Amazon.com "Limited License Grant"

My band sells our CD's through (among other places) the Amazon.com Advantage program. A bandmember just brought to my attention that they've recently changed their terms. Would anyone care to comment on their new "Limited License Grant," which is at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/partners/direct/limited-license.html/103-8831109-4147809 ?  

Am I missing something, or is there nothing "limited" about this at all? It looks to me like they're claiming the right to use and sub-license everything we've previously uploaded (band trademark; cover art; text of bio, reviews, etc.) however they want, worldwide, forever, for free. Does anyone else think this is just a tad over-reaching?  

To the extent that this encompasses excerpts from record reviews that we've uploaded, I'm a bit confused as to how Amazon can even request such rights. I think everyone would agree that a band and its distributors have a right to use review excerpts _in promoting the product reviewed_, but I wouldn't assume that the band has the right to reprint the reviews in other contexts. So why is Amazon asking us to warrant that we have perpetual, worldwide, unlimited rights in the review excerpts we upload?  

I'm also very concerned about our cover art and package design. The photographers and artist gave us the right to use their work in packaging and for promotional purposes, but if we wanted to (for example) print our cover photo on T-shirts we would need a separate license from the photographer. Yet as I read the Amazon license, they would have the right to print our cover photo on T-shirts and sell them with no further remuneration to us or the photographer. Insofar as our cover photo was taken by legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen, who I assume ordinarily charges quite a bit for a "worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable" license, I find it astonishing that Amazon would think they can obtain such rights for free.  

Luckily we haven't yet uploaded any song samples.  

The trademark issues are a whole other can of worms, which of course should be discussed in a different forum.  

It would be a shame if we have to terminate our agreement with Amazon just because they're asking for more rights than we have or they need. But the way their license is written, it looks like we'll have no choice.  

Comments? Advice? Thanks.  

Theodora Michaels
Bassist, Curse
www.curseonline.com Received on Wed Aug 06 2003 - 21:00:05 GMT