It had to happen sooner or later: Amazon is allowing customers to upload video product reviews. So far I’ve been able to find three video reviews for toys and gadgets (apparently all submitted by Amazon employees) but none for books.
Whether this will help book sales is highly debatable. It might even hurt book sales, if “cute” but uninformative video reviews become more visible than good reviews that help shoppers decide which books to buy. On the other hand, video reviews could be very helpful for demonstrating gadgets or displaying clothing.
It will be interesting to see how closely Amazon polices copyright violations, which have been rampant on video sites such as YouTube. This Amazon video review, for example, posted by an Amazon employee, includes footage from a motion picture without permission (you’ll need to scroll up to the top of the page to see the video). According to a discussion board posting, the reviewer believes the use of the movie clip falls under the “fair use” exemption of copyright law.
According to Amazon’s video review guidelines, reviewers must “hold all intellectual property rights” to the video or have the permission from the copyright holder. Reviewers also grant Amazon a “nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual right and license” to distribute the material.
Here’s a couple more video reviews from a user in Seattle.
The maximum length of reviews is 10 minutes and the maximum file size is 100 megabytes.
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2 Comments
Oh boy. Some of the written customer reviews are so bad, some are so full of anger, I can only imagine what they will be like if they are in video format.
In my recent quest for a decent toaster oven, I read Amazon customer reviews speaking of doors that don’t shut, paint that peels off, handles that fell off, boxes not packed well by Amazon and toasters arriving in damaged condition.
Will we now see that with video footage?
Will the complainers that talk of too-long a wait for the toast to brown show the whole toasting process?
Will the reviewers who say that the toast doesn’t brown evenly show us?
Will I do a video review of our new Amazon-purchase, a Water Pik which cannot be helped but to be sprayed all over the room? Would someone want to see me using the Water Pik and making a mess of myself and my bathroom?
These video reviews are a bit frightening to ponder.
I can’t comprehend how people have so much spare time. And I don’t mean to make the videos, but to watch them. Up to 10 minutes? In 10 minutes I’ll have read all the reviews on a product, checked all the other sites I can think of for prices, fed the cats, and answered 3 emails. I know everybody in the country thinks they’re the next Spielberg, but I sure don’t intend to subject myself to that boredom.