One of the most persistent reasons sellers give for avoiding Amazon Handmade is concern about the platform's rights to their photos and listings. Here is what the terms actually say, what Etsy's terms say, and why the comparison might surprise you.

I have heard this objection more times than I can count. A seller is interested in Amazon Handmade, they look into it, they hit the terms of service language about intellectual property and licensing, and they close the browser. "Amazon gets rights to my photos. I'm not doing that."

I want to address this directly, because it is one of the most common reasons sellers stay off a platform that could genuinely benefit their business — and the concern, while understandable, is based on a misreading of what those terms actually mean and why they exist.

A quick note: I am not a lawyer, and nothing in this post is legal advice. I am sharing my understanding of these terms as a seller who has read them carefully and operated under them for years. If you have serious legal concerns about any platform's terms of service, consult an attorney.

What Amazon's Terms Actually Say

Amazon's seller agreement includes a section where you grant them a license to use your seller materials — which includes your photos, descriptions, and other content — to promote and facilitate the sale of your products on their platform. The language is broad: royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable.

That sounds alarming. Until you read what they say the purpose is: "in connection with the sale and promotion of your Products and our services" and "to support customers who complete Transactions."

In plain language: they can use your photos to display your products to buyers, to promote your listings on Amazon, to feature your products in marketing materials, and to support the transaction process. They need this license to operate the marketplace. When Amazon shows your listing image to a buyer in search results, resizes it for mobile display, or features it in a category page promotion, they are exercising this license. That is what it exists for.

What Etsy's Terms Say

Here is what sellers are often surprised to learn: Etsy's terms say essentially the same thing.

Etsy grants itself a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to use, display, edit, modify, reproduce, distribute, store, and prepare derivative works of your content. Their explicit examples include resizing photos for mobile display, translating your descriptions into other languages, and featuring your listings on their homepage, in blog posts, or on a billboard to promote your business and Etsy's.

Etsy is far less scrutinized on this point because they are smaller, less visible, and not perceived as a threat in the same way Amazon is. But the legal terms they are asking you to agree to are functionally identical.

Both platforms want what every marketplace wants: your content on their platform, used to drive sales. Both need a license to display, promote, and resize your materials in order to do that. Neither one is positioned to start producing your handmade items in a factory basement — that is not their business model, and it is not what these terms are designed to enable.

The Intent Behind the Language

Broad legal language in platform terms of service exists because lawyers write for every possible contingency. The scope of what a company technically can do under a license is almost always wider than what they actually do, and what they actually intend to do.

What Amazon and Etsy intend to do with your photos: show them to buyers, promote them in category pages and marketing materials, resize and reformat them for different display contexts, and use them to build a compelling marketplace that attracts more buyers — which benefits you as a seller.

What they are not going to do: take your designs, manufacture them, and compete with you. Their business model is the marketplace, not the products. You are the product source. Competing with you would undermine the thing that makes them valuable.

What This Means Practically

Both Amazon and Etsy are going to use your listing photos to display and promote your products on their platforms. That is true whether you are comfortable with the legal language or not — it is part of what it means to sell on a marketplace. The alternative is selling exclusively on your own website, where you retain full control over every use of your content.

That is a legitimate choice. Building your own website is something I actively recommend to every handmade seller — not as a replacement for marketplace selling, but as a parallel channel where you own the customer relationship and the content.

But opting out of Amazon Handmade specifically because of photo rights concerns, while staying on Etsy where the same terms apply, is not a logically consistent position. Both platforms ask for the same things. If you are comfortable on Etsy, the Amazon terms should not be a dealbreaker.

The Real Question to Ask

Instead of asking "does Amazon own my photos," the more useful question is: "am I leaving significant revenue on the table by not being on Amazon Handmade, and is my concern about terms of service a valid reason or a convenient excuse to stay comfortable?"

I have seen this exact scenario play out dozens of times. A seller who was hesitant about Amazon for platform-level reasons — whether it was terms of service, fees, complexity, or general skepticism — finally gave it a real try, and within a few months they were generating more monthly revenue on Amazon than they had in years of Etsy selling.

The platform you are not on cannot work for you. The one you are on, approached seriously, can change what is possible for your business.

Ready to Stop Leaving Revenue on the Table?

Inside The Growth Thread, we tackle the real work of building on Amazon Handmade — listings that get found, FBA that scales your fulfillment, and a business that is not dependent on any single platform doing you favors.

Enrollment is not always open, but you can get on the waitlist and be first to know when doors open:

Join the Waitlist at TheGrowthThread.com

Not ready for that yet? A good next read is the complete introduction guide to selling on Amazon Handmade — the platform basics, the fees, and what to do after you get accepted.