Monday, October 8, 2012

The Theft of Handmade

I am not happy. I am really, really unhappy about something really near and dear to my heart. Normally, I wouldn't ask a single person to get involved in my own Joan of Arc rampage, but this is the most important blog post I will ever post.

There are thieves coming out of the woodwork, worming their way into our community and I can't take one more second of my friends losing business and not getting paid for their work. I am at my wits end, so here I am, in the one safe place I know, saying this is your opportunity to do something about it.

Firstly, we're about to put Lindex on blast. And a little big guy a bunch of bloggers went crazy for a few years ago - Missoni. My pal Savannah is a small business owner and creative genius behind Sleepy King. I am sure yall have heard of her, she's a pretty big deal in this little community. Mostly because she is a rad human being and has really sweet items in her shop. Meet Liam the Fox.
Now, meet the knock off, stolen design from Missoni and Lindex. Look familiar. This is a huge, million dollar company. There are no coincidences. This is practically identical.  

I am sure you are wondering, what can I do about it? How can I help. Visit the Sleepy King facebook page for more info on how to contact Lindex and tell them your thoughts.  Also, you can support the original artist!  

Now on to something much closer to home, as in happening right on etsy. I saw on twitter earlier today that Stacie of Gingiber had linked up to a shop stealing her artwork to make phone cases. I clicked over and what do I find? A phone case, made in china, of my best friends floral elephant. I had to do a double take! How could this be. I have this print hanging in my studio! who does this? Really, steals an image from another artists and makes it their own. It makes me sick. So, all we can do is report them to etsy. In droves people, this is your responsibility! I included a few images from Girl and Parrot and Gingiber and here is the link to the shop that needs to be reported, daddydecor


I just feel sad by all of this. Today, we got amazing news about the future of our business, and I can't wait to share it, but this seemed so much more pressing. Email Lindex, report Daddydecor to etsy! Do your part to keep handmade going in this cutthroat business. We deserve to be given the same rights as every business, and stealing artwork for profit is just not okay - morally or legally. 

The saddest thing to me, are the customers, who have purchased items from these scam artists. I see sales from both the gingiber phone case and the girl and parrot phone case. Those customers will never know that the artists who created those images have so much more to share. A shop full of treasures. A business full of growth. Instead they just own a poorly made phone case from china with beautiful artwork on it. 

And remember, for your own publications, link up to artists when you blog about your favorites, give credit where credit is due, make the extra effort, and share this information with anyone and everyone who will lend an ear and a tweet. It really does matter. Support handmade!!!

love always,
Beca

**EDIT** the listings for the cellphone cases have been removed, but the shop is still active, along with many other shops committing the same crimes. Therefore I am not taking down this post. Also, if you want to read about Etsy's Intellectual Property policies, here is the link, shared by a friend of Danielle's on Facebook. It's good to know and keep yourself educated, in case something awful like this happens to you...

35 comments:

  1. Wow, great post and kudos to you for writing it. It's really sad that someone would steal another artist's work. Only those of us who slave away late into the night lovingly handmaking our items could possibly understand the value we place on them and how much of our hearts go into each and every creation.
    Keep speaking your mind and rallying others to do so, it's the only way things will get done.

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    1. thanks! its such a shame when the little dudes have to suffer so rich cats get richer...

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  2. Ugh... I'm so glad to see a post about this. Sad because it shouldn't be happening, but glad because I see so many people ripping off the designs of others, and it kills me! How can you sleep with yourself knowing that you stole something that somebody worked so hard, day and night, on! People just suck sometimes :(
    xo Heather
    http://ahopelessnotebook.blogspot.com/

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    1. they dont sleep because they have no souls.

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  3. Thank you so much for writing about this. It needs to be shouted from the rooftops. I also saw Gingiber’s tweet and immediately reported Daddydecor. There are two other shops that are having their art ripped off by them: ChasingtheCrayon.etsy.com (stole their deer in jacket illustration and animalcrew.etsy.com (also stole a different deer in jacket design). I’m sure these aren’t the only shops being infringed upon, in fact I’m willing to bet on it. Heck, they’re even being bold enough to knock off Louis Vuitton! So thank you again for standing up for real artists.

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    1. thanks Gigi! i agree, we should all be shouting from rooftops to protect other artists!

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  4. thanks for bringing this to my attention, i had no clue this was happening. ugh, and it pisses me off. this is ridiculous!

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    1. Im glad that you know now! That is what community means!

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  5. Thanks for posting this, Beca. This is just absurd! I reported the shop to Etsy with links to the original artists with hopes that Etsy will get with it and remove the shop all together.. Anyway, can't wait to hear about the good news regarding Tumbleweeds :)

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    1. looks like the listings were removed, but the shop is still active.... read this about etsy's IP policy. http://www.etsy.com/help/article/482

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  6. uuggggh. so f%^*ed. i worked for urban outfitters for a time. they pulled this shit ALL the time. they still do. i don't like that company at all. and i also don't like other people who try to play the same games.

