Urban Outrage
By now you have probably read this story about Urban Outfitters allegedly ripping off an Etsy artist’s necklace designs.
As you know, I love this kind of thing. Nothing gets me more excited than busting someone who rips off an independent designer and tries to profit from their thievery. Extra special drama points if the thief is also a douchebag.
I’ve mainly limited my rage to Etsy artists ripping off other Etsy artists, but I’ve also been seeing an increase in the amount of made-to-look-handmade shit being hawked at hipster meccas like Anthropologie. So the fact that the handmade aesthetic has been seeping into the marketplace like a toxic mold has not gone unnoticed.
But there was something about this story that just wasn’t gelling for me. I tried to write it up several times yesterday, egged on by a persistent stream of email and tweets from outraged readers, begging for the Regretsy Thugs to put the smackdown on Urban Outfitters. I just couldn’t pull the trigger.
It’s not that the evidence wasn’t compelling.
That’s pretty damning. But what part of the design is proprietary? The shape of a state or country isn’t really something anyone can lay claim to. So you’d have to conclude that it’s the addition of the heart that makes it her design.
And that’s where this starts getting complicated.
Truche sold her first state pendant on Etsy in 2009.
Sudlow on Etsy sold a similar pendant in 2008.
So is it really Sudlow’s design?
Or did they both rip off James Avery, who was selling a similar design at least seven months earlier?
Before you answer, here are more Etsy sellers selling similar designs they claim as their own creation.
Click on images for larger view and store link
Are all of these independent designers on Etsy stealing from each other? Or this is such a simple and generic idea that many people can come up with it at once? Certainly the idea of a charm in the shape of a state is nothing new; they’ve been selling those to tourists for years. Is it such a leap to put a heart in one? That seems like a logical progression from the I heart NY design, which I first remember seeing in the late 70′s.
Now, I’m not generally the voice of reason, so this is an uncomfortable position to take. But I’m just not sure I want to start a boycott over an idea that many people have had, some for years before Truche even opened her Etsy store.
I’m not saying that Urban Outfitters doesn’t help themselves to the designs of others. They certainly have a record of pilfering designs, and they may very well have stolen this one. The question, for me at least, is who did they steal it from? And if we don’t know that much, how do we know it’s really been stolen at all?
Something to think about before you get the pitchforks out.
5/28/11
Updates:
• Urban Outfitters calls Truche’s allegations “false”
• A commenter left a pair of interesting links here and here
May 27, 2011 at 11:38 am
I was told there would be no math.
Why isn’t it vodka-o-clock yet?
May 27, 2011 at 12:19 pm
It’s not?
May 27, 2011 at 2:22 pm
It’s past 5 here!
May 27, 2011 at 3:45 pm
It is by my clock! Then again, my clock always reads ‘VODKA TIME’.
May 27, 2011 at 11:39 am
Interesting, very very interesting.
I’ve always wondered about this kind of thing. Great point.
May 27, 2011 at 1:49 pm
I think the concept of a flat metal state-shaped pendant with a heart stamped out of it is a copyrightable design. Which artisan came up with it first? Beats the fuck out of me, but it wasn’t Urban Outfitters.
May 27, 2011 at 4:25 pm
It’s one that would be very very VERY hard to copyright, and even then, it couldn’t be just a shape pretty close to the correct shape with a heart of any size anywhere on it. Something as generic as this might even just be public domain. I have a pendant from when I was a kid in the early 80′s of California with a heart. Stands for “California Love.” Whoever tries copyrighting would have to show why they should have the copyright for a design that is mainstream.
May 27, 2011 at 7:47 pm
I think a more original idea would be to get your local voting district and make that into a pendant – gotta love those gerrymandered shapes.
“I heart District 28″
of course, you’d have to change the design every 4 years or so.
May 27, 2011 at 8:50 pm
How about a heart with a state shape stamped out of it?
I got dibs on that.
May 27, 2011 at 11:40 am
You certainly make a good point. Kudos on all the research you did!
May 27, 2011 at 11:58 am
Agreed. Without April’s mountain of evidence and thoughtful analysis I’d be one of the crybabies supporting Truche. That being said, I STILL like her Michigan.
May 27, 2011 at 1:07 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 4:16 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 4:59 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Wasn’t there also a Derp Roundup recently with a woman who was selling prints of states with a heart painted on them?
May 27, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Yes! I forgot about that!
May 27, 2011 at 6:12 pm
For years people in Oregon have been sporting bumper stickers in the shape of the state with a green heart in them. It’s not a new idea.
May 29, 2011 at 11:18 am
When that truche girl wrote me a couple of months ago telling me I had stolen her idea (see my story comment 94 ish down below). I responded to her by linking to about 10 other etsy listings that included hearts with states.
They were from a variety of categories, which included jewelry, but her response was
“it’s different because only two of the examples you sent me were jewelry”
At that point I realized I was wasting my precious time arguing with someone who didn’t want to see the blatantly obvious truth: that she wasn’t the very first person to come up with that brilliant design.
May 27, 2011 at 1:51 pm
James Avery’s design dates back to 2004 (or earlier)
I am wearing my James Avery “Deep in the Heart of Texas” Charm this very moment. I saw it the first time in 2004, but it may date back even further. That company also had a Georgia with an adorable peach cut-out. Oklahoma too, I believe.
I LOVE playing “Etsy or Anthropologie”; more please!
(I still can’t believe that a national company would sell some of that crap, much less the individual sellers who hock up those little creative loogies.) But ripping them off? We should call that new breed “Shamesters.”
May 27, 2011 at 2:32 pm
I just spotted this wood chip necklace for only $198!
Guess where I found it…
May 27, 2011 at 7:25 pm
I’ve always wanted to wear termites around my neck!
I can see it being a wreath or other home decor item. Guess it depends on your style.
May 27, 2011 at 11:41 am
collective consciousness–there’s nothing new under the sun…except for stuff to bitch about!
May 27, 2011 at 11:44 am
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May 27, 2011 at 12:34 pm
In some cases, perhaps. I wouldn’t want my car handmade, especially since it is a Volkswagon. It has enough issues as it is
May 27, 2011 at 2:07 pm
yeah, i wouldn’t be very partial to handmade toilet paper, myself.
May 27, 2011 at 2:27 pm
If it were handmade and desirable for use, there’s no way you could afford to use it.
May 27, 2011 at 12:28 pm
That’s the first thing I thought too…collective consciousness. I’ve “invented” many things out of what I thought was my own head and found out later someone beat me to the patent office. There’s really nothing new under the sun…just different ways of interpreting it.
May 27, 2011 at 1:09 pm
It’s the million monkeys on a million typewriters over one million years. Not that I’m calling you a monkey, lemur maybe but not a monkey.
May 27, 2011 at 1:24 pm
yes, I’m not saying that there aren’t outright copycats who snag ideas and ride those trendy waves of replicating whatever’s selling because we’ve all seen examples. But, if anyone puts anything on the internet viewable to everyone in the world (who cares to look) chances are pretty good that something very similar will appear on someone else’s junk, I mean stuff. I’ve heard this “so-and-so’s copying me” whine & cry act since Kindergarten. The fact is: no one but the whiner cares and hopefully if you fancy yourself to be creative, you have more than one *idea* or learn to share-sy or tell your mama
May 27, 2011 at 2:26 pm
The simpler a design is, the more likely it is for more than one person to come up with it.
May 27, 2011 at 11:42 am
All I know is I’m not gonna bother with Urban Outfitters or Anthropologie or Free People.
May 27, 2011 at 11:44 am
Well that goes without saying.
May 27, 2011 at 12:30 pm
I don’t go to any of those places anyway. Being totally uncool and all.
May 27, 2011 at 2:56 pm
I don’t go because I won’t pay that much money for stupid shit…..which wouldn’t even fit me anyway…..
May 27, 2011 at 12:42 pm
I’m not cool or hipster enough to be allowed in any of those stores. In fact, I think if I tried to enter one, they might actually chase me out of the store with a flamethrower, and then simply burn the building down to cleanse it of my slightly frumpy taint.
May 27, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Every now and then I see something in Urban Outfitter’s window that I like. Every time, without fail, when I have bothered to go into the store, whatever caught my eye is made of flimsy cheap material and is shockingly overpriced.
May 27, 2011 at 1:03 pm
One of the things that always makes me laugh the hardest is that Urban Outfitters sells those chinese mary-jane house slippers for about $20. The Urban Outfitters near me is in Chinatown, you can literally walk across the street to a Chinese import store and save $17.
May 27, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Hmmm… Urban Outfitters is a chain store owned by a hardcore republican billionaire that sells flimsy, cheap stuff but overprices it. In other words, it’s Walmart for hipsters.
Also, U.O. sells t-shirts with designs such as a child brandishing a gun, and another one with money raining from the sky. The brilliance of this, is that both conservative hipsters and liberal, ironic hipsters would buy them. Bridging the partisan gap!
May 27, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Exactly. They also resell things for too much. Like Cavallini wrapping paper, which can be purchased from Cavallini & Co. online for $4.50 a sheet. How much is it at Urban Outfitters? That’s right, it’s “a poster” for $24.00. Oh, and in small print they say it can also be used as wrapping paper. Compare and save.
$24: http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=21151428b&color=038&itemdescription=true&navAction=jump&search=true&isProduct=true&parentid=SEARCH+RESULTS
$4.50: http://decoupageideas.decoupageyourlife.com/paperfordecoupage/paper-for-decoupage-cavallini-butterflies-gift-wrap-decoupage-paper-one/
Grrrr.
May 27, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Maybe your frumpy taint could use some New Pink Button?
February 10, 2013 at 9:52 am
When I was a teenager I tried to apply for a job at an Urban Outfitters but was always rejected because I didn’t have piercings or colored hair or whatever. Now, i actually do have a purplish-pink streak in my hair, because I’m out of high school and no longer have to abide by their dress code rules, but I wouldn’t want to work at UO if my life depended on it.
