1. At least in the U.S., this is clearly fair use [1] [EDIT: for purposes of copyright law], first because the use is "transformative," and second because it will have zero impact on the market for authorized copies (or displays or performances) of (i) the original copyrighted work, namely the Amazon Web site; or (ii) licensed derivatives of the Amazon Web site. See the Supreme Court's decision in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, the "Oh Pretty Woman" parody case in which rappers 2 Live Crew prevailed [2].
2. If Amazon were to sue Philippe Dubost in the U.S. for infringement, the judge likely would toss out the case under the Supreme Court's Twombly/Iqbal doctrine [3], assuming Dubost filed a motion to dismiss --- I can't imagine how Amazon could plead a plausible case that the infringement had affected its market, as would be required by Twombly/Iqbal.
3. In the unlikely event that Amazon did sue Philippe Dubost in the U.S. for infringement, if Dubost won, he might very well be able to recover reasonable attorneys' fees from Amazon [4].
4. The resume suggests that Philippe Dubost is in Paris, so Amazon could sue in France for infringement of the French copyright; I don't know what the outcome would be in that case.
5. If someone at Amazon did want to file suit for infringement, the marketing people should throw their bodies in front of the train, because Amazon would be widely mocked. If anything, the resume's mimicry of the Amazon style provides (incremental) validation of Amazon's status as a First World icon.
5A. [EDIT:] On the trademark side, Amazon might have a plausible case against Dubost for "dilution" of a famous trademark, namely the totality of the Amazon Web site's look and feel. [5]
> Just out of interest, how do fair use doctrines interact with the subsequent assertion of copyright over the page itself?
Addressing U.S. law only, and continuing the paragraph numbering of my comment above:
6. Dubost's fair use of Amazon's copyrighted work should not affect Amazon's copyright, even if Amazon didn't sue for infringement.
7. Dubost would have a copyright of his own, but only as to the "original" material that he contributed in his "fork" of Amazon's page; he would have no claim to copyright in Amazon's underlying work.
You wanna know why copyright infringement is a big deal? Two words: vicarious liability.
If you hire someone who has no idea how copyright works, and in the course of their employment with you they go ahead and infringe someone's IP, you're liable.
Yeah, this is the biggest black mark on an otherwise well done resume. It's especially problematic if the OP is trying to qualify for a job in marketing and product management.
The caveat at the bottom should not use the hokey "not intended" phrase. It should say that the site is meant as parody and is not at all a representation of Amazon nor endorsed by Amazon.
Yes, that seems pedantic, but the law is pedantic.
Otherwise, very well done and I hope the OP gets a good job as a result.
Seems to be so. I've only seen similar disclaimers on (copied) Youtube music videos before. This might be the copyright version of "I am not a [racist|homophobe|...], but ...".
He could probably argue it's a parody, in which case it's not really infringement. But saying "no copyright infringement intended" is like saying "Hey, potential employers! I don't know how copyright works!"
> "No copyright infringement intended" is not a thing.
It isn't a legal thing. I look at it as a social signal: "I am not trying to be a dick here."
Remember that the copyright holder has to actually take action. When I find my copyrighted stuff borrowed, my reaction depends a lot on who's doing it and why. If somebody basically says, "Hey, I don't totally get this copyright thing, but I'm trying to do it right," that would make me more willing to contact them and work things out amicably.
Could there be a language/culture barrier thing going on? YouTube seems to be clear that, whenever you use a copyrighted item in any way, you have to say "No copyright violation intended". It's possible he may think that is how Americans say, "I'm making a parody and not trying to profit directly from your work".
Not impossible, but also most sensible people won't think "some people on YouTube seem to think this works, so I'll do that" any more than they'll go to Yahoo Answers to find out the proper approach... there's just so much obvious foolishness on display.
Regardless of whether this is or isn't free use, the author clearly doesn't understand the most basic principles of copyright. That ignorance could easily sink a small company. No hire.
I'd suggest making them links to LinkedIn profiles of your friends. You know, the ones whose resumés make you look good by comparison ;). Even if you don't get hired, maybe you'll do one of them a favor.
Personally, I think he should add some one-star reviews -- nothing so serious as an ex-girlfriend please, but something perhaps from a drive-by troll, or someone who's clearly mixing him up with a completely different product, or someone who took a dislike because of something completely innocuous.
As much as I like the new idea, I find it really hard to read. It's not that this page itself is bad - I have problems to find reasonable information on a typical Amazon page and his resume just reflects the same: lots of referals to other products and lots of noise. The typography is also very poor / hard to read unfortunately.
So - great idea... but I don't think it's going to be a success apart from creating a lot of social noise at the beginning.
> but I don't think it's going to be a success apart from creating a lot of social noise at the beginning.
Isn't the biggest problem with resumes getting them noticed and making them stand out? If so, he's probably going to get way more eyeballs on this than your standard cv.
This idea has limits. Dumping glitter on your resume printed on pink paper and doing it in Comic Sans makes it stand out, but it is also obnoxious and gets in the way.
As a custom made resume when seeking work related to online stores, this would likely be a very successful method to stand out. Compared to all the generic resumes, a tailor made one tend to stand out as to say "I really want this job, and I understand what your company is about".
This is how I felt. With Amazon pages, I know I can skip most of the text to get to what matters; the reviews. With a résumé, every bit of information is equally important. Amazon's layout wasn't meant to be read that way (for good reason), so using it in this context really throws me off and belittles data that shouldn't be ignored.
It's certainly an original and clever idea, but I don't think it makes the resume any more effective. In fact, I think being designed like an Amazon product page makes the resume less effective simply because most people have trained themselves to ignore much of what is displayed on an Amazon product page.
