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Yep, Amazon bullied Humayun Kabir into giving up kindlenews.info
February 4, 2008 | 10:15 am
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By David Rothman
Amazon, not another news site, forced Humayun Kabir’s old Kindle News to give up the domain name of kindlenews.info.
The giant bookseller e-mailed the New Zealander that a site serving as an Amazon affiliate could not use the sacred Kindle name in its domain. Humayun’s site, shown in an early Blogspot incarnation, will now be called e-BOOKvine.com.
Humayun tells me he “decided to transfer the domain to Amazon” because “otherwise they’ll cancel my account.” I’d agree with Amazon when the possibility of confusion exists, but no one could have mistaken Kindle News for an official Amazon operation—not with all the outspoken writings on such issues as eBabel and the company’s DRM games.
Self-defeating
The irony is that, for all the criticism Humayun made of the Kindle, he was drumming up interest in the machine. The message he sent in effect was, “I care enough about the Kindle gizmo and service to encourage Amazon to make them better.”
Along the way, he served up useful consumer tips. That will still happen at the new site; but under a different name, it will be harder for Kindle owners to run across.
I’m a steady Amazon customer, no jihads here. But the company’s bullying ways are one reason why publishers should not let Jeff Bezos and friends lord it over e-bookdom—especially with the company’s format and DRM games. Meanwhile it would be classy of Jeff and friends to respond to this post by letting Humayun resume use of kindlenews.info while serving as an affiliate, just so he makes clear he’s not part of Amazon. Same for others using the K name.
Not the only site Amazon pushed around
Humayun had company in being pushed around; Kindlecorner.net also vanished. Gone, too, is Kindle.com, currently redirected to a Kindle page on Amazon.com, although I’d want to know more facts before accusing Amazon of the same bullying it used against Humayun.
Now what happens with Kindleville? None other than Joe Wikert, a Net-hip Wiley executive who, like Humayun, shows up in the TeleBlog via authorized pickups, uses kindleville.com, which sends people to his Blogspot blog.
What do you think, Joe? I don’t see any affiliate ads on Kindleville, but if you want them in the future, you may have to change your site name and domain; and what about the risk of a note from Amazon’s trademark guys, whether or not you’re an affiliate?
Technorati Tags: trademarks,trademark law
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Comments:
Oops…accidentally posted my response on the other Kindle thread:
This is simply reprehensible on Amazon’s part.
Moreover, am I correct in understanding that they threatened to cancel Mr. Kabir’s Amazon.Com/Kindle account if he didn’t transfer the domain name? If true, that is so far beyond the pale that I can’t believe Amazon thinks they could do that without the ensuing s***storm they’re about to experience.
Brian, I totally agree. I’ve asked Humayun for a copy of correspondence between him and Amazon so we can see the source material and determine for ourselves if “transfer” was a condition. Thanks. David
Well, David, I’m really afraid that I disagree with you completely on this. As a corporate lawyer I have more than a little familiarity with trademarks and copyright matters and I think that Amazon was completely right.
As to trademarks, which “Kindle” is, the courts have held over and over again, with no equivocation, that if a trademark owner does not enforce their registrations then the owner will loose the registration and the mark will go into the public domain. There are many examples of this happening. Perhaps the most famous is “aspirin” which started out as a trademark but the owner didn’t enforce it and so it passed into generic use. This is why you see companies like Disney forcing little mom and pop bakeries to stop using their trademarked symbols.
Nope, Amazon was correct in its actions and if I had been on Amazon’s payroll I would happily have written the letter – and believe me I have written many similar letters in the past. The public always gets riled up about this – the big guy hitting on the little guy. But if the big guy doesn’t do this, and do it on a consistent basis whether the infringer be large or small, then the big guy looses his trademark just as those who owned these trademarks lost theirs: aspirin, cellophane, nylon, thermos, escalator.
Hi David. Well, I have to admit that I see both sides of this. Paul Biba is right to point out the need to protect trademarks or you’ll jeopardize your ownership rights. On the other hand, I’d like to think Amazon could come up with a simple policy to allow for the use of “kindle” as part of a domain name. I do have an affiliate ID with Amazon and I use it extensively on my Publishing 2020 blog. I can’t recall if I’ve ever used it on Kindleville, but giving it up wouldn’t be a big deal to me, especially if that enabled me to keep the Kindleville name.
What I find to be particularly troubling though is the fact that we’re out here trying to help Amazon hype the device, not hurt it. Secondly, it would be extremely unfortunate if bloggers had to give up these domain names while someone with an ax to grind could easily come up with a disparaging URL that includes “kindle”… For example, I just checked and http://www.iHateKindle.com is available. A disgruntled customer could start a negative PR campaign with that domain — what could Amazon do? I’m sure they would write a cease-and-desist letter to discourage the owner from continuing its use but I can’t imagine they’d have a legal right to force it down. There are plenty of so-and-so-sucks.com sites in existence today as well. Are those deemed a violation of trademark law? I’m not a lawyer but I’d be surprised if these *sucks.com sites are illegal.
So, if those kinds of sites can exist free and clear of any liability, shouldn’t pro-Kindle ones like mine be allowed to use the name as well?
Agree totally with you, Joe. I’m also wondering if this might have implications for independent user guides—titles, both E and P. Is it possible that you could check with a Wiley lawyer on both the blog and user guide angles? Might Amazon’s domain-name-related efforts ultimately spill over into over areas? What about Kindle for Dummies? Is something like that out or planned? What will Jeff say? (An aside: Yep, if someones does a computer book with “Dummies” in the title and a yellow cover, etc., that’s a trademark violation as I see this as a civilian.)
Too bad Amazon feels this way. Like you and me, Humayun was trying to help Kindle users and along the way he was keeping the K machine on the minds of prospective buyers. The unspoken message transmitted to me is that Amazon is trying to do and control everything. That’s a Net -1.0 approach.
Thanks,
David
Actually David there is nothing at all underhanded about this. It is normally policy for merchants to forbid use of the brand name as part of the domain. The company I work for is an affiliate agency and out of the dozens of merchant programs we run, I don’t believe any allow this.
I am certain that if Humayun was not doing any affiliate marketing, then Amazon would not have contacted him. Unless Kindleville starts up as an Amazon affiliate then I doubt they would contact them either.
Big thanks for your thoughts, Mike. My suggestion would be for people to loosen up at both Amazon and the outfits your employer deals with. I’ve already explained how there could be conditions to allow use of the name while protecting copyright. If more enlightenment is required by the courts or if there’s a need for clarifying legislation in various countries, so be it. Meanwhile here’s hoping you’re right about Amazon not bothering people beyond the affiliates! Usual “I am not a lawyer” disclaimer. Thanks. David
Hi guys interesting news – I was thinking of setting up a book club on line which I thought would be popular. Have purchased kindlebookclub.co.uk thinking it could be a really great site to encourage readers and also gleefanclub.co.uk with their upcoming tour in the UK would be really popular. Aimed for them to be free with advertising – Does the above mean these would now be impossible??
Bushers