May 27, 2011 at 1:10 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 4:28 pm
You think Anthro is buying fair-trade slippers? Same people make them, whether you go to Chinatown or buy from Anthro.
May 27, 2011 at 4:56 pm
I stopped shopping at those places years ago when I noticed their over-priced garments are actually shoddily-made garbage that won’t last beyond their first laundry day.
Urban Outfitters/Anthropologie/Free People/American Apparel…it’s all for fashion victims. And it’s for me to poop on
May 27, 2011 at 8:45 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 11:42 am
I believe the other issue was that they stole the copy specifically from truche’s Etsy shop. So it’s not all about the design.
May 27, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Not this time. States with hearts is a design that’s been done since at least the 80′s that I know of (I still have my California pendant with a heart), and April knows of one since the 70′s. If you want to say Anthro stole the design from Truche, then you have to ask who Truche stole it from. This is a simple, generic design.
May 27, 2011 at 5:52 pm
What Daisy means by ‘copy’ is the product description, not design. Apparently they plagiarized.
May 27, 2011 at 10:12 pm
What Colonel Sanders means by ‘Daisy’ is ‘witteefool.’
I mean no disrespect, Colonel. It was a good point, and I love your herbs and spices.
May 27, 2011 at 11:43 am
Okay, so does Urban Outfitters have their own designers, or do they have buyers for their jewelry? I say this also because you mention Anthropologie and I know for a fact down here in New Orleans a local artist who is also an Etsy seller has created items for the local Antropologie store. Maybe even exclusive items. Soooo who’s the true douche bag? Maybe UO doesn’t know this? Or is it a regular practice?
May 27, 2011 at 11:45 am
Anthro and Urban are owned by the same company. JUST TO MAKE YOUR HEAD EXPLODE
May 27, 2011 at 11:47 am
I’ve read that One of the girls “charging” them with theft actually has a mass produced line with them for one of their companies. The line she sold them isn’t the line she is claiming theft over though. So I think its a safe bet they do have buyers of some sort.
May 27, 2011 at 11:51 am
There’s the guy on “Man Shops Globe”. He goes around the world buying items for Anthropologie. On the show they sometimes order from the artist, other times they buy one item and then reproduce it. It’s an interesting insight into how the process works.
May 27, 2011 at 11:52 am
I was ripped off and copied by people I thought were FRIENDS who knew my product and also a store I sold to. So of course they undercut me, and dropped my name to the buyer. Douchebags, the lot of them. Business is ugly, terrible, and evil. I love it!
May 27, 2011 at 4:33 pm
I hate it. Undercutting, I’ve seen a lot of libel in an attempt to knock out competition (it’s happened to me so severely that I can’t in the forum under my real name because there are some people there who heard the libel on a snark site and are only too happy to repeat it despite the lack of any even loose evidence). I wish business was honest. I really do.
May 28, 2011 at 9:59 am
I typically don’t care if someone wants to borrow my design for themselves, it’s when they sell it that I get pissed. I even had a fellow crafter ask me how to make a beach tote that I was carrying, so I emailed her instructions…then I ran into her at a farmers market selling them. Of course, I promptly doused her entire table in butane and set it ablaze, because, c’mon, she was out of line.
May 27, 2011 at 11:49 am
And I am going to guess that since they pulled this product, they must be buying it from the creators. If it was designed and produced in house by/for Urban Outfitters, you can bet your ass they have legal counsel and know better than to just rip off other designers. I’m not trying to defend some hipster store, but it is possible they are not aware of the copy and will stop dealing with the person they are buying from if it’s rip offs.
Or fuck it, they suck anyways so blame them!!!! LOL
May 27, 2011 at 11:43 am
MethinksI think too many people get their knickers in a knot too easily. Relax. There are many fine decaffeinated brands on the market.May 27, 2011 at 11:43 am
Can we still make fun of how ugly ALL of them are?
May 27, 2011 at 11:45 am
Oh yes.
May 27, 2011 at 11:57 am
Oh good, cuz I was afraid all this reason and grown up behavior from you was some sort of unfortunate permanent affliction.
Whew.
May 27, 2011 at 11:49 am
Hideous and boring design concept. How do I make this generic thing special? I know: add a heart. Genius.
May 27, 2011 at 11:59 am
But add a Swarovski heart! Bedazzled!
May 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Make it a Swarvoski vagina and call it art.
May 27, 2011 at 1:10 pm
So… uh.. I vagina Washington?
May 27, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Someday I’m going to sell a set of Swarovski crystals adorned with smaller Swarovski crystals.
May 27, 2011 at 4:28 pm
EyeHeart, one of my most favorite comments ever! Oh, the possibilities you just opened… Oh the possibilities!!
May 27, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Snickerdoodle, I saw a site once that sold Swarovski hearts with smaller round crystals glues all over it on one side.
May 27, 2011 at 1:14 pm
1. Make state/country pendant.
2. Put heart in it.(maybe 22 hearts just to be safe)
3. ????
4. Profit.
May 27, 2011 at 2:07 pm
I am going to order one with a heart over my hometown. What can I say? Being a military spouse has left me a little homesick. I might try to find one that doesn’t look like the edges could fillet skin though.
May 27, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Why not add some Team Edward and Team Jacob while you are at it? Or a Hello Kitty?
May 27, 2011 at 11:50 am
I know this wasn’t the point of the post but all I could think of while I was looking at those pictures is how ugly I think those things are.
May 27, 2011 at 11:53 am
call me crazy, but I actually like Truche’s Michigan.
May 27, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Okay. You’re crazy. Feel better?
May 27, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Much better. Thanks for the validation.
May 27, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Obviously you are a Yooper. Or your heart belongs in AA.
May 27, 2011 at 12:52 pm
I gave my heart to AA years ago as a result of living in the gloomy lower peninsula. Which is not to say that I would be any less drunk if I lived in the UP.
May 27, 2011 at 1:24 pm
I do, too. Perhaps I am crazy as well (what am I talking about “perhaps”?)
May 27, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Yeah…sheesh. I ♥ a lot of things, but my frigging state isn’t on the list.
May 27, 2011 at 3:02 pm
I live in Illinois – nuff said….maybe I should convo some of the sellers to make me some kinda dildo in a state necklace – representing, of course, our lovely politicians….
May 27, 2011 at 4:54 pm
only if its “fucking golden”. I used to live in Illinois and I would so buy this if it was gold…wait would that be too hipster?
May 27, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Me neither. I’m counting down the days until I leave it. I might keep my pendant as a reminder of my childhood here though.
May 27, 2011 at 12:38 pm
What? I think they’re pretty. I was going to order one of Truche’s pendants before any of this happened, if they weren’t so expensive. Just because a state outline isn’t insanely original doesn’t mean it can’t mean something. I miss Oregon and I was going to get an Oregon heart one. What is so ugly about a simple silver pendant? It’s not like it’s tacky. Truche’s are sterling silver and well made, not like the crap “composite metal” or whatever like the UO pendants.
May 27, 2011 at 1:16 pm
I’m with you, this is one of those things that’s all about craftsmanship (or craftwomynship, don’t want to offend anyone) and truche’s work is excellent.
May 27, 2011 at 4:31 pm
That reminds me of Oregon’s state-outline-with-green-heart stickers/pins/et cetera. I can get you something like that for much less than these charms since I live in Portland.
Also, I don’t think the charms are ugly, either, but I just love maps. I want a necklace of all fifty of them. That would then be too heavy to wear.
May 28, 2011 at 3:03 am
These are not made from sterling silver but polimer metal clay, which is like a putty with tiny particles of silver in it. After firing in kiln the binder burns out and silver fuses together and you have .999 silver item.
She says this in her descriptions but never mentions silver clay. She doesn’t cut them with saw, she rolls the clay flat and probably cuts it with a special stencil or maybe scalpel – that’s why the edges look a bit compressed.
May 27, 2011 at 1:35 pm
item for sale + heart motif = ugly
QED
May 27, 2011 at 2:39 pm
wait, a heart on ANYTHING makes it ugly? hmmm. i guess i have even more reasons to be insecure now, since i have a “heart in oregon” sticker on my laptop (along with 99% of people in portland) http://heartsticker.com/Stickers/default.php?domain=Oregon
May 27, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Aaaaaand beaten to the punch. I just posted above about these. I would like them better if Oregon were also colored a different green because I don’t like white and green together.
What made this website think that 50 different fonts including Comic Sans would be a good sell??
May 27, 2011 at 3:48 pm
I thought they were kind of cute until I got to Florida. I used to live there. NO ONE loves Florida.
May 27, 2011 at 6:48 pm
With respect, bullshit. I am from Florida and I love it here.
May 27, 2011 at 9:00 pm
I love it here until summertime, roughly from late March to December.
May 27, 2011 at 8:21 pm
I had the misfortune of living there for 2 years. Never again, thanks!
May 27, 2011 at 8:57 pm
North Carolina looks like it would get snagged on everything. Wyoming and Colorado would be boring but at least easy to make.
As for Florida, if I wanted to wear a wang around my neck I’d just wear a wang, not a state shaped like one.
May 29, 2011 at 2:28 pm
As an European, I was mystified by a store ripping off what appeared to be random metal scraps with holes in them. However, after finding out they’re states… I guess I still am, only now I know the scraps aren’t random.
May 27, 2011 at 11:43 am
I AM MAD. I AM ALSO CONFUSED. TELL ME WHO TO BE MAD AT. RAWWRRRR.
May 27, 2011 at 12:31 pm
And thusly you have summed up the mentality of 98% of internet commenters.
May 27, 2011 at 7:53 pm
May 27, 2011 at 11:43 am
I am currently taking an ethics course and this is all we ever talk about. My professor always states that it’s more of a grey area than anything else. But I hate ethics that’s why I read Regretsy instead of reading my textbook
May 27, 2011 at 11:57 am
Regretsy is the street-smart ethics class. We aren’t unethical, we just have a very, very low tolerance for retarded hippies and shitty art. Judgmental and bitchy, yes – but unethical? No way.
