Corbis Sues Amazon for Copyright Infringement

Gedvondur writes "The story ran in the WSJ today, that the Gates-owned image company, Corbis, is suing Amazon.com for copyright violations (PDF link). Apparently the suit was without warning to Amazon. Amazon will use the DMCA to defend itself. Link goes to copy of the WSJ article on Corbis's site."

Comments

Patent

[rf0]

I'm sure Amazon will just show they own a patent for it. They seem to have it for everything else

Rus

Do you think..

[mikeophile]

that Corbis got permission from the Wall Street Journal to scan and redistribute it's copy as a pdf?

Re:Do you think..

[Anonymous Coward]

It's only okay if the type on the copy is totally illegible.

Re:Do you think..

[Anonymous Coward]

So, mp3s are okay if they sound crappy?

Amazons defending themselves

[darnok]

> Amazon will use the DMCA to defend itself.

Why does this give me a mental picture of a giant, half-naked female warrior beating off hordes of bad guys, armed only with a rolled up piece of paper?

Gotta get out more...

Re:Amazons defending themselves

[Anonymous Coward]

If that Amazon is Xena, Corbis is seriously f*cked!

Re:Amazons defending themselves

[divide overflow]

> Why does this give me a mental picture of a giant, half-naked female warrior beating off hordes of bad guys, armed only with a rolled up piece of paper?

I bet you go to every Star Trek convention.

Re:Amazons defending themselves

[Captain Large Face]

half-naked female ... beating off hordes of ... guys

Sounds more like a sex industry convention. But then perhaps Star Trek has changed -- I haven't really watched any of the new series...

The pot calling the kettle...

[canning]

"Hi kettle, this is pot. You're BLACK!"

Re:First PDF Sucks Post

[pVoid]

Not only that, it's just a friggin image (why use PDF?) of a *scanned* newspaper.

Only thing better would be if the news paper had an image of a computer screen with browser viewing the pictures in it...

uhh wait a min...

Re:first post

[Anonymous Coward]

EXCELLENT poster, a credit to slashdot, WOULD MOD UP AGAIN A+++++++

Re:Amazon uses DMCA to defends itself

[I Want GNU!]

No, this is a Swiss Army knife. Please cease and desist advertising the DMCA as a Swiss Army knife immediately or we will use the DMCA against you in court.

--Swiss Army Brands, Inc.

Re:PDF??

[yintercept]

the piece is being carried by just about everyone.

Looks to me like we have some serious copyright violations going on with this article. I hope the Wall Street Journal wipes the floor with that crappy in scanned article put up by Corbis and distributed to tens of thousands of slashdotters without giving the venerable WSJ a chance to earn ad revenues for their hard work.

Take it to court!!!! I say.

Since few people have actully red anything...

[TallEmu]

From the article on CNET....

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges that Amazon and at least 15 poster and picture stores violated copyright law by selling the digital images outright or allowing sales to occur through their sites. Corbis is seeking up to $150,000 for each work sold.

Just for those that can't be bothered reading it. It all seems reasonable to me.

obviously innocent

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon is obviously innocent. While Corbis claims that they are a "professional stock photo agency", that's clearly not possible: no company that puts out a crappy scan of a copyrighted story in the WSJ as a "press release" could possibly either know anything about copyrights or digital imaging. They must be some sort of impostors. Whereever those Meg Ryan photos came from, they can't have come from Corbis.

Gates vs. Bezos

[mikeophile]

I just can't decide who I want to see lose more.

It's like putting Hilary Rosen and Ann Coultier into a spiked cage and fretting over who won't emerge.

I guess we all win this time.

Re:Gates vs. Bezos

[divide overflow]

It's like putting Hilary Rosen and Ann Coultier into a spiked cage and fretting over who won't emerge.

No, it's like putting Hilary Rosen and Ann Coulter into a spiked cage and fretting that one might emerge.

Re:Gates vs. Bezos

[djNocturne]

Okay, I admit it. I had no idea who this Ann Coultier character was. I'd heard the name in passing but couldn't have told you anything about her (broader politics not being something I follow all that closely). I decided to look into it, however, because anyone who would get serious consideration as the desired loser in a one-on-one deathmatch with Hillary Rosen is obviously making some very, very poor decisions in life.

The first thing I landed on was her official site, which begins with what I assume to be her most recent article. It was clear from the very first sentence that I was in for a comedy routine of the highest order:

THE MYTH OF "McCarthyism" is the greatest Orwellian fraud of our times.

There are so many things wrong with that sentence that I'm not even sure where to begin. First of all, you literary mastermind, try brushing up on your references before you start deploying them. This will save you the deep embarassment of using terms which mean precisely the opposite of what you think they mean. "Orwellian" refers to something perpetrated on the public, not by the public.