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    1. I hear that! alot of big companies make a lot of money using IP that doesn't belong to them. :(

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  7. I just went to check this store and I love that they have ONLY taken down the ones that you have blogged about. How many other of the phone cases that they have are stolen? I'm pretty sure all of them. This is disgusting.

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  8. OOOh this makes me MAD!! I am constantly coming across rip-offs, very often from etsy sellers. Every Etsy seller I know (quite a few) work their damn butts off, rarely a day off, rarely a full night's sleep. And these scumbags just steal their stuff!!! AIGH! Sorry. It's really gets my goat. How do these people sleep at night?
    *mutter* *grumble* Grrrrr.

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    1. I should note, not everyone knows that you can do a google image search from a URL or by uploading an image to the 'image' search engine, and 'search similar' images. Google analyzes the image data and returns results of that image from all over the web. It might not work in the case of the phone cases, but if someone has your image online, it should show up when you search for it. Time consuming, but could be useful if you have suspicions about a particular image.

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    2. One more.. sorry... I just randomly selected two covers from that shop, did the above image search, both stolen from legitimate illustrators.
      I have reported to etsy, and the illustrators as well :(
      Maybe everyone should do a couple, I could spend all day looking through their 400+ stolen pieces of s*&t

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    3. thats awesome advice! I'll be sure to share that!

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  9. Original: https://www.etsy.com/listing/75929945/ohio-typography-map-art-print
    Copy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/87682578/ohio-county-map-black


    There are other less blatant copiers out there....but honestly, I don't have the resources to pursue anything legally to stop them.

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    1. i feel guilty but i like that touch of the cursive ohio at the bottom, the counties are written differently too.

      how would you say your designs compare with ork posters?

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    2. don't get me wrong, i like your work and of course no one should be copying you! i'm also curious.

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    3. Hey Kate,

      Great question! I actually started my series when I was in Graphic Design school back in 2006 as part of a class project. It wasn't until 2007 when I began to see the ORK manhattan & Brooklyn posters being talked about on blogs that I even realized someone else was doing the same. I definitely can't claim that it's a TOTALLY original idea, people have been drawing maps for centuries. This is why I don't ever "go after" people who are doing similar designs. A map is a map. I didn't come up with it. I may have come up with the idea of drawing the names of the counties, but ultimately I feel like because my work is based on something that already exists (maps) that I can't really lay much claim to that idea. Of course, ORK is more well known than my shop, and I'm sure many people like yourself have assumed that my illustrations were "inspired" by them. In reality, I think she was starting her cities series the same time I started this idea back in my typography class. Fair question though, and I'm really glad you brought it up! :)

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    4. sometimes people do come up with similar ideas around the same time, but sometimes it's as though someone got a little too inspired by another artist.
      I also think there is a very fine line. think back to that urban outfitters scandal a few years ago....there were several small etsy shops/artists doing the those state necklaces, but tru.che was the one who spoke out against uo copying, so she was the one with the focus put on her. its a weird position to be in to say someone is copying you, but i feel like maybe you just know....and copying and being straight up knocked-off are two seperate, equally damaging issues....anyways, tangent....its just sucks all around.

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  10. Just terrible! Someone comes up with an original beautiful idea and people straight up steal it. The internet is so scary that way, you really have no physical control of your intellectual property, even if it is technically illegal to use.

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    1. it is scary, and risky and usually worth it, but sometimes it just explodes all over you and that's the worst, I think.

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  11. I live in Sweden and I know Lindex since it´s a swedish company, so I wrote to the newspaper about it. I hope this might help.

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  12. Valentina Ramos' elephant is still listed in the shop you mentioned, I doubt that's something she's licensed too. What an unethical business practice. Honestly, anger at the stupidity of other people. Why? grr

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    1. i think the entire shop should be closed down, but thats just me...

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    2. I absolutely agree! I reported the shop, it wasn't letting me yesterday. There were able to sell 9 items since yesterday... Thanks for letting us know about this. Even though I sure it's one of many I'm glad we're able to work on getting this particular shop shut down.

      If you see anymore shops like this I'd be happy to help email to get them closed. We could be your warriors against the theft of handmade!

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  13. It's such a shame that such a huge company would do that to a homemade business. Her original design is so adorable, it's annoying to see it mass-produced and not very well done. Believe me I sent a letter to complain. Such a well-written post!

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  14. Ugh I hate when stuff like that happens! The internest is such a great thing for independent artists but it also makes it so much easier for large companies to come in a steal things, it's just awful! I'm so happy you made this post to help show people that this type of thing is going on!

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  15. this is really disheartening. i love support handmade crafts and ideas. I wonder if copyrighting all the work posted on etsy would help? I think that there should be a legal way to post on etsy that warn others that this image/creation is copyrighted and stealing the design is illegal. just a thought.

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  16. Thank you so so much for bringing this issue to our attention. I have reported the Etsy shop and am working on emailing Lindex right now. Her blog and work is so incredibly adorable and unique - I was so sorry to hear this.

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