May 27, 2011 at 12:01 pm
With that kind of ingenuity, you’ll be a professor in no time!
May 27, 2011 at 1:58 pm
I agree!
May 27, 2011 at 11:44 am
ps. Maybe they should glue one of those fake chrysanthemums to them, you know, to stand out from the rest! HAHAHA um.
May 27, 2011 at 11:50 am
They could dangle them from the tentacles of the mass-produced metal octopus. =D
May 27, 2011 at 11:54 am
I’m surprised there aren’t vaginas on state outlines yet.
May 27, 2011 at 11:59 am
NOW THERE WILL BE! I want a personalized one!!!
May 27, 2011 at 12:20 pm
I was trying to come up with really awesome instructions for you to follow, but I got side tracked by an important detail: HOW WOULD YOU KNOW? I mean, you send them a photo, they send you something and say it is your vagina immortalized in [whatever medium you pick]. Are you going to sit there, comparing it to the photo and/or real thing?
I guess maybe that’s the indicator of if one is the target audience for the product.
May 27, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Quick! Someone make this!
May 27, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Or the jewelry equivalent of Truck Nutz.
May 27, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Until there are, you always have Florida, America’s big floppy penis.
May 27, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Just make sure they are not old, grey vagoos. Make sure they are My Pink Spot Pink or whatever that crap is.
May 27, 2011 at 4:35 pm
See Spot Pink. Pink, Spot, Pink!
June 1, 2011 at 11:27 am
As I understand it, “I Vagina Portland” would be quite popular…
May 27, 2011 at 12:05 pm
One of the large bead suppliers is having a sale resin flowers now… expect an influx!
May 27, 2011 at 11:44 am
I heard about this on tumblr of all places. However, I have to give props to truche; hand sawing is hard and hers is pretty good and her shapes are fairly complicated (many sudden turns, thus, potentially many broken saw blades.) I don’t think her business will be hurt; people who buy jewelry from UO generally aren’t looking to spend money on quality, handmade pieces.
May 27, 2011 at 11:46 am
She is making BANK today. Tons of you-go-girl sales. Sometimes bad things are the best things that can happen to you.
May 27, 2011 at 1:05 pm
…”Sometimes bad things are the best things that can happen to you.” – T shirt please!
May 27, 2011 at 6:40 pm
I’m designing one now and copyrighting it.
May 27, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Like getting on Regretsy!
May 27, 2011 at 4:45 pm
I’m a bit suspicious of 720 sales in one day though. You think Regretsians are buying several HUNDRED items from a seller in one afternoon? Sorry, but this is suspicious to me. To get that many sales out in a month, she’ll need to make at least two dozen a day every single day for the next month, quite a feat for that much handwork. It’s sending up a red flag. If it sounds like too much in too short a time, it usually is.
May 27, 2011 at 8:59 pm
This got major nationwide coverage, it weren’t just Regretsy.
May 27, 2011 at 11:49 am
Oh, her business is booming after the sob story and ensuing lovefest yesterday. I personally received about 200 e-mails begging us to run with this story and champion her cause. Now she has so many orders there’s a 3-4 week backlog. Not that I have anything against truche, but the whole “everyone’s stealing my ideas” thing is a little hard to swallow in light of recent discoveries.
May 27, 2011 at 11:57 am
I guess I have to learn to be a crybaby and stop sucking it up and having a stiff upper lip and keeping calm and carrying on in order to be successful?
It’s not enough to be competent?
May 27, 2011 at 12:05 pm
I’m not even saying truche ripped off those other sellers. It’s entirely possible that she never saw one before, and really thinks she invented these things, and that every other one is a rip-off of her idea. It is now clear that this is simply not the case. Her outrage may be genuine, but if that is true she is ignorant of the reality.
And those who have expressed outrage on her behalf should review the facts first next time.
May 27, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I learned a long time ago that given the same inputs, the odds of a random bunch of people coming up with the same idea is very high.
It always hurt when every single entry I put in to the New York Magazine contest every bloody week was in the “we got 100 of these” categories.
May 27, 2011 at 12:40 pm
I think maybe the fact that they also stole her copy made her think that they stole the idea from her, not just from everyone. But if I were her I wouldn’t get all up in arms about it since a heart in a state has been done before (*everyone* in Portland has a green Oregon-shaped sticker on their car with a heart in it. It’s pretty much required).
May 27, 2011 at 1:29 pm
Well, but the copy in question is also pretty vague. Three words, basically, not exactly a copy and paste job.
May 27, 2011 at 2:41 pm
hmmm i wasn’t aware it was just a few words, i guess the original thing i saw didn’t mention it. that is pretty lame then.
May 28, 2011 at 12:41 am
Ohhhh… I thought the cut-and-paste thing was more obvious. That’ll teach me for not reading the whole article & making with the outrage first, oops.
Business is vicious. I used to run an online shop selling the work of small independant fashion designers. I was so excited to get a desperate order before the site was even completed, for quite a lot of money. I got the clothes made & sent, only to find that my customer used them for a photo-shoot to launch her own online business selling… guess what? The same stuff I’d had to wrangle & work my arse off to track down & sign up. Classy.
May 27, 2011 at 12:09 pm
They’re made from PMC which is a clay with pure silver in it. You shape it, cut it, let it dry then fire by hand or in a kiln. It’s easy to cut when it’s clay. It’s expensive though and is kinda hard to work with. But that’s why she can get those tiny details in it.
May 27, 2011 at 12:30 pm
It’s actually PMC? I’m not paying enough attention I guess, sheesh!
That takes the wind out of my sails.
June 1, 2011 at 11:22 am
You can get tiny details by using a jeweler’s saw on a sheet of metal, too. You just have to be good at it, unlike with metal clay.
Also, you can always tell metal clay items from those made from a sheet of metal because it has that really porous, uneven surface.
May 27, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Killer – spot on. Two designer friends and I were emailing about this very thing yesterday and we felt the same way. A friend of ours had his owl graphic ripped off by Forever21; I am not sympathetic to chains. I’m just relieved someone else with a similar mentality (sorry/you’re welcome) had the same reaction I did.
Food for thought: I make fabric necklaces that are strikingly similar to another Etsy seller who’s been doing it longer than me. It wasn’t until I launched my designs that someone sent me her shop link. I was SHOCKED at how similar our work is. I swearz I didn’t copy her – never even knew about her. I got my ideas from a book on fiber necklaces, made some prototypes and took a year to finalize what I consider “my” designs. Case in point – two people in different parts of the world can create almost identical designs independent of each other. I think she hates me, though. :/
May 27, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Efit, it can happen. Example: Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin. Also Mendelev and that other dude.
May 27, 2011 at 7:40 pm
One of the few useful things TrudysPaintedLadies has ever said in the Etsy forums was a thread she posted about copying.
She talked about how she found someone who was selling the EXACT same product she was, and was raging out and all ready to execute a takedown….. and then she looked at the dates and saw that the other person had been doing it longer than her.
It always makes me wonder how many other cases like this are accidental. You have your clear cases–like Glitterbiscuits stealing the exact art someone else made–but others are more uncertain even if they seem very very similar.
May 27, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
May 27, 2011 at 1:01 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 6:17 pm
No, we just don’t like anyone saying that April is behind the times on her news reporting. April does everything first. Everything.
May 27, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Pay attention: those pieces are *not* hand-sawn; they’re PMC (precious metal clay), the Sculpy of metalworking. It’s like pressing stuff out of Play-dough.
June 1, 2011 at 11:26 am
Yes, hand sawing is hard; but that’s not what she’s doing. She’s cutting them out of metal clay, which can be as easy as rolling out the clay and pressing a cookie cutter into it.
May 27, 2011 at 11:44 am
You get double bonus points for working GlitterBiscuits into yet another post. Will she bite?
May 27, 2011 at 11:44 am
Hot Topic had their designers doing the same thing.. they got busted for it. They would buy people’s item on Etsy and send it off to china to be mass produced. They got busted because their designer bought all the items ripped off from the same account on Etsy.
Sadly this sort of thing just comes with the territory. Look at high-end fashion designers… They have been ripping off smaller designers for years…
May 27, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Hot Topic also sold lots of Emily Strange merchandise. She’s a character “created” by Rob Reger who STRONGLY resembles the character Rosamond from a book series called “Nate the Great.” There finally was a settlement after years of denial by Reger.
May 27, 2011 at 2:18 pm
How long did Harlan Ellison have to rant and sue to get a credit on “Terminator”?
And Art Buchwald for “Coming To America?”
Shit happens… at least it’s not like the smiley face guy.
May 27, 2011 at 11:45 am
A rare level-headed post. We’ll let you off with a warning.
May 27, 2011 at 11:47 am
I haven’t started medicating myself yet.
May 27, 2011 at 12:07 pm
And here I thought it was the pain meds blunting the rage.
May 27, 2011 at 9:08 pm
She probably used up a lot of rage on Jennifer Aniston earlier.
May 27, 2011 at 11:45 am
Its a very good point. Honestly I remember seeing the state charms for Ohio with a Hart as a kid. I lived there (Pitty me!) and it was like.. a slogan ” The Heart of the US” cause of its shape and blah blag blag. They sold/gave away plastic ones at fairs and events for the state.
May 27, 2011 at 11:52 am
“Ohio: the heart of it all”!
I remember it very well…
May 27, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Growing up in Michigan we called Ohio the armpit of America…
May 31, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Oh, good, I wasn’t the only one!
…I then moved to the armpit of America. >_>
March 3, 2012 at 8:15 pm
good call. I appreciate the broadminded counterbalance. That’s rare.
May 27, 2011 at 11:45 am
good call. I appreciate the broadminded counterbalance. That’s rare.
