This week my post focuses on an issue that many designer-makers worry about – having designs copied. Unfortunately, it happens often and sometimes even by large retailers, making independent designers feel powerless. This is what happened to Eloise of HidenSeek and in the first of a two-post series, I talked to Eloise to learn about her experience.
In November 2009, Eloise became aware that stationery retailer Paperchase was selling a range of items, tote bags, notebooks and other paper goods, with a design that contained a girl that appeared to be traced from one of her artworks. The items were sold both in the UK and in the US and Eloise was alerted to the issue by concerned friends and fans.
“After a bit of panic, bewilderment and tea I contacted Paperchase, being sure that they wouldn’t want to have any part in copyright infringement,” Eloise explained. The company’s representatives replied that they thought the designs were substantially different and they were unwilling to take any action. “They seemed to imply that since the designs would not be reprinted after that run, it wasn’t a big deal anyway. After I explored my options and looked into hiring a lawyer, finding it impossibly expensive, I decided to just go public with my problem and seek for support from my fans and the community.”
Here’s where social media can come in extremely handy, as it enables the very fast distribution of messages to a global community. “It took innumerable complaint letters from people who read about my story, globally trending on Twitter, many newspaper articles and dozens of blog posts around the internet for things to start moving on the side of Paperchase.
“Finally, the designer that created the infringing design admitted that she had traced over the girl from my work. It should be noted that I never received any communication after the first reply for Paperchase regarding the matter and they only indirectly mentioned me in a kind of public semi-apology where they tried to set themselves up as a victim. Paperchase did remove the infringing designs from UK circulation but never offered compensation or settlement with me and they are still sitting on all the money they made from a known infringing design.”
When it came to the handmade community, Eloise explained that the vast majority of artists, designers and makers that she saw and met were very vocal about the issues. “Everyone tweeted, re-tweeted, blogged and wrote letters to Paperchase. I felt how other makers were empathising and putting themselves in my shoes, and that of course led to them speaking out in my support. It’s worth noting though that people from Etsy did write about my case and others in a personal capacity on the Etsy main blog and well done to them for taking a stand where other big names didn’t.”
“Certainly there was a lot of traffic back then and I’m still mentioned here and there when it comes to similar cases of infringement, but I wouldn’t wish anyone exposure like that because it did come with a price. The levels of stress were unbelievable. If this experience helped me at all, was because it was a crash course in real life media crises and I came out much more strong and confident.”
Check back next week when my post will feature top tips for protecting your work from infringement – and how to handle it if the worst happens.
Helen Dalgairns says
January 25, 2011 at 10:06 pmThis sort of thing makes me so angry, I recenlty joined the ‘Designers and Illustrators Against Plagiarism’ group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Designers-and-Illustrators-Against-Plagiarism/190313407647321 Someone copied Gemma Correll’s “Pugs Not Drugs” design by unknown store in the Philippines.
Shouting out about this is the best way I think x
Ellie Thouret says
January 26, 2011 at 9:43 amThanks for that link Helen, I’ve joined the page. It’s so important that indie designers stick together and share information on this subject. We’re not powerless, as Eloise has shown, and we should take a stand against infringement!
Kathy Peterson Inspired says
January 26, 2011 at 2:33 pmWow What a story. I’m a designer/artist too and have seen importers try to pick my designs apart. Thanks for this blog post. I’ll be sharing this with my audience!
Ellie Thouret says
January 26, 2011 at 3:11 pmThanks Kathy, glad you enjoyed reading. It’s becoming a huge issue for indie designers and artists so we felt it was very important to address common concerns as well as providing advice on what to do if you find yourself in that situation (more on that next week!).
Cindy says
January 26, 2011 at 11:10 pmPeople like you that speak out about this will help many others. I thank you!
I would like to publish this article in my ResinObsession Newsletter. I have a lot of customers that deal with this issue. Please let me know if it ok.
erikajurney says
January 26, 2011 at 11:12 pmHi Cindy,
Glad you liked the article! You may publish a few sentences from this article with a link back here, but please do not publish the article in its entirety.
Thanks,
Erika
KGinLV says
January 30, 2011 at 6:33 amI have an issue that I am dealing with right now. A seller on Etsy has taken a picture off my blog (a picture that has myself and my family in them!) and used the picture to insert her own vinyl lettering on the wall and has been selling her work that way. I contacted her to let her know this picture was of me, and was mine. She said anything she found on the internet is fair use and it’s my fault for not having a copyright on the photo. She said she will take it down when she has time, and can’t afford to just cancel the listings. I am working on a new message to give her a deadline to remove them or I will be pressing charges. Any advice you have would be wonderful! GREAT article!
erikajurney says
January 30, 2011 at 6:01 pmHi KG, the second part of this post is coming out on Tuesday – hopefully there will be some suggestions there which you can use. I’m sorry you’re having to be in the middle of something so stressful!
In the meantime, please report the seller to etsy. If you can show that she’s using your photos, she might not have to relist – etsy may just take them down :)
erikajurney says
January 30, 2011 at 6:10 pmOh, and by the way, her line about everything on the internet being fair use is BS – don’t believe her.
Ellie Thouret says
January 30, 2011 at 6:32 pmSorry to hear that KG – like Erika said, I would contact Etsy and I’m pretty sure they will take down the listings. It’s also not true that anyting found on the internet is fair use – otherwise we wouldn’t be complaining about infringement of designs!
karen says
March 17, 2011 at 12:25 pmlook into Tad Crawfords books on copyright. also read about copyright at http://www.copyright.gov/.
Daniela says
June 7, 2015 at 8:31 amThank you for the very actual topic. I just shared one of the stories on my TodayDesigner page!
Daniela says
June 7, 2015 at 8:34 amThank you for the interesting topic. Just posted it on my facebook page TodayDesigner https://www.facebook.com/todaydesigner?fref=ts