Would FAA consider a policy change to close or suspend accounts when informed of a pattern of infringement (i.e. two or more DMCA notices from different copyright holders) against a given seller? (We'd love you for it!)
I have been battling copyright infringement on Amazon, Etsy, Alibaba.com, Aliexpress.com, DHGate.com, and iOffer.com for the last two months. (Thankfully not at FAA yet.) The DMCA notice works (most of the time, predominately with US companies) because the provider (hosting company, marketplace, etc) shares the liability risk for infringement (i.e. you can sue them, too) if they leave the image up after they have been informed of infringement by a copyright holder via a DMCA notice. They are therefore financially motivated to help the copyright owner enforce their copyrights.
However, it is frustrating to see a seller continue to exploit other artists and violate their copyrights with impunity, and frustrating to watch providers take only limited action to remove specific items as reported under DMCA while leaving the seller's store intact full of other infringing items.
There is no reason why a provider cannot have a policy in place to close accounts of repeat infringers. Some companies already have wording like this in their terms of service and actively close accounts of repeat offenders. However many companies only take down the specific items reported via a DMCA notice and leave the seller's account open, permitting them to continue to exploit other artists. It would be beneficial for all artists if providers, such as FAA, Amazon, Etsy, and others, were more aggressive about closing sellers accounts when it becomes apparent that they are repeat offenders with a pattern of infringement.
Thank you for your consideration.