May 27, 2011 at 11:45 am
In the story, the designer mentions that they stole copy from her listings, too. Haven’t read it, but if so, that’s pretty damning. That takes it from a “so simple any could think of it” idea to theft.
May 27, 2011 at 11:48 am
It’s still gray for me.
Her line: Wear your locale love
Theirs: Wear your love
May 27, 2011 at 11:52 am
Oh. Yeah, that text is also pretty generic.
May 27, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Yes and no…’wear your locale love’ pretty much narrows it down to geography. ‘Wear your love’ could refer to your husband’s balls on a leather thong.
May 27, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Well, good, B,B – you should tell UO that you have ideas for how they can expand their collection.
May 27, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Only if I can turn right around and sue for infringement of my intellectual property.
PS – I’m a former preschool teacher myself. Amazing how difficult it is to turn kiddo brain on and off, isn’t it?
May 27, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Definitely. I find myself praising my housemates in my preschool teacher voice when they do simple household tasks. Only, for them, it’s dripping with sarcasm. I also almost waved and shouted hello at a passing trash truck the other day.
May 27, 2011 at 12:11 pm
At least their copy sounds like proper English. “Wear your locale love” reads a bit awkward to me.
May 27, 2011 at 2:18 pm
Maybe she meant “Wear your locale, love.”
May 27, 2011 at 11:51 am
“anyone” not “any” …. please excuse me, I spend time teaching preschoolers all day and haven’t turned my grownup brain on yet.
May 27, 2011 at 11:45 am
I hope this doesn’t lead to a massive call out war in the Etsy forums where each of these sellers claims the other sellers stole from them. That would be a tragedy.
No, wait. I mean comedy. That’s the ticket. Someone pop some popcorn, this could get real good.
May 27, 2011 at 12:37 pm
I’ve got movie theater butter and kettle corn. Let’s get a big happy group together to watch the etsy kerfuffle – aka “Twatwaffle Theatre.”
May 27, 2011 at 2:58 pm
i premiered ‘twatwaffle’ in my vernacular this weekend. my boyfriend was amused. thanks regresty!
May 27, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Wait, if EVERY seller on Etsy starts calling out each other, like a big food fight, would ALL their accounts get suspended? That would be so funny. Etsy would cancel itself out.
May 28, 2011 at 12:45 am
It would be like the piant pie-fight at the end of Bugsy Malone. But with hot glue & glitter. Awesome.
May 27, 2011 at 11:46 am
As long as UO isn’t turning around and suing anyone else for using that design… although it would be kinda hilarious if they tried to sue all the hipster kids with “state outline + heart” tattoos. (Which is probably about 90% of them here in Texas.)
May 27, 2011 at 11:58 am
Had crush on a guy with a Texas tattoo on his arm… had the crush until a good friend said “know why he has Texas on his arm?” “No.” “So he doesn’t forget which state he’s from.”
I think a belt buckle as an ID would have been handy too.
But it’s Texas. That’s just goes with the territory.
May 27, 2011 at 2:19 pm
then all the states could sue UO for ripping off the outline of their borders. Might help with balancing those budgets.
May 27, 2011 at 11:46 am
I am outraged that you’re being the voice of reason!
May 27, 2011 at 11:46 am
Let me clear up this nonsense. It was my idea. I thought of it first. Please send all royalties to me. Please be patience as I prove my claim. I’ll need your money to pay the back rent on my storage locker to get it. I promise this isn’t a scam, just send money.
May 27, 2011 at 11:49 am
Give me your Paypal password and I’ll handle it.
May 27, 2011 at 11:53 am
My Nigerian uncle changed it. Can you just use Western Union for now?
May 27, 2011 at 11:59 am
What’s your PO Box so I can mail my check directly?
May 27, 2011 at 11:47 am
This isn’t EXACTLY the same thing, but same sort of idea:
http://www.signals.com/signals/Item_Personalized-State-Necklace_HG2962_ps_srm.html
I’ve seen those for years.
I don’t think anyone has a claim on this design. It is rather generic and there’s nothing to prove who took from where. Personally, I don’t see how any of this holds water. Not original. Nice, but certainly not an original idea.
May 27, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Crap. I just commented on this below, before I read all the comments.
May 27, 2011 at 11:47 am
1. Any publicity is good publicity. Truche had almost 500 sales yesterday! If you had to get screwed…
2. In my design classes in college, I had one professor that had us brainstorm at the beginning of each project. We had to throw out our first 5 ideas. Trash them. He said the first 5 ideas are the ones that every one in the rest of the world also came up with first.
May 27, 2011 at 11:51 am
Hrmmm… I like that first five ideas rule. I’m going to have to remember that.
May 27, 2011 at 12:25 pm
In writing it’s ‘throw out your first two ideas, write the third.” After a while of reading slush, you start to be able to pick out ideas 1 and 2, which makes the occasional 3 look amazing by comparison.
May 27, 2011 at 12:45 pm
I do the same thing when I write in my blog.. I’ll start writing something like.. “I’m sitting here looking out the window, thinking about…” etc etc. Then when I’m editing, I usually delete the first few paragraphs, so it starts on a strong note instead of a bunch of random crap. Much more powerful writing. Sometimes I’ll even delete the first 2/3 of the entry and the remainder will end up being the most compelling.
May 27, 2011 at 2:20 pm
I thought it was “throw out your first 2 chapters”
May 27, 2011 at 7:45 pm
I think those are ways to different goals. Throwing out part of your writing might make your writing tighter and more interesting WITHIN the idea that you already have, but throwing out whole ideas might make your whole story more original.
May 27, 2011 at 9:37 pm
And for the same reason there’s the advice ‘kill your darlings.” Just because you love a sentence you wrote and think it’s the greatest thing in the world doesn’t mean it’s actually good at all.
The real advice is probably “Think More.”
May 27, 2011 at 11:58 am
We did stuff like that in my design school too. There is always going to be a bit of an influence from what’s out there in the world, but there’s a big difference between influence and copying something outright.
May 27, 2011 at 11:47 am
My dad always says “for every original idea you have you better check it out because chances are someone already had it before you.”
May 27, 2011 at 11:54 am
You mean this invention I have may already be made by somebody else? Impossible!!! I just came up with it!!! It’s a large glass pitcher type thing, but it sits on a base that has really sharp blades in it, and it runs on a motor. When you turn on the motor: ZOOOM!!! You can smush up ANYTHING with this sucker!!! I bet you could use it to make some kind of drinks, too…it would chop up ice real good!!!
I REALLY hope no one has come up with MY invention yet!
May 27, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Yum! *dreams of daiquiris*
Where can I get one of these newfangled contraptions?
May 27, 2011 at 1:19 pm
I’m only going to sell them on Etsy. I’ve named them the ColeslawNATOR2 3000!!!!
NO ONE STEAL MY IDEA! There, that outta trademark it real good.
May 27, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Indeed. When I was in college, I’d sit in the dorm all day thinking up ideas for video games. And then I’d go to the student union and it would be there. Atari was not only mind-reading but time-traveling, too.
May 27, 2011 at 12:58 pm
It’s a bit of a catch-22, also. If your idea is too much in tune with the times, everyone has already thought of it and knocked out a version. If your idea is too out of sync, you’re a weirdo and no one will buy it.
The trick is to find that tiny sweet spot of original and having mass appeal.
May 27, 2011 at 11:48 am
But I’ve been sharpening my pitchfork all day!
May 27, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Just wander around the Etsy forum for a while. You’ll find a use for it before long.
May 27, 2011 at 11:48 am
THOSE BAAAAaa… Oh.
Well DARN. I even brought my good pitchfork
I’ve seen the “State with a heart on your location” thing done on pillows, shirts, quilts etc it’s one of those bland designs which is just practically open source at this point.
May 27, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Me toooo!
Shall I whimsicleize it and sell it on Etsy? What do you think, some glitter and Swarovski crystals in the shape of hearts?
Better yet, put the crystals in the shape of states and the glitter in the shape of hearts on my pitchfork that is now whimsicleized for Etsy!
WAA LAA!!!
May 28, 2011 at 1:43 am
Oh blast! I was going to make a glitter pitchfork with all pearls and twirly bits, but you beat me to it…
No fair, YOU PREEMTIVLY STOLE MY IDEA!!!!
May 27, 2011 at 11:48 am
As much as I’d like to be enraged, I just don’t think anyone intended any malice: the design seems like it’s something that’s just part of an overriding cultural idea: I’m pretty sure I’ve also seen them with the heart placed somewhere specific to the wearer (ie, your hometown, instead of the capital).
And because it needs to be said more often, the concept of using a graphic heart to indicate the word love (not just the “I (heart) NY” design) came from Milton Glaser, who gave the design to the city of New York (and, in 2001, was briefly threatened with copyright infringement for developing a variant for charity: http://www.believermag.com/issues/200309/?read=interview_glaser)
May 27, 2011 at 11:48 am
I got the Texas with the heart in it tattooed on my chest in 2004. Who do I sue/blame?
May 27, 2011 at 11:51 am
Jack Daniels?
May 27, 2011 at 12:02 pm
“some people think that there’s a woman to blame, but I think hell, it could be me fault…”
May 27, 2011 at 12:14 pm
Please tell me this is true. If it is I heart you.
May 27, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Oh it’s totally true. It’s on my left pec with the heart right where Dallas is.
May 27, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Dallas!!! Hey neighbor.
May 27, 2011 at 4:33 pm
I’m from DFW too. There’s something about being a Texan… It’s kind of like being a vegan, it just makes you better than other people.
May 27, 2011 at 12:41 pm
PIX OR GTFO!!one
(For those playing at home, I don’t have vodka yet, but there WAS a flask of Myer’s in the trunk of my car.)
May 27, 2011 at 7:03 pm
Awh, I didn’t think to put a heart in mine (yellow rose over the state outline and star over San Antonio).
