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Shopify is accused of profiting from textbook piracy

Five textbook publishers are accusing Shopify Inc. profit from content sold through Shopify’s software that infringes their copyright or violates their trademark.

In a lawsuit filed in a US court on Wednesday, the publishers allege the e-commerce company allowed certain websites to use its technology to illegally copy and sell textbooks, banking testing and other manuals that are identical or “essentially indistinguishable” from their products.

The five publishers that brought charges against the Ottawa-based technology company are Macmillan Learning, Cengage Learning Inc., Elsevier Inc., McGraw Hill LLC and Pearson Education Inc.

Publishers claim damages including up to $150,000 per copyright infringed and $2 million per counterfeit trademark, arising from Shopify’s alleged violations .

The lawsuit, filed in Virginia, where Ottawa-based Shopify has computer servers, calls the company “the server, purveyor, and defender of a pirate world of digital textbooks.”

“Shopify has received detailed notices almost weekly for years that identify specific Shopify subscribers using Shopify’s services to infringe on copyright. However, Shopify regularly ignores illegal activity. of the registrants identified, placing the company’s finances above legal obligations,” the court document said.

Shopify spokeswoman Rebecca Feigelsohn said the company requires merchants to agree to terms of service and accepted usage policies (AUPs) before signing up.

“Shopify’s AUP clearly outlines unauthorized activities on our platform,” she said.

The publishers allege in their lawsuit that when Shopify becomes aware of users involved in copyright and trademark infringement, it will “evade its obligations” by continuing to allow these users access access to the company’s services and provide them with “anonymity, fake legitimacy and safe haven from which to break the law”.

“When Shopify learns that one of their subscribers is using their service in violation, Shopify must do something about it,” the publishers said.

“Blindly ignoring piracy to make more money, as Shopify does here, is not a legitimate option.”

Shopify says it will work quickly once these issues are flagged.

“We have multiple teams that deal with potential AUP violations, including copyright and trademark infringement, and we don’t hesitate to take action with stores when found infringing,” Feigelsohn said.

“So far in 2021, more than 90% of copyright and trademark reports have been reviewed within one business day.”

Shopify has previously been criticized for other content it allows merchants to sell through its software.

In January, former US president Donald Trump’s stores were taken offline by Shopify as the country grapples with the role he played in inciting violence that broke out at the Capitol building.

In 2018, the company changed its policy to prevent merchants selling semi-automatic guns from accepting magazines and detachable accessories including grenades, rocket launchers, flashes, and silencers. through Shopify.

A year earlier, a petition asked the company to stop allowing far-right news network Breitbart to continue using Shopify products, but Shopify founder Tobi Lutke defended the decision in a post on Medium has been deleted promoting the values ​​of free speech.

This Canadian Press report was first published on December 1, 2021.

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