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?
I don't think there would be any trouble with the shoes. Whether they were inspired by her designs or not, they are not violating copyright law; they're just not close enough.
ReplyDeleteBut where the cupcake image was the same and mass-produced, then I have a problem, that is a violation of copyright laws, and that is not okay.
And, yeah, I think that many big companies feel that, not only can they do whatever they want, but they can get away with it. Even if they were taken to court, they could offer a tempting career position in design, -- which, unfortunately, some people would take rather than continuing with a lawsuit. They play dirty because it works, not because it's right.
I get your point. I wrote her the other day telling her about this and she said that this has happened to her before with T.U.K. (the company). They said that they were not violating the law because the shoes were printed...or something like. Thanks for the reply :)
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