Might have to add that when I touch up the color, if I ever get around to it.
May 27, 2011 at 11:49 am
Thank you for doing the research I was too lazy to do!
When I say my Twitter and Facebook explode yesterday with people reposting the story from Truche all I could think was “umm Ive seen that design about a billion time before.” In fact I remember wanting a California version of that necklace when I was a little kid so someone has obviously been making this oh so generic design for years.
Yes, UO steals a lot of ideas but its hard to get irate over a design thats so generic.
May 27, 2011 at 11:51 am
I’m all for getting irate when it’s clear douchebaggery. This just felt too vague.
May 27, 2011 at 12:21 pm
find us something else to hate, then. YOU’RE NOT DOING YOUR JOB
May 27, 2011 at 12:22 pm
ok, maybe you are. we can’t be haters all the time. But it seems like everyone’s already got their pitchforks primed and ready to go
May 27, 2011 at 12:27 pm
I put my pitchfork down on some barnwood. Thought I might take some pictures for my Etsy shop while we wait.
May 28, 2011 at 1:45 am
Pitchforks, the new moustaches on etsy…
May 27, 2011 at 11:49 am
Radiator fins are the new barnwood.
May 27, 2011 at 11:53 am
Don’t forget raw rice or beans.
May 27, 2011 at 11:49 am
Guess I’ll just stay home and sharpen my pitchfork for another time.
You make really good points, Helen. Smart and witty… no wonder everyone hates you.
May 27, 2011 at 11:50 am
another strike against me further reinforcing my weirdo cmplex–I have no state pride. I’ve never lived anywhere nor can I imagine anywhere that would compel me to wear a symbol as jewelry. Tshirt maybe, jewelry no.
May 27, 2011 at 12:03 pm
I’m embarrassed to be from New Jersey. First it was Joe Piscopo and now Snookie. I tell everyone I’m from someplace more reasonable, like Tennessee.
But nobody believes me. I guess it’s the accent.
May 27, 2011 at 12:16 pm
Don’t turn your back on Jersey! Jersey is secretly awesome.
The Jersey Shore is basically PA, it hardly counts.
I live in Denville, btw…
May 27, 2011 at 12:43 pm
I grew up in Jersey and live in PA (moved here for college) – not at the shore, but we played shore towns in football every year and marched in the parade in Wildwood and camped there with Scouts. Don’t blame Jersey Shore on Jersey or PA, please! They’re totally New York’s fault, and I’m pretty sure we had a word for them growing up.
May 27, 2011 at 2:23 pm
I’m in Rahway. And the state prison is actually in Woodbridge, but nobody seems to correct the location of the correctional facility.
And I like PA much better than NJ. Or at least Philly.
May 27, 2011 at 4:25 pm
I totally worked in Rahway for a long time at the good ole Union County Arts Center. I believe they have since added the letter P in there somewhere.
May 27, 2011 at 12:22 pm
If Jersey wasn’t awesome, why would Joyce Carol Oates have relocated here for the most prolific streak of her luminous career? Besides, anyone with half a brain knows that the Garden State is called such because it’s filled with beautiful foliage year round. Getting dangerously close to tomato season, too. Nothing like a good Jersey tomato.
May 27, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Well, except for towns like Moorestown where they raze farms and apple orchards to build more cookie-cutter McMansions and then bitch that they have to smell cow manure from neighboring dairy farms and that they can’t grow edible gardens because of leftover apple seed chemicals in the grass…
June 18, 2011 at 11:02 am
Well, she moved there to teach at Princeton. She was previously at Univ. of Windsor. I don’t think that career move says much about NJ.
May 27, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Whaaaaaat? But we have SO MANY AWESOME THINGS. Snooki isn’t even from Jersey.
May 27, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Yeah, she’s from Marlborough, NY, about 15 minutes from my hometown. And everyone knows that Marlborough girls are boyfriend-stealing sluts. *cough*
May 27, 2011 at 1:06 pm
i’m pretty sure she’s from ny…
my dad is from new jersey. my opinion of the east coast is colored by the awful experiences i’ve had there, including tit-numbing cold, oppressive humidity and heat, green biting flies, and sand in the crotch pocket of my swimsuit.
May 27, 2011 at 1:34 pm
At least you’re not from Perth Amboy (or are you?!), where my Dad grew up, which I’m not supposed to tell anyone.
May 27, 2011 at 1:40 pm
But I have to say I actually like Jersey, probably because I love humidity and tomatoes, and don’t mind people driving like jackasses.
May 27, 2011 at 2:27 pm
close enough. I used to date a schmuck from there.
It’s amusing how many people are defending the Garden State. It’s the most densely populated state in the country and it shows.
And my neighbors in the condos next door “trimmed” my 90-year-old trees and now the pervert on the second floor can look right into my teenage daughter’s bedroom, and the afternoon sun is now baking my attic bedroom, where the tree used to shade it in the afternoon. Plus I think they are secretly trying to kill my trees.
Plus their dogs shit in my yard.
May 27, 2011 at 4:49 pm
Princess, I’m from the area so lovingly portrayed in The Real Housewives of New Jersey. If I didn’t think of my NJ positives on a regular basis, I’d go insane because of that show.
May 27, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Jersey Shore is Long Island/NY fault.
Hey I love NJ!
May 27, 2011 at 6:28 pm
Don’t forget Jerseylicious ~cringe~
May 27, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Gee Princess Buzzkill, I KNEW there was something special about you!
I was born and circumcised (badly) in Passaic, and lived in the Toms River area.
New Jersey may be the “Low Self-esteem” State but it sure produces some truly snarky individuals!
May 27, 2011 at 12:54 pm
You should keep trying. I was born in Minnesota and spent the first 18 years of my life knowing it was never going to be home. Left as soon as I could and fell in love with my adopted home, Oregon. California and Chicago, IL (current home) would be runners up.
What I *really* don’t understand is people from my crappy MN suburb who have never left and actually LOVE it there. I would have spontaneously combusted if I’d had to stay any longer. That place kills my soul. I still tell people I’m from Portland, OR. If they ask if I was born there, I try to avoid the question.
stickers are kind of required in portland and I have one on several things I own. I guess I’m just another sucker…
May 27, 2011 at 12:55 pm
that link was supposed to say “heart in oregon stickers”
May 27, 2011 at 1:13 pm
I was born in Tennessee and have lived in Virginia & Florida…they just don’t seem jewelry worthy to me. Hawaii or Califfornia, maybe. They actually sell touristy shirts, stickers and such with:: Virginia is for lovers with or without the obligatory heart. It’s gotta be for irony because it’s still a pretty conservative foothold in ye olde Bible belt–lovers? There’ll be none of that
May 27, 2011 at 1:31 pm
what are you talking about? Have you been to Northern Virginia? Everyday I see at least 10 of those COEXIST stickers. I don’t think you’re allowed to own a car here without at least an Obama sticker. And Northern Virginia is the majority of the population of Virginia now.
May 27, 2011 at 2:30 pm
@snickerdoodle, I grew up in Northern Virginia. I got MY “Coexist” t-shirt in Madison, WI.
You can coexist there, but you can’t cohabitate. Plus, I don’t think they recognize ordained Pagan priestesses as legitimate to marry people (unless that fight was also won) – ISTR something about a woman not being allowed to perform marriages who was Pagan.
May 27, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Oh, and if NoVa is the majority of the population there, what is the excuse for Cantor?
May 27, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Hmmm I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. Though I have met a lot of people from some random town in one of the flyover states and they LOVE where they’re from. Perhaps hating one’s place of origin is a marker of superior intelligence. I’d like to think so.
Actually I had a friend in Portland from Franklin, TN and he would NOT shut up about how much better TN was than Oregon. It was obnoxious. Finally he went back there, and a few months later I heard back that he missed Portland. Go figure.
May 27, 2011 at 3:37 pm
I am truly sorry about Cantor, and Cuccinelli, there are still some bugs for Virginia to work out. Mark my words, next election we’ll be going for Obama again and we’ll be putting another Mark Werner or Tim Kaine type in the governor’s seat.
May 27, 2011 at 3:39 pm
*Mark Warner* I wish we were allowed to fix spelling errors.
May 27, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I live in Northern Virginia, just above the start of the NASCAR Zone/Rappahannock River. Native Virginians are very conservative, even when they claim to be otherwise. My friends are mostly fellow transplants. None of us are doing well socially because the natives are unwilling to recognize that something other than their cheery traditional 1950s small town lives can exist.
My former GF from Maryland refused to consider moving here, because of the conservative nature of the state. And it’s now gotten WORSE.
Western Australia is beginning to look pretty good.
May 27, 2011 at 4:34 pm
I felt the same way growing up in Maine. I counted the days until I could leave.
May 27, 2011 at 4:45 pm
I was born in Oklahoma, hated it, moved to Nebraska when I was 12, hated it, and just moved to Oregon at 25 this year and love it. I knew I’d find a state I could hold some allegiance to eventually!
That said, Chicago is probably my favorite place on earth. Every time I’ve gone there, I get progressively more excited the nearer I get to Lake Michigan. If the weather weren’t so Midwestern, I’d be living there now.
May 27, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Also, exile and cunning, I knew too many people in Omaha who just thought it was the best damned place to be. I never understood it; I have no overwhelming urge to go back there. It’s just small and urban sprawly to me. Most of the people I met who loved it beyond reason were born there and never aspire to move away.
I do have a friend in Iowa who absolutely LOVES Iowa and I don’t begrudge her that because Iowa is much nicer than Nebraska in my opinion. She lives in Iowa City and it’s pretty awesome there.
May 27, 2011 at 5:27 pm
And I was born in CA but am totally where I belong in MN. I’m dying to know which “crappy MN suburb” you’re from, exile.
