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 between May 11 and August 15, 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.

Finally, the terms and conditions governing your use of the service have been migrated to a separate Product Advertising API License Agreement, available via the following links based on which Amazon website you are advertising ( amazon.com, amazon.ca, amazon.de, amazon.fr, amazon.co.uk, amazon.co.jp ). 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. Please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page if you have questions about the renaming of the Amazon Associates Web Service to Product Advertising API, the migration of terms and conditions governing API and content usage into the Product Advertising API License Agreement, or the requirement that all requests to the Product Advertising API be signed by August 15, 2009. For further assistance and support, please continue to visit the Product Advertising API Developer Forum, where you can connect with other developers and Product Advertising API staff.

Thank you for advertising our products, and we look forward to sharing the revenue from these sales.