Amazon Changes AWS ToS, now titled Product Advertising API

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Amazon is currently notifying affiliates about changes to the Associates Web Service (AWS), which has now been retitled as the Product Advertising API:

Through our Associates Program, we pay out hundreds of millions of dollars per year to websites that advertise our products. Effective immediately, we are renaming the Amazon Associates Web Service as the “Product Advertising API.” This new name more accurately reflects the purpose of the API, which is to enable developers to advertise products offered on the Amazon sites and thereby receive advertising fees from us.

In addition to the new name, signatures will be necessary to authenticate each call to the Product Advertising API. This requirement will be phased in starting May 11, 2009, and by August 15, 2009, all calls to the Product Advertising API must be authenticated or they will not be processed. For pointers on how you can easily authenticate requests to the Product Advertising API, please refer to the developer guide, available here.

Finally, the terms and conditions governing your use of the service have been migrated to a separate Product Advertising API License Agreement, available here. Except for the requirement that all requests be authenticated, the terms are substantially the same. If you obtain content through a data feed, your access to that data feed and use of that content will also be subject to the Product Advertising API License Agreement. By using the Product Advertising API or data feed, or content obtained through them, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions of the Product Advertising API License Agreement, and all uses of the API, data feed, or content must comply with that agreement.