May 27, 2011 at 10:33 pm
I have (some) (reasonable) state pride, but my state has an embarassing slogan: “Virginia Is For Lovers.” Um, no. I’m not getting that on a T-shirt, bumper sticker, keychain, or any tchotche.
“Sic semper tyrannis” (Thus always to tyrants)(official state motto) is pretty cool, but for some reason, it never makes it on any T-shirts. Probably on account of being Latin.
Note: my state pride does not extend to any elected officials, many of whom are currently mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging troglodytes. Oy.
May 27, 2011 at 11:50 am
Exactly what I thought when I read this. I remember being able to buy charms like those when I was a kid….
and that was a very, very long time ago.
but pretty much any tourist trap shit hole in the midwest has them and has for decades now.
May 27, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Guys, I need your help. Anthropologie is totally stealing my ideas. The evidence keeps adding up.
It’s pretty blatant. Tweet my plight. This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man.
May 27, 2011 at 6:37 pm
I’ll tweet your plight if you promise not to load your story with a whole bunch of unmade inventory then earn $50000 in two days off of your claims of plagiarism.
May 27, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Yeah, those floral patterns really pull the apron together, man.
May 27, 2011 at 11:50 am
Basically if you are an artist or designer you need to be comfortable with the fact that people will imitate your work or flat out copy it.
May 27, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Why should any creative artist be comfortable with thievery?
May 27, 2011 at 5:17 pm
You don’t have to like it, but it’s probably going to happen at some point. Not all countries honor our copyright laws and stuff, and a lot of things can’t get copyrights to begin with. So you have to be comfortable with the knowledge this will happen, even though you don’t like it.
May 27, 2011 at 8:04 pm
The last time I was in the Philipines there was a BAR that was using the Apple Computer logo as their own.
But FTW my nursing school pin was based on the Internet Explorer “E” logo.
May 28, 2011 at 10:52 am
Other countries don’t have to honour US copyright laws unless the claimant petitions to have their rights as a US citizen upheld there.
Disclaimer: in the music biz anyways, I would imagine it’s a broad understanding.
May 27, 2011 at 11:50 am
Gramma always told me that there was nothing new under the sun. I guess she was totally right.
May 27, 2011 at 11:54 am
My Grandma told me first.
May 27, 2011 at 12:23 pm
You are probably right. I ain’t that old yet.
May 27, 2011 at 11:50 am
Thank you THANK YOU. This is EXACTLY what I was hoping you would do. I spent a good 5 hours going through Etsy and the internet at large looking at multiple versions of the same thing. I just couldn’t quite come to the conclusion that this was HER thing.
I KNEW you’d pick up on this. The Only Sane Person on the Internet strikes again!!!!
May 27, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Don’t insult April’s insanity!
May 27, 2011 at 11:52 am
I think that Truche’s necklace looks better than the crap UO is hawking. I’m hoping Quality will win over Quantity.
May 27, 2011 at 11:55 am
But does Truche’s look better than all the other seller’s versions of the same design? I prefer the one with the red insert, myself.
May 27, 2011 at 11:59 am
Oh yeah, because that always happens.
May 27, 2011 at 11:59 am
Personally, a person crying out that someone “stole” their generic design makes me less willing to buy from them. Quality or not.
May 27, 2011 at 5:19 pm
I agree. It feels like an underhanded attempt at eliminating competition and gaining favor. In my eyes, it drops someone a peg.
May 27, 2011 at 7:50 pm
So you’re saying that Truche is being kind of a Duche?
May 27, 2011 at 11:54 am
Oh, but I do love a good pitchforking.
May 27, 2011 at 3:06 pm
who doesn’t love a good forking?
May 27, 2011 at 11:54 am
I dunno….seems like the shape of a state, and the geometric design of a heart, both fall under public domain. You know, like “Happy Birthday,” and shitty Twitard art.
May 27, 2011 at 12:09 pm
“Happy Birthday” is not public domain. You have to pay royalties to use it in a movie or TV show. This is why they often sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” or some other analogous celebration song.
See: Roger Ebert’s “Jolly Bornday” entry.
May 27, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Damn, if you’re gonna pay royalties for a birthday song, better make it the NOFX version!
May 27, 2011 at 12:30 pm
That’s why restaurants who don’t have ASCAP licenses have to sing some janked up Birthday song. At least the RIAA hasn’t shown up at kids’ parties with a crease and desist order. Yet.
May 28, 2011 at 10:55 am
RIAA would be more concerned with playing of a recording. It’s the performance rights agencies (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SoundExchange etc) who protect this kind of thing.
May 29, 2011 at 11:22 am
@melligator: OK. So instead an ASCAP enforcer with a clipboard and a bill will come in and break up the party. That’s a bit less scary than RIAA stormtroopers.
So… how come “Happy Birthday” isn’t public domain yet. Does it have something to do with Sonny Bono slamming into a tree?
May 27, 2011 at 12:44 pm
My place of employment apparently got slammed for singing Happy Birthday at office parties. I mean not just that, but when they were trying to figure out how they could slam us for copyright infringement, one of the things they had on the list was “singing Happy Birthday at office gatherings without permission” because they knew it’d probably be one more thing.
May 27, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Just sing “Good Morning to You” instead and wink while singing it. It’s public domain.
May 27, 2011 at 2:53 pm
info like “happy birthday isn’t public domain” is one of the things that makes me love reading regretsy comments. i learn something new every day! and always something completely useless!
May 27, 2011 at 3:55 pm
It’s also something you learn in film school or hanging out with film people. It’s one of the most expensive songs to license for a movie.
May 27, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Oh just wait. The states need money, I can just see the governors claiming the rights to the shape of the state. You can use them. For a price.
May 27, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Because it would be “for the children”!!! At least that was always Blago’s excuse in IL.
May 27, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Disney will get there first! It goes along with their claim on Seal Team 6!
May 27, 2011 at 11:55 am
Is it terrible that I suddenly want to do the same thing, except make pillows? “Snuggle your State!”
May 27, 2011 at 12:03 pm
depends on whom you’re copying, apparently
May 27, 2011 at 12:05 pm
As long as you make sure you don’t call them “I Heart ___” pillows.
May 27, 2011 at 12:15 pm
I think there was a featured etsy seller a little while back who makes those. Just a heads up for when they start to cry.
May 27, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Instead of a heart, give it a hole. FUCK THIS STATE!
May 28, 2011 at 3:06 pm
I had a similarly clever idea…
So, you do yours first…I will then do mine. You can call me out for theft…PROFIT! But I want a cut.
May 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Someone is already making them! They were on the front page of Etsy!!! Maybe not with a heart, I can’t remember. But they were pillows made in state shapes.
I’m going to let them know so they can send you threatening letters…
May 27, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Oh they have a heart all right!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lovecalifornia?ref=pr_shop
May 27, 2011 at 3:08 pm
i like that! i need a craft for rainy afternoon. i think i’m gonna snuggle me up some iowa!
May 27, 2011 at 5:12 pm
A) I can’t think of a way I could snuggle Texas and not have a jabby bit making me uncomfortable.
B) my current state is Colorado…how will I know it from the other square shaped states?
May 27, 2011 at 9:49 pm
you mean it isn’t obvious?
I shouldn’t have to tell anyone that that’s Colorado on the left and Wyoming on the right.
July 18, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Co-ordinate Reference System number or I don’t believe it!
May 27, 2011 at 11:57 am
Your analysis is a hundred times more thoughtful than the demented rantings (on both sides) in the Consumerist comments. Not to mention the litany of “I’ll give you my full legal analysis of the situation. What, my legal expertise? I watched a couple episodes of Boston Legal a few years ago, so I’m an expert.”
May 27, 2011 at 10:00 pm
I have seen EVERY episode of Law & Order, that makes me a cop and a lawyer, right? Okay, so I stopped watching when Jerry Orbach retired, but it’s all crap after that. Also, RIP Jerry Orbach.
May 27, 2011 at 11:57 am
What actually bothers me most about this is the oddly-formed UO Italy. Is it fused with Sicily?
May 27, 2011 at 11:58 am
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html
This is a really good TED talk about how fashion’s open-source model promotes healthy (read: beneficial to consumers) competition and combats elitism by making high-end looks available (in an abstract way) to customers on budgets.
That being said, buy handmade or buy secondhand whenever you can. It’s good for the environment, good for human rights, and if you’re at Goodwill all the time, it’s good for your wallet, too!
May 27, 2011 at 1:08 pm
Hah. I spend more in the Goodwill, because I can rationalize it as “oh, it’s only $5, what’s one more?”
May 28, 2011 at 11:03 am
I was thinking about the clothing and “utilitarian item” laws but it seems jewelry is classed as visual art and copyrightable in its finished state. Question is whether, even if you forked out the $35 to copyright your design, woudl the money involved in getting a lawyer to send a snippy letter be cost-effective in the end? And even if you did get UO to stop ripping you off, doesn’t mean you’re going to somehow make the money they were. And yet… the principle.
I work in the music biz and those laws are insanely complex but at least there is clear recourse, and infringed rights are taken seriously. Would not be a copyright lawyer for all the glassless spectacles on Etsy.
May 27, 2011 at 11:59 am
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
May 27, 2011 at 11:59 am
Ha! I only get the Anthropologie and Free People catalogs so I can copy *them* when I fuck around with my sewing needles and thrift store clothes. Hahahahaha.
They are hipster jerk-faces.
May 27, 2011 at 12:24 pm
I find it very hard to shop with a store where I find myself saying, “I could make that,” for a large percentage of their items. Whether I actually am inspired to make it, well, that’s another question… because I am lazy.
May 27, 2011 at 5:21 pm
I can’t shop at a store where I look around and say “why would anyone want to make that”
May 27, 2011 at 8:51 pm
HAH! This reminds me of my Great-Grandmother. In the 50′s, she’d go to a department store and buy a dress, take it home and carefully pick it apart to turn it into a pattern, then sew it back up and return it to the store. My mom reports having owned several dresses that came about via this method.
