Zazzle has an obligation to abide by copyright laws and remove offending content. I understand that. Sometimes I think they are picky, erring on the side of the complainant a little too readily. I've had a few designs removed, some for the image, some for the words I used in the description.
There is the iPhone case with a picture of a blue Public Police Call Box on it (Tardis). My first attempt was titled "tardis iphone 4 speck case". Zazzle jumped all over that and said I was infringing upon "upon British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)'s intellectual property rights of Dr. Who television series." Notice that they used the abbreviation "Dr." instead of the correct "Doctor".
So, I changed the title to Public Police Call Box and described it as "Perfect for the doctor, lawyer or other professional who has indiscriminate taste". This too was rejected, I assume for for having the words "doctor" and "who" in the text. They have not complained since I changed the description to "A Police call box on you mobile, how British". I also have not sold nearly as many as before the changes.
Zazzle's latest challenge came against my poster called THEM! The RNC's Shameful Spectacle, pictured here. It has been for sale for about 2 years. This week it became unacceptable.
Here's an excerpt from the emails they sent:
Unfortunately, it appears that your product, THEM! The RNC's Shameful Spectacle, contains content that is not suitable for printing at Zazzle.com
We have been contacted by representatives of Karl Rove & Co., and at their request, have removed the product from the Zazzle Marketplace.
• Product Title: THEM! The RNC's Shameful Spectacle
• Product Type: Print
• Product ID: 228504526517601362
• Result: Not Approved
• Policy Violations:
o Design contains an image or text that may infringe on intellectual property rights. We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and we will be removing your product from Zazzle’s Marketplace due to infringement claims.
• Image: Image
The Image link in their message points to what I assumed was the offending content of the product, probably the picture of Karl Rove that I used in the poster. But, when I clicked the link I had to laughed out loud. Well, maybe Karl does look a little like this:
It's my first crappy attempt a making a logo for myself and it appears in the lower right hand corner of the poster, almost unnoticeable. It's also in the About Me section of this blog.
