January 31, 2008 at 10:49 am · Filed under Etsy Staff, The Future, The Storque · By GreenMamba
In this Storque article, Etsy’s First Five Years, co-founder Rob Kalin discusses Etsy, from it’s early beginnings, to a point in its not-too-distant future. Kicking off with a reading of a children’s book, Swimmy, to help illustrate his ideal company model, he goes on to give a quick introduction of Etsy investors, then outlines why a nearly-solvent Etsy needed another financial boost:
- Given our current rate of growth — with how many images we store and how much traffic we serve — we estimate that we’ll need to spend $5 million on hardware and hosting in the next two years. This is not only to keep up with what we have now, but to support new features and expansion.
- Right now, Etsy only supports the US Dollar and the English language. We want to support many other currencies and languages, but to do so requires significant resources: from people to translate the site as it exists now, to providing customer support in new languages.
- The checkout experience on Etsy is not ideal. Every buyer has to pay every seller individually when checking out. Based on our own tests, and based on a lot of unsolicited feedback, this is a major hurdle to increasing sales. People shopping on Etsy expect an experience comparable to other leading ecommerce sites like Amazon.com. We aim to build an in-house payment system, and to do this properly requires a significant amount of capital investment.
- In the same vein as the previous point, people searching for items on Etsy expect search to be comparable to Google. This is quite a lofty goal, but we’re up for the challenge. Our new investment will help us achieve this.
- Etsy is a platform on top of which tens of thousands of other people run their own businesses. We have a huge responsibility to keep our service humming and improve it based on community feedback. In order to do this, first of all we need to stick around. While it’s nice to know that we can cover our own operational costs, I never want to make the excuse that we can’t succeed because we lack funds to buy servers, cover a bandwidth bill, provide a warm office for our employees and so on. In other words, we need a bit of a cushion in order to provide the best service we can, confident that we can spend a bit more when need be.
- We need to be able to make it through any hard times that hit the economy. We believe that the current economy, favoring megacorporations and supersizes, is unstable. People who make a living making things, especially those we have on Etsy, will play a key role in revitalizing and stabilizing the world.
- The services Etsy provides, from customer support to shopping tools, need to grow and improve. We want to offer superb customer service, including live phone support; we want to provide our sellers with detailed stats on their shop. We can do these, but they require more resources than we currently have.
- It is immensely important to me that all Etsy workers are paid a good salary, provided with full benefits (medical, dental, vision) by the company. Many companies, far too many companies, underpay their employees, don’t make workers employees at all (”permalancers” and “permatemp” are the new words for this), and provide few if any benefits. (We also know that many of the sellers on Etsy lack access to such benefits as health insurance, and we want to work to change this.)
He wraps up the article with a double postscript:
P.P.S. I’m planning another Town Hall, so please think up any questions and post them in the comments. I’ll gladly answer them during the online meetup.
January 29, 2008 at 1:13 am · Filed under Features · By GreenMamba
In this Storque article, jared and danielexo unveil the latest updates to Etsy’s Pounce feature.
We’ve just added a new feature to our newest way to shop, Pounce. Previously, it was a way to find other items by a seller who just made a sale. Now you can also find items just listed by sellers who have yet to make any sales. So support the Etsy underdogs, the Featured Sellers of the future and find yourself some fresh-to-the-market handmade goodies!
Also new to Pounce, you can now view 10 rows instead of 3. This extra little improvement really made my day. Check out tomorrow’s Etsy Finds Email to see products I’ve found using the new Undiscovered feature on Pounce!
Follow the announcement thread here.
NOTE: This is an example of Etsy-member-suggestions in action. The ‘undiscovered’ or ‘underdog’ option was suggested by users in the original Pounce debut thread.
January 28, 2008 at 4:53 am · Filed under Copyright / Branding, Laws & Regs, Miscellaneous · By quirke
Alert Etsy seller Trollflings noticed today that some of her images were being used on www.polyvore.com, a website which allows users to upload photographs and create sets or collages of images.
Trollflings discovered 50 pages of images from Etsy shops uploaded by Polyvore’s membership, and started this thread about the issue. It quickly became apparent that very few, if any, Etsy sellers were aware their images were being used on the site, let alone had given permission.
