aselfportrait jewelry giveaway!!!

Hey all! Miss Cuppy is hosting a giveaway for aselfportrait jewelry! Jessica (the owner of the etsy shop, aselfportrait) is a talented jewelry designer/creator. A lot of her jewelry consist of colorful, cute, sweets that would be great to wear anytime of the year, especially during the spring and summer. Now summer is just around the corner so if you want to sport a spunky, colorful, sweet look, here is your chance! Hurry on over to Miss Cuppy's blog for more details and information.

Updates

Hey everyone! I know that it has been a while since I have posted anything. Right now I am getting ready to re-open my Etsy shop under the name of TeaTeasTreats :) I am super excited. My goal for the shop is to sale beautiful jewelry and art at an affordable price. Much of my jewelry will cost no more than $30 (not including shipping). I will be selling cameo earrings and necklaces as well as deco tins and crocheted cuties. The best part is that I am TRADE FRIENDLY, meaning if you see something you like but you don't want to pay cash for it, I may be willing to trade an item from my shop with something from your shop. I am still getting it together, but my goal is to have it open by June 20th.

Am I over reacting, Please tell me

Today I was looking through Hottopic.com to see if they had any good sales going on. What I happened to find was kinda disturbing. I found a pair of cute Vampire Mary Jane's, but why did they look so familiar? Could I have seen this design somewhere else? As I sat there, gawking at my screen, it hits me. These look very similar to Em and Sprouts Vampire shoes! I tried to reason with myself... Maybe I am over reacting...maybe this is a mistake. Then I am reminded about the jewelry I saw inside of the store a few months ago. Some of the pieces looked like those that could be found on Etsy.com.

Sadly, this is not the first time I have seen this happen. Last year, Acrylicana found out that her cupcake design was being mass produced and sold on t-shirts by a well known store. Honestly, I understand emulating a style and I understand that not all designs are original (as in someone loooong ago thought about it before someone else)...but to flat out take, mass produce, and sale someone else's work is bad juju! I mean if someone likes the idea, do it in a way that it is unique...or at least have permission to sale the FINAL creation (I.E. Some one gives you permission to sale a final product resulting from a crochet pattern, not the actual pattern itself).

Why does it seem that some of the bigger companies think that the copyrights laws does not apply to them? If a company saw me selling a bunch of designs that looked verrrrrry similar to their design, then they would push The Button! I won't get in deeper with this because it will start another conversation and then we would have to get into details...

I know that Merchandise Designers are looking for new original designs, but this is nuts. I know that there is a lot that goes on with copyrights, but I really do feel that this action has someway violated the law. Am I over reacting? How do you all feel about this topic?