I think Grandmother Violet would have fuckin’ loved Etsy. Not only could she get away with doing shit like that, if anyone tried to call her out, they’d get shut down.
May 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Helen, I put away my pitchfork. But what about the torches? Can we at least take those out???
May 27, 2011 at 12:01 pm
There has never been a situation in the history of the world that was not improved dramatically by the presence of a torch. Now let’s talk about my flamethrower…
May 27, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Are whips permitted? Or battering rams? What is the proper conduct for this murky riot?
May 27, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I’ll bring nipple clamps! Wait…am I doing it right?
May 28, 2011 at 12:56 am
Maybe not, but I’m strangely interested.
May 27, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I’m bringing a trebuchet to this party. Hopefully it will be good for something. Throwing cows perhaps?
May 27, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Trebuchets make anything better.
May 27, 2011 at 2:18 pm
Sure do!
May 27, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Stephsparkle-When I first looked at your avatar, I saw a person bent over, on hands and knees. Then I realized it was feet with slippers on. Regretsy, you have destroyed my mind. Thank you.
May 29, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Those are my PJ slippers from the “At Home With Grandma PJ” Etsy shop. Didn’t need a doll, but I always need shoes.
May 27, 2011 at 1:06 pm
So, I read a lot of British chicklit. I also read SF. There’s a Terry Bisson story, “Bears discover Fire” in which, well, pretty much what the title says. There’s a scene in it where the narrator is dealing with a flickering orange light lighting what he’s doing, and realizes it’s because the Bears (with their torches) have come over to look at what he’s doing. Between the BritLit and the sad state of flashlights in my life, it took me EMBARRASSINGLY long to figure out that he really meant torches. I just kinda wondered, while I read it, why fire was the more important thing they’d discovered, if they’re all walking around with flashlights.
May 27, 2011 at 2:19 pm
I’m always up for a good torchlight parade.
May 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Agreed. There are plenty of other reasons to hate this vile chain without having to resort to a “theft of cupcake” rant. And isn’t THAT what life is all about?
May 27, 2011 at 12:02 pm
I’m trying to think outside the box, yet still copy someone else’s idea:
May 27, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Isn’t that copying a few different ideas? I mean, you didn’t think up the concept of the dildo, although that’s probably public domain by now, considering Neanderthal man (well, Neanderthal woman) had them.
And people have been putting dildos on things for a while now.
I’m totally stealing your idea!
May 27, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Make sure when you steal the idea, you change the spelling of penis or something….you know, make it unique.
May 27, 2011 at 1:35 pm
Pinys? Peynis? Pynis? Peenis?
May 27, 2011 at 2:33 pm
I’ll change it to C-O-C-K or D-I-C-K. Would that help?
May 27, 2011 at 2:35 pm
the item will be “Male genital image on top of shape depicting arbitrry governmental entity comprising 2% of the United States”
At least that’s what my patent application will say.
May 27, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Just slap some testicles on Florida. Same effect.
May 27, 2011 at 12:19 pm
If there was ever a state that needed to be slapped with testicles…
May 27, 2011 at 2:24 pm
No, no, it just has TruckNutz!
May 27, 2011 at 12:19 pm
And what an appropriate choice of state!
Mr. Schwarzenegger will take three!
May 27, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Was that while Arnold was still in office?
May 27, 2011 at 12:23 pm
I’m pretty sure someone in California had an erection first.
May 27, 2011 at 12:56 pm
With the amount of viagra prescriptions being filled in Florida with Tiger Woods and all those retired horn-dogs…..I’d have to say it’s a pretty close race as to who had the first erection.
May 27, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Wouldn’t that be Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge?
May 27, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Ohhh, I’m putting that on my finger puppets…sales will double… well, I mean, I’ll have sales.
May 27, 2011 at 1:28 pm
wait wait I got it!
Now excuse me, Im going to start collecting my billions!
May 27, 2011 at 1:46 pm
You should also put an octopus on some of them!
May 27, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Put a mustache on it!
May 27, 2011 at 2:37 pm
I want one with a bird!
May 27, 2011 at 3:00 pm
One of the people making these state pendants made an Oregon one that had a bird where Portland would be. Her explanation just said, “I couldn’t resist.”
May 27, 2011 at 6:46 pm
And you didn’t put it on Florida?
May 27, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Am I the only one outraged by the amputation of the U.P. from the Michigan pendant? And I bet those bitches didn’t use anesthesia.
May 27, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Not the only one, though I’m in the LP. Even with all the bitching Yoopers did years ago about wanting to be their own state, I don’t think we’d survive without each other. Sort of like symbiotic parasites.
May 28, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Yay for symbiotic parasites! I know for a fact the U.P. would hit rock bottom without the L.P. The only things in the U.P. worth while are the bridge and a few ski hills.
May 27, 2011 at 12:08 pm
C’mon, you can’t post something with ‘Outrage’ in the title and then, y’know’ be sensible.
What’s the angry mob equivalent to ‘blue balls’? Cos I’ve got that now.
May 27, 2011 at 12:11 pm
If I can’t decide who is to die, then they shall ALL be stoned!
May 27, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Shit, how many hoses does your hookah HAVE?
May 27, 2011 at 12:24 pm
The lottery works too!
May 27, 2011 at 12:30 pm
I love you. Literature references for the win.
May 29, 2011 at 2:09 pm
I have a facination with books/stories. They tend to enter most conversations.
May 27, 2011 at 7:01 pm
But I would not feel so all alone…
May 27, 2011 at 12:12 pm
One of the posts I saw about this elsewhere she is saying UO stole elements of her descriptions as well, if that’s true then I guess she is probably who they stole the idea from, but that doesn’t really mean much since she is clearly not the original “author” of the idea.
and UO may not have been stealing, they may have contracted with another (of the apparently endless supply) artisan who makes them to provide them for the store.
There’s probably only so many ways to describe these things so unless there’s clear “cut and paste of her text”, it’s a little cloudy to claim description theft.
That said, there’s really not much to them. having read this now after the other post, (where I had commented she should sue them) I now think any lawyer will tell her she will lose and not take the suit.
Whoever orginally came up with this and posted (not sold, sold doesn’t matter, for art copyright it’s first pub which listing on etsy counts as) them should sue.
May 27, 2011 at 12:25 pm
The copy she’s claiming they stole from her is only about three words, so who knows?
May 27, 2011 at 5:35 pm
And “I heart [insert whatever]” isn’t even original.
May 27, 2011 at 12:16 pm
Conspiracy!
May 27, 2011 at 12:17 pm
I actually think the state + heart thing is a soon-to-be-annoying etsy meme.
And @shesaidzed, I’m pizzed too. I was a Michigander when Gov. Blanchard sent a bill back to the state senate because the map they used didn’t include the U.P.
May 27, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Seriously? I’ve been here all my life but must have missed that. Must’ve been too busy partying in college.
May 27, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Well reasoned “Helen”. Who are you and what have you done with the real HK?
This design is too simple and obvious to get precious about. Yes, everything is obvious once it has been done, but this is obvious beforehand as well.
“Deep in the heart of Texas.”
“The heartland.”
“Home is where the heart is.”
“I left my heart in San Francisco.”
There are dozens of everyday sayings associating heart with location.
If you buy something like this, you aren’t buying the art, you’re buying the craft.
May 27, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Killer – spot on. Two designer friends and I were emailing about this very thing yesterday and we felt the same way. A friend of ours had his owl graphic ripped off by Forever21; I am not sympathetic to chains. I’m just relieved someone else with a similar mentality (sorry/you’re welcome) had the same reaction I did.
Food for thought: I make fabric necklaces that are strikingly similar to another Etsy seller who’s been doing it longer than me. It wasn’t until I launched my designs that someone sent me her shop link. I was SHOCKED at how similar our work is. I swearz I didn’t copy her – never even knew about her. I got my ideas from a book on fiber necklaces, made some prototypes and took a year to finalize what I consider “my” designs. Case in point – two people in different parts of the world can create almost identical designs independent of each other. I think she hates me, though. :/
May 27, 2011 at 12:55 pm
I feel you – if spontaneous dual invention can happen with the fucking TELEPHONE then it can happen with a fabric necklace on Etsy.
May 27, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Photography was also simultaneously invented.
May 27, 2011 at 4:01 pm
My mother made these bracelets in the 60′s with industrial plastics and sold them in her store. Someone bought one and put it in MoMA I kid you not. They told her they would and she did get an invite to go see it, it’s in the permanent collection somewhere. But anyway other people in the 60′s had this same idea. I was in grade school went to pottery class at the time and the teacher heard my moms name and freaked out because she had been making the same bracelet and saw mom’s in the museum. Soooo, this was really awkward for the two of them, and I was a bit oblivious, the teacher she always referred to it as “my bracelet” years later. My mom was over it pretty quickly since she never made any $ or anything on it.
May 27, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Yeah it’s all a little vague. I worked in Intellectual Properties for 5 years so I have most of the basics covered in understanding property right where invention is concerned. The best that anyone could claim work be “desgin dilution.” Even that might be hard to prove in this case as it seemed to be everywhere at once. I really don’t think infringement could be used. They would be need paperwork through a government office to really prove it was theirs first… just saying…
May 27, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Hanging out on Deviant Art a lot, I’ve seen at least some cases, where for example the Spanish clothing chain Zara has just harvested the cute and cuddly image motifs in the online galleries of artists like Anne Pätzke (http://trenchmaker.deviantart.com), and used them for their children’s clothing lines.
Oh, and surprise surprise! Cutebunny520 on Etsy happens to have nice mass-produced ripoffs of Anne’s designs, too! http://www.etsy.com/listing/72458623/cute-retro-gem-gifts-hand-time-fat
May 27, 2011 at 12:24 pm
What they should do is have an octopus over taking the state, now that shit would sell like pure gold.