Under Title 17, Chapter 1:106 of the U.S. Copyright Act, “Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Work” it states:
Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
Some of the pages with images from Etsy sellers found on Polyvore contain a link that simply says “etsy.com” that links back to the item listing on Etsy. Some pages contain no such links. No pages give written credit to the owner of the work or Etsy shop name. Some images from Etsy sellers have been altered, clipped, or otherwise used by Polyvore members to make collages, which were then posted on Polyvore as works by Polyvore members. Polyvore provides a graphics application on their site which allows people to make alterations to image they have uploaded.
Additionally, some images from Etsy users that had watermarks or copyright notices on them were found to have been tampered with to removed the watermark or copyright notice.
Under Title 17, Chapter 5:506, “Criminal Offenses” of the U.S. Copyright Code, it states:
(a) Criminal Infringement.—
…
(d) Fraudulent Removal of Copyright Notice.— Any person who, with fraudulent intent, removes or alters any notice of copyright appearing on a copy of a copyrighted work shall be fined not more than $2,500.
In Polyvore’s Terms of Service, they state: [bolding is mine]
User Submissions
1. The Polyvore Website may now or in the future permit the submission of photo or other content submitted by you and other users (”User Submissions”) and the hosting, sharing, and/or publishing of such User Submissions. You understand that whether or not such User Submissions are published, Polyvore does not guarantee any confidentiality with respect to any submissions.
2.You shall be solely responsible for your own User Submissions and the consequences of posting or publishing them. In connection with User Submissions, you affirm, represent, and/or warrant that you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize Polyvore to use all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to any and all User Submissions to enable inclusion and use of the User Submissions in the manner contemplated by the Website and these Terms of Service.
3. Polyvore does not claim ownership of User Submissions. However, with respect to User Submissions or content you make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, you grant Polyvore worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s) to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such content on the Service in connection with the Polyvore Website and Polyvore’s (and its successor’s) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Polyvore Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or Polyvore removes such Content from the Service.
4. In connection with User Submissions, you further agree that you will not:
submit material that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material and to grant Polyvore all of the license rights granted herein; (ii) publish falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage Polyvore or any third party;
submit material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or is otherwise inappropriate;
post advertisements or solicitations of business;
impersonate another person.
5. Polyvore does not endorse any User Submission or any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed therein, and Polyvore expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with User Submissions. Polyvore does not permit copyright infringing activities and infringement of intellectual property rights on its Website, and Polyvore will remove all Content and User Submissions if properly notified that such Content or User Submission infringes on another’s intellectual property rights. Polyvore reserves the right to remove Content and User Submissions without prior notice. Polyvore will also terminate a User’s access to its Website, if they are determined to be a repeat infringer. A repeat infringer is a User who has been notified of infringing activity more than twice and/or has had a User Submission removed from the Website more than twice. Polyvore also reserves the right to decide whether Content or a User Submission is appropriate and complies with these Terms of Service for violations other than copyright infringement and violations of intellectual property law, such as, but not limited to, pornography, obscene or defamatory material, or excessive length. Polyvore may remove such User Submissions and/or terminate a User’s access for uploading such material in violation of these Terms of Service at any time, without prior notice and at its sole discretion.
6. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The images referenced, made accessible or made available to you on these pages or by means of the Polyvore Service are protected by the copyright and trademark laws of the United States and other countries. You may need to obtain authorization of the owner of such materials before using them for any purpose other than viewing on the web. For authorizations to use an image, please contact the image owner as indicated on the source site, not Polyvore. Polyvore cannot give you authorization to use the copyrighted images. We cannot guarantee that the Polyvore Service will not locate unintended or objectionable content and Polyvore accepts no responsibility or liability for the content of any site included in any Polyvore item or set, or otherwise linked to by the Polyvore services, or for your use of such content. Polyvore reserves the right to remove any pictures or content without notice to you, any other user, or any third party.
We will review all claims of copyright infringement received and remove content deemed to have been posted or distributed in violation of any such laws. To make a claim, please provide us with the following:
A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or the person authorized to act on its behalf;
A description of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
A description of the infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit Polyvore to locate the material;
Your contact information, including your address, telephone number, and email;
A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under the pains and penalties of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
Claims can be emailed to copyright@polyvore.com
7. You understand that when using the Polyvore Website, you will be exposed to User Submissions from a variety of sources, and that Polyvore is not responsible for the accuracy, usefulness, safety, or intellectual property rights of or relating to such User Submissions. You further understand and acknowledge that you may be exposed to User Submissions that are inaccurate, offensive, indecent, or objectionable, and you agree to waive, and hereby do waive, any legal or equitable rights or remedies you have or may have against Polyvore with respect thereto, and agree to indemnify and hold Polyvore, its Owners/Operators, affiliates, and/or licensers, harmless to the fullest extent allowed by law regarding all matters related to your use of the site.
