Adventures In Selling Online! #8

T-rex Is Back In The Amazon Image Thieves Clutches!

I promised him...I mean, I really did. I looked into those teeny weeny T-rex eyes, and promised him that I would get him back to full size, now that I thought we had rescued him.

No one had been prepared for what came next, the speed of those 'Image Thieves' tentacles shooting into the middle of the group...THWACKKK!...T-rex's pillow spun upwards into the air.

SCHWIFFTT!  Another tentacle had curled itself around little T-rex's wrist!
SPLIIIFFTT!  Another around the other wrist!

FLIPPHHTT! One more pulling at his vest!

It all happened so fast. Those 'Image Thieves' polluting the Amazon marketplace. They seemed to be pulling T-rex in all directions at once... 

"Help!" he shouted as he was jiggled, and piggled, and stretched. The more he yowled, the more my heart broke!

"I'm going to bu-r-s-t!!" he yelped, and just at that moment, Poooommphh! - he exploded into lots and lots of even teenier T-rex's.

Tentacles writhed together forming a cage, and before I knew it they had gathered all the little T-rex's and slithered off into the undergrowth.

"Oh T-rex", I thought to myself, "I will find you again buddy. I will not rest!"

They shook him so violently he burst into a hundred even teenier T-Rex's!

It's a sad fact that there are 'Image Thieves' operating in the Amazon Marketplace. 

What is absolutely frustrating the amount of time spent however is the time taken to go through Amazon's process when the rights owner of the design (that's me folks) tries to get the product taken down.

Amazon asks that you send a different form in for each time the seller/criminal lists a product with the design on it.
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Am I, as the creator of the artwork, getting a bean from this - not at all...Amazon is though! Amazon will still be getting their seller fee for any counterfeit product sold.

So, what stage am I at now - well this one particular seller had listed the image on 2 t-shirts. I sent in two forms to Amazon to get the products taken down. To which the seller responded by putting the image on 93 other t-shirts! Seriously, they cover 5 whole pages!

The 'Image Thief' has put them on 93 t-shirts...and counting!

That means sending in 93 forms to Amazon to get them taken down.

I emailed Amazon's copyright email address, and have been getting back messages of complete and utter indifference.

It's almost as if they are intentionally making it hard for copyright owners to get their work taken down.

Anyway, it's getting late at night now. I hope you enjoy the illustration and little storyline so far.

Got a few ideas rolling around my head on how to kick things up a gear. Don't want all my video, documentary skills going to waste now, do we.

Sleep tight guys, and don't be letting the Amazon marketplace 'Image Thieves' be giving you bad dreams!

Davy