Saturday, 3 August 2013

Been there, done that, want the T-shirt




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Been there, done that, want the T-shirt


I finally but unexpectedly acquired an Amazon top 10 reviewer badge courtesy of the Said Business School in Oxford, when I attended a conference there. It was actually a visitor identification badge, with my name above a basic description. Most people's description indicated either their university or occupation, but having neither and being there because of my Amazon activities, my description simply said Amazon top 10 reviewer. Only towards the end of the day did its significance dawn on me. Perhaps it was the only physical Amazon top reviewer badge in the world. The badges we normally see are sometimes ephemeral, appearing in cyberspace on a website for the duration of their qualification period, as anybody who has dropped down the rankings can testify. Although my badge hasn't scanned in well, it is obvious what it is. The picture shows the top of the clip at the back.

When I mentioned on a forum that my badge might be the only physical Amazon top reviewer badge in the world, somebody pointed me to a website that sells custom made badges. OK, so anybody can buy one and it will be much better looking, but even if an actual Amazon top reviewer buys it, they won't have acquired it as a reward for their Amazon activities.

So now I have a physical badge, but still no T-shirt. A reviewer designed one, but like Amazon's own badges, it only exists in cyberspace. Amazon's logo is likely copyrighted, so anybody who tries to produce an actual T-shirt without permission is likely to get done for it. Previous cases with other copyrighted images illustrate this time and again, notwithstanding that such a shirt would itself be good publicity for Amazon. So we have to wait until Amazon decides to launch its own range or licence a manufacturer to do so. In the case of the T-shirt (unlike my badge), I don't think anybody would give them away as reward for effort, so anybody who wants one will have to buy it.


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