In this thread on the issue started by Kateblack, a representative from Polyvore has invited any Etsy seller who does not want their image used on the Polyvore website to contact them and request removal.
At the time of this article publication, Polyvore has removed some of the illegally used images.
We at UEN respect the rights of artists to control how and where their images are used, and encourage our readers to investigate Polyvore’s use of images for themselves.
[ed. by KateBlack at 11:14am, January 28, 2008. There’s been an interesting revelation from GreenMamba on the Etsy forums. While individual images have been removed, many collages remain which still contain those individual images. If you thought your work was removed from Polyvore, it may still be there. Artists with violated copyrights will have to contact Polyvore about each individual collage which contained their work. ]
January 23, 2008 at 4:41 pm · Filed under Features, Images, Miscellaneous · By quirke
In this thread, Etsy admin kfarrell invites everyone to get a sneak peek of Etsy’s new “Bannerator” - a banner-generating tool.
kfarrell says:
Hey guys,
Anda and Matt are furiously preparing the Etsy Teams and resources section for some updates, but I wanted to leak a new tool Anda and I put together: The Bannerator! http://team.etsy.com/bannerdisplay.php
The banner generator lets you easily make a 760×100 banner for your Etsy shop. Just enter your shop name / tagline, select a design, and click “Make me a banner!”
You can then save the banner to your computer and head on over to Your Etsy to upload it to your shop.
Enjoy!
Check out the Bannerator here.
January 22, 2008 at 1:20 pm · Filed under Copyright / Branding, Laws & Regs, Marketing, Miscellaneous · By GreenMamba
In this thread, Etsy lawyer Sarah Feingold announces the launch of the much-anticipated ‘Trademark Permissions Program’.
SarahSays says:
Now you can apply to get official permission to use the word “Etsy,” Etsy’s logo, and other marks in your awesome handmade items! I have been talking about this program and now it’s up and running.
Please check out my Storque article for more information!
http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/etsy-trademark-permissions-program-this-aint-no-cease-and-de/15/
Thanks!
Sarah
Posted at 10:38 am, January 22 2008 EST
January 21, 2008 at 7:41 pm · Filed under Forums, Front Page, Miscellaneous · By GreenMamba
It will now take you two clicks to reach the Etsy fora. Etsy has removed the ‘Forums’ link in the main menu bar at the top of each page. Instead, a new link reads ‘Community’ (circled in red below) and takes you to a new page of links and info where ‘Forums’ is the first in a series of six clickable graphics including ‘Virtual Labs’, ‘Chat’, ‘Team’, ‘The Storque’, and ‘Resources’.
Note that the menu bar reference to The Storque has changed as well - now the link says simply ‘News’.
Also on this new page is a left menu bar filled with a variety of links to info of use or interest to the Etsy community, and a rotating Storque feed below the main graphic links (not pictured).
UPDATE by GreenMamba
The Etsy main navigation bar is undergoing a series of changes. The latest is the removal of the ‘Gift Guides’ link. Here is what stellaloella had to say about it:
stellaloella says:
Gift Guides have been moved to a sidebar link on the homepage. You can also find them linked under the Buy tab.
Posted at 10:57 am, January 22 2008 EST
and
(Since I can’t say this directly as I was sworn to secrecy, I’ll use a metaphor.)
We’re moving the furniture around to make room for a brand new sofa. A really big awesome new sofa that’s been on back order. And we’re really excited about this sofa. You will be too. I’m sure of it. ;)
Posted at 11:02 am, January 22 2008 EST
January 21, 2008 at 5:22 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous · By quirke
It is with great pleasure that we bring you this wonderful piece of news: Juln, creator of the Heart-o-matic, is teaming up with Interrobang and Vertis of EtsyTools!
It looks like this will mean the return of the Heart-o-matic, which was crippled a few days ago by changes to the XML feed, plus lots of other upcoming collaborative third-party tools for Etsy users.
Also, in case you haven’t noticed, we’ve added some useful links to our sidebar: EtsyTools, Heart-o-matic, and Besty Search (courtesy of Etsy seller Dingo). We hope you like them as much as we do.