Second of all, McCarthyism does not belong in quotes. McCarthyism is a documented fact. I've seen black-and-white footage of the hearings, so unless you believe that this was filmed in a secret warehouse somewhere---by the same evil conspirators that would later fake the moon landing---then what you are really complaining about is the negative historical connotation associated with both the mission and the tactics of the now-defunct Senate Committee on Unamerican Activities. The good news is, either belief effectively qualifies you for an extended "vacation" in a lovely place where you can get some rest, and where the nice men in white coats wheel you over to the window three times a day.

The portrayal of Sen. Joe McCarthy as a wild-eyed demagogue destroying innocent lives is sheer liberal hobgoblinism.

I agree. He was so misunderstood. All of those pinko commie bastards who were driven out of work, and subsequently couldn't feed their families, they had it coming, sure enough. People who don't espouse an approved political viewpoint should definitely be systematically cast out and denied a living. This is America, after all, and we don't tolerate that kind of crap in America.

Liberals denounced McCarthy because they were afraid of getting caught, so they fought back like animals to hide their own collaboration with a regime as evil as the Nazis.

-1: Flamebait

Slashdot currently has an opening in the exciting field of forum trolling. The available position is that of Troll Project Lead, and the qualified applicant will have 5+ years experience in making extraneous, half-baked comparisons of any opposing viewpoints to Nazi Germany. Knowledge of Natalie Portman and/or grits is a plus.

Other statements which would have qualified as demonstrated trolling prowess:

• ... they fought back like animals to hide their own collaboration with a regime of naked and petrified Natalie Portmans, grits not included
• I always knew that you pinko Linux faggots were collaborating with commies
• In Soviet Russia, collaboration hides YOU

Here is the suit:

[Anonymous Coward]

Corbis attacks with IP violation suit.
Amazon strikes with DCMA +0.
Corbis resists !
Amazon conjures rapid laywers.
Corbis conjures Bill Gates.
Amazon conjures David Boies.
Bill Gates attacks with incompatible IE +6.
David Boies strikes with countersuit.
Countersuit misfires !
Judge drops dead laughing !
Bill Gates integrates IE into Windows.
Corbis conjures more laywers.
Amazon casts press release at Bill Gates.
Bill Gates resists !
David Boies casts Chebacca defense.
Chebacca defense misfires !
Amazon loses !Judge orders Amazon to pay 10000000 $ !

Equitable settlement

[Mostly a lurker]

Perhaps this will be settled by an agreement that Microsoft can use buttons in their applications without paying license fees to Amazon.

Re:Jesus Christ

[questamor]

It sounds more like an RPG... or perhaps pokémon.

Corbismon I choose you! use your Copyright Violation weapon!

Oh no!

Amazonchu is countering with their DMCA beam!

gaaaaah

This is not copyright infringement.

[commodoresloat]

They're just sharing the article with people so they can sample it, see if this article makes them curious enough to buy the whole paper.

Re:First PDF Sucks Post

[Mooncaller]

What do expect from an image processing company owned by Bill Gates!

Ac Dc

[Delifisek]

Live at the Atlantic Studios (1977)
(Young, Young, Scott)

Well it's a dog eat dog
Eat cat too
The French eat frog
And I eat you
Businessman, when you make a deal
Do you know who you can trust?
Do you sign your life away?
Do you write your name in dust?

CHORUS:
Hey, hey, hey
Every dog has his day
It's a dog eat dog
Dog eat dog

Dog eat dog
Read the news
Someone win
Someone lose
Up's above and down's below
And limbo's inbetween
Up you win, down you lose
It's anybody's game

CHORUS

And it's a eye for eye
Tooth for tooth
It's a lie
That's the truth
See a blind man on the street
Looking for something free
Hear the kind man ask his friends
"Hey, what's in it for me?"

CHORUS

Amazon infringing my copyright too!!

[Anonymous Coward]

So I did a brief search, and it appears they have photos which infringe my copyright too, so come on you armchair lawyers, whats my next move?

Do I wait for Corbis to win? I'm based in the UK, is it better to sue in the US?

Come on guys give it up, I'll give you ten percent...

Re:Microsoft is above the law.

[Anonymous Coward]

Raw sewage is bad. Always.

Gallons of raw sewage shovelled down Bill Gates' trousers (US pants) with elastic bands wound round his ankles is good. Always.

There is no contradiction.

YAW.

It's Linus's doing..

[AstroSmith]

Using the Homeland Security tool "Deep Scan" we have uncovered proprietary bits of SCO code in the WSJ scan.

Make that 10 Billion in small bills...

Re:PDF??

[kaltkalt]

and I didn't even have to give away my personal information for marketing purposes in order to read the article. Isn't that a breach of some 'social contract' or something? hehe

Seriously Entertaining

[suwain_2]

HBO: 7 PM: "Gorilla Warfare" Starring Billy Gates and Jeff Bezos. Two 900 pound gorillas duke it out over their massive collections of copyrights and trademarks. Watch as Bezos invokes the DMCA after Gates attacks him with a chair! Rated "R" for extreme violence.

Really, though... Am I the only one who just read the story on Slashdot and cracked up laughing? It's just too funny for words.