It's hard to believe Amazon lets merchants have "Amazon" in their name, but there it is.
If you don't get a reply from someone at AZ in a timely manner, I imagine you could go ahead and file a DMCA takedown as the copyright owner. They're making your copyrighted material available for download without your permission— This is exactly what it's for.
What's happening here is that someone took the freely available book and published it via Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing, http://kdp.amazon.com/). Violations like this happen all the time and Amazon hates them. Simply contact them with a DMCA notice and they'll remove it right away.
It used to be common for people to publish no longer copyrighted classics and other freely available content through KDP. Nothing illegal about it, but people were so eager to make a quick buck for no work that it quickly got out of hand. The Kindle Store was inundated with such content, so Amazon had to become much more selective about it.
PRO Tip: Always include a message in your free ebooks (unless you allow commercial use) that if the digital copy of the book was sold, and not obtained for free, the reader should ask immediately for a refund and let you know about the violators. Most scammers are too lazy to go into the book and change it.
Thanks...I'm glad the company named is cleared up.
I did send a takedown notice on the 6th and haven't heard anything back.
Re the pro-tip..I did stick the license at the top..but, ya, that isn't very clear. In The Little MongoDB Book, I very clearly state that "You should not have paid for this book"
I see... thanks for the correction. Why the hell does that merchant page exist, then?
"2.4 stars over the past 12 months (16 ratings)"
"Amazon Digital Services, Inc. US has not provided return and refund policies for display on Amazon. Please contact Amazon Digital Services, Inc. US to request a refund or get information about policies that may apply"
It is usually recommended to send a friendly email first, but I would skip that step with Amazon since they have an entire department and process built around receiving and acting on copyright claims under the DMCA.
You need to sign it, either physically or by dropping an image into the claim document (do it as a Word document or Google doc). Remember that it is a legal document, so you must be sure ('in good faith') that the claim is accurate, which may require that you either purchase a copy of the infringing book or downloading the sample to confirm that it is your content.
You can get more information at the bottom of this page:
(note: while I have sent out DMCA requests previously, I have never had to send one to Amazon, but the process is similar to dealing with other service providers)
Amazon Digital Services Inc, is, in fact a subsidiary Amazon.com. Here's a lawsuit filing, which cites this corporate entity as being domiciled in delaware:
More than once in the past, I've seen Amazon sell things on its own store using its own merchant "seller" accounts. This is a convenience for smaller divisions within amazon that want to sell using Amazon.com without setting up custom code on the Amazon.com store system (presumably.)
It's hard to believe Amazon lets merchants have "Amazon" in their name, but there it is.
If you don't get a reply from someone at AZ in a timely manner, I imagine you could go ahead and file a DMCA takedown as the copyright owner. They're making your copyrighted material available for download without your permission— This is exactly what it's for.