Today, for the first time on this blog, I'm not featuring any artists or shops. Instead, I want to draw your attention to a serious issue for self-representing artists everywhere.Each of us out there that does handcrafting work and other forms of artwork, etc has an inherent pride in what they do. Because of that pride, most can't help but be concerned about plagiarism, copyright infringement and other forms of disrespect towards their intellectual property.
It's discouraging and upsetting when you run across someone copying your work. It's much more so painful and crushing when you run across a major corporation doing so.
With another artist, there are often more venues open to you and options on how to go about confronting and resolving this problem. With large corporations, you're often faced with going up against powerful lawyers with a great deal of financial backing. This can be discouraging in the extreme, even depressing.
A fellow artist from Etsy is currently going through just this thing with a UK company named Paperchase. I urge you to stop by her blog and read about it. Then take a moment and lend your support to her cause. Express your thoughts, share your feelings. Speak out against plagiarism and be heard, whether by writing to the culprit in question or spreading the word online or offline. Bring awareness to the forefront to help this kind of behavior take a back seat.
The artisan community is just that... a community. We need to stick together on these type of issues. You never know.... Some day, it's possible it might be you who needs the help. The karma you earn today by helping others might just be to your benefit in the future.
6 comments:
I'm being copied at this moment, and its disheartening, but I know that my heart is in my work, while the other person is only seeing dollar signs.
I totally agree with you. It shows a lack of imagination and commitment to steal others ideas, but as a community we must help and uplift each other if this sort of trouble does surface.
This does suck! I just sent a letter to the company on behalf of HidenSeek! I urge you all to do so!!!
It's an unfortunate risk we take when we sell our things online. I hope this is resolved quickly and in her favor.
its heartbreaking that so many people have to go through this, and that there are so many out there that lack any imagination to think of their own ideas :( It's just selfish really, and undermines the original artists in so many other ways than the theft itself. I know we all put our heart and soul into our work, and to have someone exploit that for their own gain is harsh and unfair.
thanks for the heads-up!
This is terrible, although we all, as artists/designers/crafters, know it runs rampant. I've had my works 'stolen/copied' at various times over the years. I do register my works with the copyright office and when I find someone who has done the dirty deed again, I have an attorney write a strong letter with a copy of my copyright paperwork. Sigh ... I'll be supporting her efforts.
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