Hello, Today, my hosting company sent me a notice stating that my website contained copyrighted material. They go on to say that they will terminate service if I don't do take down the site ASAP. They provided the URL to my site and to my surprise, it's an Amazon store! That is all the site is, just an Amazon store, nothing modified. The company that issued the complaint was Net Enforcers acting on Sony's Behalf. It's a long complaint, but goes on to say that 'Sony has retained Net Enforcers to assist with the protection and enforcement of its rights in Sony-owned or licensed trademarks, logos, and other copyrighted materials...' I'm guessing that Net Enforcers is running some type of basic matching program and not checking the material closely enough. With these blind complaints, I'm sure Sony should notice the difference in sales revenue once everyone stops selling their product! Has anyone else had this problem? What do you make of this? Thanks!
Maybe it depends on how it is constructed. It does seems strange. I had an issue with a site which I use a CJ affiliates and was told the material I use were copyrighted so I just took it down. I guess you could take the Sony related stuff down in compliance and then send them an email to explain that it is an Amazon Store and ask them what contents you can use to promote their product.
Ebay sent out an email to me and all their affiliates saying not to use a certain companies trademarks, etc in advertising, on the sites, etc. So I guess Sony is doing the same, just do not want Sony trademarks on any site but approved sites like amazon only and not their affiliates.
There is more info on this here From what I have heard, you can contact Amazon and they will address the issue with net enforcers. I thought these cases have died down by now. Hope it works out for you.
Thanks for the information! I followed the link and read about the NetEnforcers Hoax. My internet host is PAIR.com and once they received this hoax, they must have just blindly fired off an email. It would be nice if Pair.com would do a little research before shutting down Amazon stores! I've sent an email to them explaining the hoax and will post the results. This is a pain! Thanks again for the information!
it seems these little hoax's are going on all of the time....how is someone making money on this? Just by eliminating competition?
That's an excellent question - how do they profit from it? My site ranks great, so if I go out on a limb, I could say that by eliminating anyone who is at your pr or above and ranking for your keywords (as with Sony products), you could effectively increase your sales and ranking. Either way, it’s sick, sick and wrong.
Apparently, Net Enforcers Suck Here's an eWeek article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1759117,00.asp Interestingly, there are very few press releases for the year 2006 on the netenforcers.com website - one when I checked, compared to a plethora in 2005. When I searched Google, the second placed result was a seemingly impressive, Blaupunkt Hires The Net Enforcers Inc. but it's actually a press release from 2003!
These people are complete bullies plain and simple. In their Ebay VeRO about me page they claim the right to file an intellectual property rights claim against you for making claims about an items manufacturers warranty(ie, my item is a month old and still has 11 months left on the warranty) and for selling software that you own. Their Ebay userid is net_enforcers_inc and because they're in eBay's VeRO club, eBay takes their word for it and ends your auction. They also have a 'report a violation' form right on their front page, so some scumbag ACTUAL grey market seller, you know like all the places selling only 'refurbished' or 'untested' items which really do damage brand value for example, can prevent legitimate private parties from competing with them. I'm going to war with them and I hope everyone who gets messed with by them does too. Email the PR, press, media relations, or any corporate department you can find of whatever company they're acting to abuse you on behalf of and tell them that because of this you've gone from a loyal paying customer who was using and recommending their products to one who is now actively seeking to comment negatively on them.