Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm not so sure about that. Are eBay responsible for the things that people sell on their site? Realistically, I suspect that all Amazon can do is make people agree to a declaration that they have a legal right to sell the books they upload, and to promptly react to reports of copyright violations - and that's exactly what they do.
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There are 2 issues here, I think:
1. Is Amazon (or eBay or any other online eTailer) responsible for ensuring that what is sold on their site is legal?
2. Once Amazon (or eBay....) has discovered what something that is being sold is illegal, what can/should they do about it. Who (the eTailer or the customer) should "lose out" due to the mistake...
I think we all agree that the eTailer is responsible for ensuring that what is sold on their website is legal. Mistakes happen -- we all know that.
However, how the company reacts when they have discovered the problem is the issue.
I think the "eBay" model is appropriate -- if they discover an issue while the auction is still up, it is reasonable to remove the auction. However, if the auction had already been completed and the transaction settled, (I may be mistaken here...) eBay basically shrugs its shoulders and says "nothing we can do now..."
Amazon, on the other hand, rather than accept the responsibility for their own mistakes, intrudes into the customer's device to try to mitigate their own liability. It may be true that Amazon would have been exposed from a liability standpoint but they accept that risk when they open up their website for any numnut to sell anything they want to without adequate safeguards. It isn't up to the customer to save Amazon from themselves.
In this case, I think the appropriate resolution would have been to take down the the book (which they did), but honor the sales that had already taken place in good faith and accept the responsibility (read liability) for the copies that were already sold.
I think the irony here is this is over Ayn Rand books -- WWARD (What Would Ayn Rand Do?) It's been awhile since I read her books but I certainly don't think she would have taken the approach that Amazon took.