offer a different design on each side. If you get tired of the design you just flip it over. Or if you're like me and have little ones sooner or later they are going to soil or spill on your pretty pillow. It's always nice to just flip the pillow over and hide those stains. But I digress, on Zazzle you have the opportunity to personalize the pillow with text. You can add a name, a quote. You can also upload a photo. So one side may be a family or baby photo, the other side can have a design. There's a flexibility in customizing that the Amazon sellers cannot offer.
7 Comments
melusine
9/6/2015 05:04:25 pm

Personally, I will never shop at Amazon again. Too many cheap counterfeits, fake stores, and unsafe products.

The stores on Amazon are not regulated, at all. Anyone can sell anything from anywhere and the products do not have to measure up to US safety standards because nobody checks.

I want safe, real products sold by reputable businesses, so no more Amazon for me!

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Linda
9/6/2015 07:52:26 pm

Thank you for looking into this situation, Cindy. What amazon is doing is horrible, as well as illegal. It makes me sick, that artists such as you and I and many others are being ripped off like this, plus it will devalue our work.

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sjmoulder link
9/7/2015 12:25:55 pm

I requested my art be taken off Amazon. I sell on Society6 and they do a wonderful job printing and they have sales. If you think the item you like or bought is an illegal copy do a Google photo search. I found stolen art that way. Google removed it for me. China is not stopping this illegal copying so we need to stop it from coming into the USA. Amazon plays a big part in all this.

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Belinha Fernandes link
9/8/2015 03:06:43 am

Hello! I signed the petition as soon as it was issued. This blog is a great idea and this post very clear. I had my illustrations stolen also. Pillows from Zazzle. Amazon removed it but I spent two weeks filling forms and making my case. I am very disencouraged to post new work on POD's due to this illegal copying. Also because they are making our work more heavy with rankings and so on. So I aplaude this petition and all your efforts! (Sorry, bad English!)

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Kati
9/15/2015 10:59:25 am

Thank you for making this excellent video Cindy. As an artist making a living on my illustrations and designs, I have become very frustrated and disappointed with the amount of counterfeit art being sold with no respect for the original artist. It’s as if some will do anything to make a buck without a sense of ethics. I think it is important to remember that a society’s values are passed on to their children. Artists everywhere are uniting against this unsavory practice of theft. I hope that Amazon and other retailers will make an effort to put a stop to these unsavory characters creating and selling fraudulent products through their stores. I will share your video with many. Kati

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allison a
11/10/2015 11:48:52 am

I would like to talk to for merchants or buyers in the San Diego area who've run into this problem.

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Sarah Trett link
5/2/2016 01:00:39 am

I earn very little from my art as it is, but these thieves are taking my designs and selling them without my permission, over and over again. I have written to Amazon repeatedly, which is long winded and not easy to do but when the offending stores eventually shut another then appears selling my artwork again. As a artist it is very upsetting and time consuming keep emailing taken down notices. It is getting to the point where I am not going to be able to continue to upload to sell my work online. I hope people read this and understand if artists can't make a living from their art they will stop producing wonderful artwork. We can't afford to work for free with the cost of living these days, we only make a small percentage from print on demand companies as it is. It is a sad situation and I blame Amazon they should NOT be giving this companies the ability to sell it on Amazon. I too refuse to buy anything from Amazon now until these illegal market place sellers are refused to sell counterfeit goods using Amazon's name. I also think the PODs need to protect artists better by insuring the work we trust with them to look after is looked after and if falls in to the wrong hands is dealt with, a change in the law will be the only way any of this will happen though I fear. As individuals we are easy targets it is a sad for the art world.

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    I'm a photographer and graphic artist who has been making a living online since 2007.

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