Major disparity in copyright removals

GreenCarbonMail
New Contributor III

I don't know if Zazzle has new people reviewing products for copyright, but there seems to be a major disparity between products being removed that shouldn't be - like the parody graphics I create - and ones that are left on the site that are clear violations. 

I created a parody graphic inspired by "The Godfather", my graphic is for pickleball and says "The Lobfather" with a hand holding a pickleball paddle. If you go to the home page of Zazzle and search "The Godfather" the first page is filled with images from the movie in multiple shops including the actual poster from the movie, and pictures of Marlon Brando. How are those graphics allowed to stay up, but my parody original creation is not?

The same thing was done to my pickleball parody of the movie "Hocus Pocus." The email response I received from Zazzle said it was removed because I included the words "Hocus Pocus", yet, go to the home page, search Hocus Pocus and you'll see lots of editor's picks and thousands of results for that word.

And today I had another removed for a golfing bachelorette party with pink flowers and personalization with the name Barbie. As far as I know, the name Barbie is not copyrighted. I made no reference to the doll or movie, not in tags or description, and there is nothing in the graphic to indicate Barbie except the name. Yet, search the home page for Barbie and, well you'll get the picture. 

Is anyone else running into this issue? 

3 REPLIES 3

Thanks for that information. I'm just finding it discouraging that Zazzle is making "editor's picks" with the same words they used as a reason for removing my parodies which are fair use and copyright free. I mean, if they're going to use that as a reason to remove one, they need to then follow their example and remove them all.

@GreenCarbonMail 
Regardless of being editors picks, report each one for violation, copy/paste the reason ie trademark vio and name it. Takes time but can be cathartic….(runs off in search of a cathartic emoji)