[Am-info] Gates pulls another nasty

[Gene Gaines]

July 1, 2003
Corbis Using DMCA in Suit Against Amazon.com
By Ryan Naraine

Seattle-based image and archiving specialist Corbis has filed a
multi-million dollar lawsuit against Amazon.com (Quote, Company
Info), accusing the e-commerce giant of the selling its images
without its consent.

Corbis, which is owned by Microsoft (Quote, Company Info) boss
Bill Gates, is seeking damages and injunctive relief for federal
claims, including copyright infringement and violation of the
controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The case could potentially add clarity and even case law to the
"safe harbor" provision in the DMCA, which has been used to shield
against secondary copyright infringement involving sites that link
to other sites in e-commerce partnerships.

The Corbis suit said the movie site IMDB.com was used to shuttle
visitors to Amazon.com from IMDB.com's "Celebrity Photos" section.
"A consumer who clicks upon the "Celebrity Photos" box at IMDB.com
is connected to the Amazon Web site, which displays a list of
various photos of celebrities, complete with copies of images of
the photos of such celebrities, which can be purchased from a list
of various suppliers," the suit alleged.

Corbis, which makes money from licensing images to publishers,
advertising agencies and filmmakers, accused Amazon.com of hawking
photographs and posters of a range of celebrities that are illegal
reproductions of copyright-protected images.

Amazon.com officials could not be reached for comment at press
time Tuesday. According to published reports, Amazon.com spokesman
Bill Curry said the company would remove the photos and other
images in question from its Web site. Curry also told The Wall
Street Journal that the Corbis suit is "without merit with respect
to Amazon" because of the safe harbor provisions in the DMCA.

The Corbis suit, which is seeking in some cases up to $150,000 for
each copyrighted work infringed, accused Amazon.com of using
copyright-protected images to lure shoppers to purchase other
products. ...more...


Gene Gaines
gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com
Sterling, Virginia