We’ve been selling on Amazon for almost a decade. We’ve built our brand from the ground up. We’re enrolled in Brand Registry, create our own original content, photos, product descriptions, bullet points, all of it. And yet, here we are in 2025, still dealing with a problem that Amazon pretends doesn’t exist:
Our content is being stolen.
Blatantly. Repeatedly. And now? Apparently, Amazon seems fine with it.
While Chinese sellers saving our images, copying our exact bullet points and product descriptions, and passing them off as their own is nothing new, Amazon's new automated response is.
For what it's worth, this isn’t a gray area. This isn’t about reselling. This isn’t a distribution agreement violation. This is textbook copyright infringement.
Under U.S. Copyright Law, the moment we create an original photo or write original copy, we automatically own the copyright. No registration needed. No special filing. It’s spelled out plainly in the Copyright Act:
“Copyright protection subsists… in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression…”
– 17 U.S. Code § 102
And to make it clearer:
“Copyright automatically exists in a work of authorship when it is created.”
– U.S. Copyright Office FAQ
So let’s stop pretending there’s any ambiguity here. If someone copies our image and uploads it to sell their knockoff product, they’re not just being lazy, they are breaking the law. Period.
But when we try to report this through Amazon’s Brand Registry "Report a Violation" tool, we get this robotic slap in the face:
"We have detected an attempt to enforce exclusive distribution... Violations of such agreements don’t constitute intellectual property rights infringement and should not be reported..."
What kind of gaslighting is this?
This isn’t about distribution. This is about stolen IP. If a seller rips off your product photo, that’s not a gray area, it’s theft. Amazon’s automated response system clearly doesn’t understand the difference, or worse, doesn’t care.
And that’s what makes this so disgusting. Amazon has the resources to detect duplicate images and descriptions. They choose not to act. They choose to look the other way when sellers steal from hardworking brand owners. Instead of defending the creators who make Amazon a legitimate marketplace, Amazon gives cover to frauds and copy-pasters who can’t be bothered to photograph their own product.
If a seller wants to compete fairly? Fine. Take your own pictures. Write your own listing. Make your own product. But if your strategy is to CTRL+C and CTRL+V someone else’s work, and Amazon’s response is essentially: “Looks fine to us”? Then this platform is broken.
After 10 years of building a real business here, it’s appalling to see Amazon not just fail to protect creators but actively enable their exploitation.
What happened to the platform we believed in? What happened to protecting innovation, creativity, and honest competition? Now all the copy pasters need to do is file a "DMCA counter notice" and the burden is shifted back to us. Then we need to spend thousands of dollars on a lawyer to try to sue someone in a different jurisdiction as an attempt to keep the listing down for a $10 product. If this doesn't sound like it's a sustainable business practice, it's not.
Amazon, it’s time to wake up. Because right now, you’re not just failing brands, you’re siding with the thieves.
Pinned by community manager