If a resume like this showed up on my desk, I'd show it to everyone nearby. It's unusual and carefully done, to the point that even if you don't like online shopping there's still this moment of wonder: Wow, what's going on with this guy?
Most resumes are a chore to read, reminiscent of those pamphlets your bank sends to notify you of changes to their policies.
Neat! However, here is some (hopefully helpful) criticism:
The stars bar chart bothers me because of its inconsistency, first it says 5 previous positions, and then you have 233 reviews, but the average is not quite 5/5.
You need to proofread this better. I have found a 'resent' in place of 'recent' and in the same section I'm not sure that 'Main Skills Rank' is the right title.
Other than that, very very nice idea and good luck!
I believe it's just the fact he has no e.preventDefault() or onclick="return false;" for the old school guys on the link action. In thish case, the browser is simply looking for a named anchor that doesn't exist, so it jumps to top.
Well, yeah, it's directly from the original product page I worked from. I didn't have a fun idea for that part, so I left it as-is with a blank link.
If you have a good idea, I would totally do it :)
Thanks!
Philippe
I thought the rating distribution was brilliant. I want to work with people who make most people happy, but also piss a few people off. Those are the people willing to make difficult, unpopular, but important decisions when needed.
Honesty? One who can not admit mistakes are unlikely to become a good co-worker. I might have lowered the % to say 9 instead of 16, but the general idea is sound.
So, Phil uses Amazon's design as a spoof for a resume. Aside from the is it copyright or not discussion, I am curios how this differs greatly from people leveraging the svbtle theme?
Every time someone does that, multiple people pop their heads up and talk about blatant ripoff (even when credit is given).
Sure, we have Amazon as e-commerce and this is a resume, where the other case are both essentially blogs. But, you have two cases of people using the design of someone (or something) else for their own purposes.
And, the argument that "people using the svbtle theme are trying to leverage the popularity of svbtle.com to gain legitimacy" is likely the minority. Most people like it for it's cleanliness/simplicity.
Copying a popular blog theme for your blog is obvious, and lacks creativity. Spoofing an actually-not-that-aesthetically-pleasing design intended for a completely different purpose, and filling it with quirky details is rather different.
It's the same reason why Android handset manufacturers got accused of "ripping off" the iconic design of the iPhone, whereas in an earlier era people thought Salvador Dali was being artistic when having the considerably more original idea of designing a telephone handset to look like a lobster.
Svbtle's design is based off of a standard, free Tumblr theme called Clarus. If you really wanted to edit that to have a white background and black text it'd take a few minutes tops, even for someone that wasn't familiar with CSS. I am definitely in the camp that if you're using the WP-Svbtle theme, you know what you're doing.
Outstanding idea! I've been in the industry of viewing resumes for a very long time and love to see someone take a risk and try something new. Well done.
I don't like that. I don't want to be the asshole, but here it is :
1- No direct mention to Amazon, Really man? Not even a thanks? Not event saying if you are a fan boy (I am!)?
2- Spelling isn't a big deal, but in a resume, seriously?
3- Not humble at all, ie "...and maybe some creativity, who knows... ;-)" I don't want to hire or to work with someone who likes the smell of his own farts.
4- Finally, an Add on your resume... And no amazon doesn't put adsense on their pages... If you want to make some money that's okay, but just say it! Why lying? ... Epic Fail.
For a second I thought someone had posted their resume as an eBook on Amazon.com and then used the product description options Amazon gives "publishers" very creatively.
Since it turns out that this is not what this is, I might do it, post a link on Hackernews, get lots of eyeballs that way, and subsequently receive a super-awesome job offer. Assuming the latter is also phildub's intention: Good luck!
Indeed Amaz-ing work here Philippe; I'm impressed. I don't understand all of this copyright negativity. Perhaps I'm just naive in these matters, but so what if Amazon shoots you a cease and desist - BONUS! How great would that be for a follow-up blog post?
I have to say, this shows a lot of skills in web development. It's creative, even if the look and feel were borrowed from Amazon. This shows someone who can make something that "Looks like this..."
You can copy the source code of any amazon product page, it doesn't necesarily shows "a lot of skills in web development". (I am not saying he doesn't have the skills though).
Yeah, agreeing with victorhn. Any frontend developer worth half their weight in chocolate can replicate an amazon page in a about 3 hours (making all the adjustments he has).
I'm all for creative new approaches to resumes (I did it myself to find in internship while in school), but this is lackluster at best.
Hmm, as a recruiter who looks at hundreds of resumes a day, this kind of non-standard resume really annoys me. Just tell me who you are and what you do. Do so clearly and succinctly.
This comment made my morning. Thank goodness no one was around 'cause I snorted/laughed and nearly spewed coffee onto my keyboard...I guess you had to be there.
You mean the process where I'm logged in, add some items to my cart and when I click checkout get asked to login again, get to the 3rd screen and I'm told they don't ship to my country? Yeah, painless.
You're not logged in, initially - merely recognised. You wouldn't be too pleased if anyone could just walk up and buy stuff for themselves based on a cookie, would you?
That doesn't cover everything though. For example, last I tried Amazon did not ship any storage media to Austria, even if it says "international shipping". But they only give indication of this at the end of the ordering process.
> This website was made in Jan 2013 by Philippe Dubost for the sole purpose of a playful and creative job search. No copyright infrigement intended.
"No copyright infringement intended" is not a thing. Also, right below that it then says:
> © 2013, Philippe Dubost
Seems a bit strange to me.