Done With This...

[RobC]

So get this. I have never seen a site so flooded with useless and horrible designs in my entire life unless of course your doing weddings and holiday ect. I had a certain niche which I designed for (paganism, witchcraft, horror) and my designs were all of time being rejected. So, I decided to 'buy" one of my own designs (the Pinhead character from the movie Hellraiser) which was nothing more than clipart that was free to use. I thought maybe you were allowed to use images of movie characters and art as long as somebody did not own the rights to it. So, after ordering my order was "cancelled". I then thought maybe you can't use images of movie characters. I did a search on zazzle and found that a lot of people used movie images of certain characters for T Shirts including bands. So why does mine always get rejected? It's happened more than once.

I'm tired of having to navigate through pages and pages of terrible designs from shops that put in little to no effort in their store. I deleted my store and this type of behavior from zazzle is unacceptable. It's a nothing but a waste of time. I have no idea who is reviewing items people design but obviously there is a huge problem with fairness on this website. This website is literally cluttered full of needless designs while those that put in effort get the shaft. I do not see how this company is even able to stay in business. There are so many things wrong with zazzle that I predict they will eventually shut down. Perhaps being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars for theft which they preach to creators not to steal others designs had an effect on them? I can't work for a company that is so shady that they do not practice what they preach.

[PenguinPower · Accepted solution]

You aren't allowed to use movie characters... familiarize yourself with copyright and trademark law.

None of those people are allowed to use the character either... it's simply that there are millions of products on the platform and often not unless/until they are flagged or someone attempts to purchase those that violate either a copyright or a trademark, that they are seen and pulled. They do review every item that is produced. You may trust that none of those designs you were looking at, unless they are from an officially licensed store (and that is possible, Disney and a some other big names do have stores here) have actually made any money for their store owners. 

[MadjackGG]

I do not see how this company is even able to stay in business.

Zazzle's been in operation since 2005, so they must be doing something right.

[RobC]

And that is the problem with Zazzle is that their platform is cluttered with page after page after page with copyrighted images they do not remove until someone tries to order that product. How backwards is that. And yeah the have been in business since 2005 but I see them taking a huge hit after this huge lawsuit against them. Also, very hilarious, you are not able to use copyrighted material yet Zazzle gets sued for breaking the very rule they preach. lol Not only is Zazzle stupidly expensive but can never be trusted again.

[sm]

Zazzle and other websites like Google are protected by the DMCA Safe Harbor when displaying infringing images online. As long as they have that tick box that is checked to say that the designer has a legal right to use the image, as long as they remove the image if a take down notice is sent and as long as they remove repeat offenders, they have done nothing wrong. If they are catching infringements before printing them, that is a great thing and it makes me feel at ease knowing that they check. You are not protected at all by uploading a copyrighted image that you have no rights to use commercially. You should be grateful they caught it and rejected it otherwise you could end up in big trouble. 

There are lots of spammers and infringers on this site like any other online. When a site is this big, it is difficult to catch everything that is put online. The onus is on you to make sure you actually do have the rights to use an image. Just because some image is given away free online, it doesn't mean it is done so legally. You should have assumed that anything movie related is not free to use.

I hope that in the future, AI is used to more accurately reverse image search all parts of an image and its metadata to find infringing content more easily, and to find the rightful owners of images. 

[leartiste67]

I agree. 

[RobC]

And years ago I had ordered a T Shirt that uses the KISS band trademark and it was made. So in all honestly I think it depends on which idiot decides what images they "think" are copyrighted. But I guess you want to work for a company that breaks their own rules right?

[RobC]

And get this. They removed an image I had made that was clipart of the Pazuzu Demon and just because it said "howdy" under it they felt it was copyrighted because of the movie The Exorcist. First of all it didn't say "capt. Howdy" as in the movie and how the hell can put a trademark on a Demon ha ha Only libtard companies can be so stupid.

[MadjackGG]

They removed an image I had made that was clipart of the Pazuzu Demon and just because it said "howdy" under it they felt it was copyrighted because of the movie The Exorcist.
Dude - if you want to use copyrighted material, go to Redbubble or somewhere similar.

[RodneyK]

I have been on Zazzle since 2011. In the beginning I made a few mistakes with copyright and trademark and rarely it still happens. I had to learn about copyright laws and trademark look up. But the best defense is to do original work or use images that you are licensed to use for POD. Verified public domain images are OK too. Otherwise you will have problems. I have my own original work which has been often copied and put up on POD marketplaces. I have to inform the particular POD marketplace of that to get the copy removed. It is a tedious process. I created and own the copyright for the images. It is wrong for someone to attempt to profit off of my work. It is called knowing right from wrong.