January 19, 2008 at 1:52 am · Filed under Customer Service, Forums, Site Terms · By JB
Today Etsynews has learned of two successful Etsy shops that were deleted under seemingly strange circumstances. This is complete account deletion- the shop is a brick wall. It’s not the same as being muted in the forums. Etsy has warned users with bills over 3 months overdue that their shops will be deleted, but neither of these cases seems to be related to overdue bills. Both sellers have received emails from Etsy which state the reasons for their stores being closed, and they are not bill-related.
All of the information we have about these two cases comes from the sellers. Bear in mind that there are two sides to every story, but Etsy will never discuss the cases in public so we will never hear both sides. Certain facts can be verified using google’s cached pages and posts in public forums.
The first deletion we learned of was Thaidreams.
This is a cached page of her shop on January 12, 2008.
As of January 12, she had 100% positive feedback and had made 466 sales.
She wrote about Etsy closing her shop in her blog here, and she posted the email that Etsy sent her in her blog here.
The reason allegedly given was “a history of conflicts”.
The second deleted shop is still trying to get reinstated, so I cannot publish the shop name.
(update, January 22: Closedshop has posted her full story on page 14 of the comments on this article, and has revealed her shops to be heyprettycupcake and thepromoshop)
They did create a second account “closedshop” to post in the forums about their situation, and Etsy has since deleted that account as well. They (originally) did not publicly reveal their main shop name and UEN will not reveal it either, but I have verified by cached google pages that the shop had 100% positive feedback on January 16, two days ago.
This is their forum post.
They have multiple posts in the thread giving their version of events.
Other sellers in that thread (aorta, automaton, magicjelly) described having similar treatment from Etsy. (shops closed without warning for one lost package)
aorta says:
youstink, a buyer never got something so they filed a report to etsy. i never found out till my shop was closed- brick wall. i talked to admin who explained they send out 3 emails before they close a shop, but i never got those emails so i was shut down.
the admin i talked to did quickly reinstate my shop though.
magicjelly says:
Haven’t read the whole thread yet, but just wanted to add that this exact same thing happened to me last year - a former feature seller with 100% positive feedback, just like Aorta.
I phoned NY & my shop was immediately reinstated. I was assured it was human error & that steps would be taken that this kind of thing wouldn’t happen again.
Both closedshop’s buyer and magicjelly’s buyer were told by Etsy to file cybercrime reports with the FBI.
The thread was locked with this admonishment:
RobWhite says:
We can’t discuss specific situations between Etsy admin and members of the Etsy community.
For clarification, sellers who have bills that are 2 months overview will not be able to list, relist or renew items in their shops. Sellers who have bills that are 3 months overdue may be suspended. You can find that information in the Storque here: http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/billing-alert-a-reminder-about-the-new-policy-for-the-new-ye/858/ , which is also referenced in the most recent post about overdue bills here: http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/cant-post-new-listings-overdue-etsy-bill/1038/
We also ask that you do not make alternate accounts on Etsy for the sole purpose of posting in the Forums and/or chat rooms. The best and most expedient way to handle this situation is to contact Abuse at abuse (!at) etsy dot com.
Robwhite later in another thread explained he posted the overdue bill information to answer some general questions from the thread, but NOT to imply that the OP had been deleted for having overdue bills. (which would be a violation of their privacy if that was the case and he had discussed it in public)
previous UEN coverage of shop/account deletions
http://etsynews.com/73/unwarrantedaccidental-shop-suspensions-sellers-be-warned/
http://etsynews.com/75/another-case-of-erroneous-shop-suspension/
http://etsynews.com/80/how-does-admin-handle-shop-suspensions/
http://etsynews.com/312/etsy-says-no-double-billing-has-occurred/?cp=5
(see comments, not main article)
other users who have had shops deleted without warning, although most have been eventually reinstated:
moxierings
walkonthemoon
ScrapScrap
magicjelly
aorta/automaton
retroattic
thepromoshop
heyprettycupcake
Lesliejewelry
update, January 22:
Closedshop has posted her full story here:
Please note again, that this is the seller’s version of events, and UEN does not guarantee the accuracy of comments.
http://etsynews.com/?p=584&cp=14#comments
She has revealed her shop names: heyprettycupcake and thepromoshop. (both accounts are deleted/closed)
Etsy will not be reinstating either shop.
Update January 31:
another case of sudden shop closure: Lesliejewelry
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5444820
That shop has been reopened
