I’m considering starting a blog with reviews of various online purchases I make from sellers online.
Posting pictures and descriptions of packaging and product descriptions versus product received.
I’m pretty sure I’m within my rights photographing, scanning and describing products and interactions with large sellers, for whom all their information, etc is “public” after a fashion.
What I’m not going to do is review small sellers by name, as I’d be afraid of adversely effecting someone’s livelihood, or inadvertently disclosing their home address.
The question in mind:
If a small online seller (let’s say an Amazon marketplace Media/Book seller who ships from home and sells 100 books per month) ships a package to Bob, is there any legal issue with Bob photographing and posting images of the package?
Similarly, is there any issue with Bob posting the full text of any and all email exchanged with the seller?
How about if the “seller” was a college kid unloading their books at the end of the semester?
Disclaimer:
I’m not planning on reviewing any sharing information on sellers much smaller than Barnes & Noble. I already know that their email and shipping information is public, largely being available on their website.
I don’t plan on relying on any of the responses I get here, but the thoughts above crossed my mind, and I figured I’d ask out of curiosity.
Posting the full e-mail could run afoul of the sender’s copyrights, if he wants to sue you. You’re on stronger ground if you just quote excerpts.
There’s copyright issue if you’re photographing the package. You’re the one who owns the photos. If there is a trademark, he might want to go after you for a trademark violation, but that’d be hard for him to win, since you’re not directly competing with him.
He could threaten you with a lawsuit for defamation, but he’d also be on shaky ground.
Posting the home address, though, could cause trouble. Black it out with marker before taking the photo.
If you’re doing electronics & related items it’s already done.
In fact, if you google around I pretty sure you’ll find discussions sites for almost any product that covers purchase experiences & “best place to buy” advice.
Current copyright law makes everything that is put into words, in any form, manner, or medium, automatically and immediately copyright by the author. That includes emails, letters, communications inserted in the package, invoices, packing slips, and anything else that can be thought of. There are no exceptions for whether the author is a college kind or a corporation. The law is one size fits all.
Reviewing is generally thought of as a fair use situation. I’d say you can display the shipping medium with no problem. Reproducing email is an automatic violation. Reproducing other written materials probably is as well, although in certain cases that may become fair use as an aspect of a review.
There is no definitive law on this situation. Courts rarely rule in copyright cases and they are always so idiosyncratic that they seldom apply to other instances. Beyond saying that you can’t reproduce somebody else’s email - for the same reason you can’t reproduce somebody else’s Dope postings outside of the Dope - you just need to take reasonable care to not infringe. Nobody can define reasonable outside of a court.
Also be careful about admitting making online purchases if your state expects to collect sales tax on those purchases (some do) and you didn’t cough it up.
No, copyright remains with the author, unless transferred by the author.
However, quoting part of an email as part of a review of an online transaction may be fair use. (But note that I am not a lawyer, and you certainly are not my client).