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| Photo by Parker Burchfield on Unsplash |
Amazon, Inc is engaged in a massive scheme that destroys the work and livelihoods of independent artists in the U.S. It is called Amazon Merch on Demand and Merch by Amazon. There is currently a federal lawsuit filed by independent artists who complain about Amazon stealing their art works and selling them printed onto t-shirts and other merchandise without their input or permission. The lawsuit is called Weekend Warrior Clothing, LLC v. Services, LLC. (1:23-cv-00752), District Court, S.D. Ohio.
Weekend Warrior Clothing is a company in Ohio started by two brothers, Daniel and Tim Whelan. The Whelan brothers made silly or funny designs, many involving beer drinking, and printed them on t-shirts. They sold the t-shirts on their own websites. The Whelan brothers complain that they discovered one day that Amazon was systematically stealing their designs, printing them on t-shirts, and selling them on Amazon.
The Whelans say that as soon as they came out with new designs, Amazon would systematically steal the designs and put them up for sale on Amazon. The Whelans say that they contacted Amazon and told them to take down their designs and stop printing up and selling shirts and other merchandise with their designs on them. They say that Amazon ignored or denied their take-downs. They go on to explain that Amazon repeatedly claimed that the take-down notices sent by Weekend Warrior were not valid or lacked some piece of information, and other excuses.
The Whelans found their Weekend Warrior Clothing business was being ruined by Amazon copying their designs and selling its own shirts. The Whelans filed a federal lawsuit for Copyright infringement.
Amazon did not take responsibility for its wrongdoing. Amazon did not apologize. Amazon did not offer to make good for the damage done to the Whelan brothers and their shirts business. Instead, Amazon blamed its users who are involved in its Merch on Demand “program.” Amazon claimed it was not to blame, even though Amazon created and hosted the website pages featuring the shirts for sale, Amazon took the orders for the shirts and received the payments, Amazon printed up the shirts, and Amazon delivered the shirts. Amazon profited off every shirt sold. Still, Amazon claimed it was not to blame.
Then you might think that Amazon would expect its Merch by Amazon users, whom Amazon says are to blame for stealing the Weekend Warrior art, to accept the blame and reimburse Weekend Warrior. Instead, Amazon took very unusual steps to hide the identities of its users involved in the scheme? What did Amazon do? Amazon did something I’ve never before seen in a lawsuit. Amazon filed a motion in the lawsuit asking the Court to allow Amazon to redact or “seal” all the information regarding its users. It also asked the Court to allow all information about pricing, profits, and all other pertinent information to be redacted and not visible to the public. The lawyers for Weekend Warrior said they agreed to this because they feared that if they took the time to fight this strange request, their answer to the lawsuit would be filed after the deadline. So they acceded to this demand.
The information in a lawsuit is supposed to be public. Amazon was trying to cover up the names and profits made by its users that Amazon claims are the ones responsible for harming Weekend Warrior. The Judge was required to decide whether sealing pertinent information from the public should be allowed. The Judge wrote a decision wherein he stated that Amazon claimed that important business information would be made public if it was not sealed, so the Judge allowed the information to be sealed.
This was a stunning, likely illegal and unconstitutional hiding of information that should have been made public in the lawsuit filings. Lawsuits are supposed to be public, not conducted in secret. Amazon requested to hide almost all pertinent information in its filings, Weekend Warrior acquiesced to this, but the Judge was supposed to protect the public interest. Instead, all subsequent court filings in this case have all the important information blacked out. Below is one example.
The filings made by both Amazon and Weekend Warrior Clothing are rife with blacked-out pages. The Court denied the public its right to see and read the filings and to know what Amazon was up to in its print-on-demand Merch scheme.
Why is this so important? First, there is the First Amendment of the US Constitution that allows the public and press the right of access to court proceedings. If Amazon gets to hide all the important information from its lawsuit filings, then the public is kept in the dark about Amazon’s defenses to the complaints made by Weekend Warrior Clothing. Further, since Weekend Warrior is also required to redact all the important information about what Amazon did to harm Weekend Warrior and the Whelan brothers, then the public is left even further in the dark. This has become, in fact, a secret trial. And that is not allowed under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Second, it appears that many artists have had their art stolen or infringed by Amazon in its Merch by Amazon scheme. Those artists need to know and deserve to know what is being claimed by Amazon in this lawsuit. Amazon is highly likely to make the same excuses to the other artists whose art works turn up without permission on Amazon’s merch scheme.
Third, Amazon claims it is not liable for Copyright infringement, but that its users are the ones that submitted stolen art and are liable. Then why is Amazon hiding and protecting its errant users? Amazon itself made money off each shirt, sweatshirt, and other piece of merchandise sold. Amazon takes its cut first out of every sale. Yet, Amazon claims it is not responsible or liable for merchandise where Amazon hosts the art, provides the website pages, advertises the products on its site, takes the orders, receives the money, prints up the goods, and delivers the goods. Amazon says it is not responsible, but its “Merch” partners or users are. Yet, Amazon is hiding the identities of these people.
There is nothing secret about Amazon’s Merch on Demand program. Amazon posts information on how it works. It appears that Amazon is hiding information that is needed by the other artists whose art works and designs have been stolen, whose businesses have been harmed or destroyed. Everyone in the public, particularly artists, deserve to know all the information that Amazon is hiding.
You can download a lot of the court filings in this case on Court Listener, where they have been donated by people who have purchased them off PACER. This is the link to the docket in the case:
Weekend Warrior Clothing, LLC v. Amazon.com Services, LLC (1:23-cv-00752) District Court, S.D. Ohio
Photo by Parker Burchfield on Unsplash