Is reviewing books on your own website a copyright infringement?

Question

If there is also Adsense or Amazon associate links on the same site (that ineviatbly link with the content ie. the reviewed books) would making money as a result of such reviews be a copyright infringement?

Answer 1

doing a review is not copyright infringement. adsense himself had a program called adsense referral where you were sugget to do a review to promte the product.

so, don't mind..(",)

itachi

http://dattebayo-xx.blogspot.com/

Answer 2

Reviewing books -- and specifically mentioning that you are reviewing the book -- is not copyright infringement.

In fact, many publishers even send free copies of their books to website owners/publishers even bloggers for their review. They need to market their books -- and getting reviewed by a popular website or blogger that reaches their desired target audience is an important strategy for publishing companies and authors.

I receive about 2-10 books for review a week, with one publisher even sending me 10-20 pieces of a single title which we give away to our subscribers. Note that publishers typically send a press release of the book or excerpts of the book that we typically put up on our site -- that's ok because the excerpt published has the publisher's blessings.

What is wrong is when you publish excerpts of the book WITHOUT permission from the publisher or author, and without attributing the excerpt to the book (e.g. you claimed the article as your own). Or you copy the text without attribution to the author (e.g. not using quotation marks, or not saying "According to the author"... )

And no, it is not against Adsense or Amazon associate policies to show their ads on your review site. In fact, putting an Amazon Associates banner or graphic of the book on your review page is the best way to earn from Amazon Associates. People reading your review may be enticed to buy the book at Amazon, and having the link on your review will make it easier for them. So it's a win win situation with the author/publisher selling a book while you earn from the sale.