May 27, 2011 at 12:29 pm
my vote is with James Avery coming up with it first…i’ve had that charm forever it seems. and it’s less of a leap to do the state thing with a heart and Texas specifically since the ‘deep in the heart of texas’ is so popular, the idea is right there in the lyrics.
May 27, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
May 27, 2011 at 12:31 pm
I have to say, I never thought I would see James Avery here.
May 27, 2011 at 12:33 pm
I received a pretty bold convo last week: someone wanted me to make a master copy of one of my items so they can “start making what I sell in my shop” and my answer to them was ‘if you are not intelligent enough to figure out how to copy my work on your own and without my help then you have no fucking business selling on etsy whatsoever’
they called me a nasty name but at least they were trying to let me know they wanted to steal my ideas? Lol.
May 27, 2011 at 12:36 pm
That would be hilarious if it weren’t so pathetic and . . . wrong.
May 27, 2011 at 12:42 pm
The item they were asking about is pretty labor intensive so good luck to them I say.
May 27, 2011 at 3:53 pm
I realllllly like your shop, especially the molded squares! Sorry you got such a crappy convo.
May 27, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Wow, that’s some serious balls. I love your response.
May 27, 2011 at 1:09 pm
I had someone on etsy demand, not ask, but actually tell me I HAD to give them a pattern I made for a dress I made because they wanted to make their own to sell. Apparently it’s ok to rip off designs if the seller is stupid enough to help?
May 27, 2011 at 2:23 pm
I haven’t checked out your whole shop yet but the 3/4″ flowers are adorable. However, I noticed your company name and all I could think was: “mmmm Grasshopper.” Then I noticed your location. Way to represent! Granted I am a more northern cousin
May 27, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Geez… I could so very go for a bottle of trad right now. Lol
May 27, 2011 at 4:33 pm
I once had something similar- I however told them the direct opposite of how to make it hoping they would get the hint. They didn’t and sent several follow up questions that went unanswered…
May 27, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Funny, I was thinking over this EXACT conundrum as I read the yahoo article this morning because I had a friend in college (circa 2001 or 2002 I can’t remember, you’re lucky I remember my name and age at this point) that made this pretty much exact charm and sold it on his own Jewelry site. And I don’t think he was the first.
May 27, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Comedians have the same debates with jokes. There are some comedians who blatantly steal jokes, but sometimes there is just low hanging fruit. Some jokes (and ideas) are just obvious. Doesn’t mean it was stolen, just that it wasn’t original enough to be identified with one person. I make anatomical applique clothing and have been since 2006. Doesn’t mean I’m mad when I see a anatomical heart shirt from a new seller. A state is a state, a heart is a heart.
May 27, 2011 at 2:23 pm
Jeff Foxworthy ripped off How to Speak Southern.
May 27, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Truche’s pieces may be meticulously, beautifully hand-made, but that doesn’t mean the idea itself is unique.
May 27, 2011 at 12:36 pm
I wish I had saved them so I could check, but I’m pretty sure I’ve been seeing necklaces like this in mail-order catalogs (Signals-esque stuff, though maybe not specifically Signals) for at least two years. I doubt they originated the idea, either; those catalogs usually piggyback on trends once they’re just passé enough not to feel threatening to middle-aged housewives like my mother.
May 27, 2011 at 12:38 pm
ohh aprilhelen..you never fail to make me swoon… having the courage/taking the time to stand up to the pitchforked masses for the win! <3
May 27, 2011 at 12:39 pm
I love the sanity with which you approached this. I had no idea of the controversy until now. Sometimes when something like this happens I try and remember that four different people invented photography at roughly the same time. The first guy died pretty quickly therafter. The person who succeed at infiltrating the method everywhere sold his patent to the government of France who gave it away for all to use. The person who invented the method most similar to how photography was done until digital, spent the rest of his life suing people, and getting nowhere with it, and the positive/negative method of photography took a lot longer to catch on, partly because of that (also because of some chemistry kinks that still had to be worked out). There is one person who invented a method of photography that no one ever figured out, because he never shared it with anyone and he remained an artist with it.
May 27, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Cool story!
May 27, 2011 at 2:43 pm
also radio and television.
Aaron Sorkin wrote a brilliant play “The Farnsworth Invention” about the patent fight between Philo Farnsworth and David Sarnoff (RCA). I was lucky enough to see it on Broadway during its brief run.
May 27, 2011 at 4:07 pm
btw the first person is Nicephore Niepce, the second is Louis Daguerre (who really paid other people to discover it), the third is Henry Fox-Talbot who invented the negative and printing method that was most useful i the end, and the fourth is Hippolyte Bayard.
May 27, 2011 at 4:13 pm
I forgot until this minute that Bayard did a photo of himself as a drowned man after Daguerre got his method patented and sold. So he had a victim complex about his idea being ‘stolen’ too.
May 27, 2011 at 12:44 pm
I actually posted Truche’s blog about this on the Regretsy FB page yesterday (and thankfully, HK deleted it). I had my panties all in a twist, because I have a number of crafty friends who were all outraged about it, and I fed off that…
Thanks for the balanced response and for doing more research than I obviously did. A good reminder in the future for all of us- look in to it before pulling together the lynchmob!
May 27, 2011 at 1:35 pm
I only deleted it because so many people had posted it already. I hadn’t really done my research yet.
May 27, 2011 at 12:45 pm
I’m assuming this extends to jewelry as well…but there’s no intellectual property in fashion. You can get sued for putting a counterfeit Louis Vuitton label on a bag or using the signature Burberry check because those are attributes that define the company. However, if someone comes up with a bubble skirt and suddenly EVERYONE’s using bubble skirts in their shop windows, that’s totally ok…because it actually HELPS the fashion industry by creating a new trend that suddenly everyone feels the need to get in on. Otherwise people don’t have any reason to go shopping each season, because, let’s face it, good clothing does last longer than a few months. This way, people will spend money on things they don’t need because they want to be up on the latest thing.
May 27, 2011 at 12:47 pm
*jaw on floor*
Girlfriend has had nearly 1,000 sales since the UO thing exploded. I wish Anthro would rip me off already so I can go on Huffpo and get Miley Cyrus to boycott/back me.
May 27, 2011 at 2:43 pm
Start sending them care packages of your cutest ideas.
May 30, 2011 at 4:58 am
And at $55 a pop, well, you do the math. UO “ripping” her off was the best thing that ever happened to her business. BRILLIANT PF move on her part.
May 27, 2011 at 12:47 pm
I guess if the knock-off-ers (sp?) purchased the “originals” and did a direct trace and copy, I would understand the issue, but designers have been knocking off each others concepts and ideas for decades now. This is nothing new and it won’t be the last time. What about that Marine’s wife who did a casting of her husbands wang and sold it on Etsy? Should we go to court for cock knock offs? Cause frankly, I’d prefer the original.
May 27, 2011 at 3:13 pm
I think what convinced a lot of people that UO stole the idea from this particular seller is that hers are handmade in sterling silver, while UO’s are cheap and mass-produced.
There’s also a seller who does pillows shaped like states; I was going to buy VT and NH but they were different sizes.
May 27, 2011 at 12:50 pm
They all remind me of the Heart in Oregon design (from 2003, if Wikipedia is to be believed).
May 27, 2011 at 3:20 pm
wikipedia is rarely to be believed. i work with high schoolers who routinely write wikipedia entries.
May 27, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Better to read the sources linked to any Wiki article than to actually read the article itself, I think.
I knew a fellow who would go to all the Wikipedia pages related to whatever an upcoming test was on, change the facts just a smidgen, then would end up being on top of the curve because no one else read the real textbooks.
May 27, 2011 at 12:50 pm
In order for something to be stolen, you need to establish someone from which it WAS stolen, and that it is in fact stealable. This is Corpus Delicti– Body of the crime. In order to hold someone responsible for a crime, you need to establish that there WAS a crime to begin with.
May 27, 2011 at 1:03 pm
I know what it means, but I always like to think that phrase means “delicious corpse”.
May 27, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Oh good, I’m not the only one. When I was a kid I wondered what cannibalism had to do with producing the evidence, when the crime didn’t seem to involve cannibalism…
May 27, 2011 at 12:57 pm
People, people, people…the real travesty here, is that they aren’t Canadian provinces. Am I right!?
Aw shit, am I the only Canuck here?
…
*sigh*
May 27, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Canuckian power, eh.
May 27, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Isn’t BC in one of the pictures?
May 30, 2011 at 11:14 am
I desperately wanted an SK trapezoid: maybe Urban Outfitters will make one!
May 27, 2011 at 12:58 pm
I pictured April in a school marm outfit for this post.
And yes. The internet is great for rousting up the frenzied twitter mobs.
May 27, 2011 at 1:01 pm
I live in Texas, and folks here are very proud of their state. It’s nothing new to see Texas with a big “heart on.” I mean, we are downright obnoxious about our state.
That being said, I worked for a mom and pop company that made leather footwear. The shoe designs were based on an ancient Celtic design, but our shoes were made from a pattern the owner of the company designed on her own. A few years back Anthropologie ripped off our design. I think the designer who claimed the shoes were his design was named Jeffrey Campbell. They didn’t just have a similar design, they were EXACT copies of my boss’ copyrighted work! We were always fighting folks on Ebay about infringing on our copyright – the regular joe either thinks nobody will notice or doesn’t know any better – but you’d think a “designer” and a well-known retail chain would at least change the pattern a little bit in order to claim that grey area.
May 27, 2011 at 7:39 pm
I found out the hard way that there are no legitimate UGG discounters – they’re all cheap Chinese knockoffs, and their websites change constantly so you can’t complain. Lesson learned.
May 27, 2011 at 1:05 pm
April, I agree with you. I took a copyright class in law school 5+ years ago, and from what I remember (not much), there probably isn’t a copyright violation here. There just isn’t anything really novel about the “original” designs in question.
May 27, 2011 at 1:07 pm
THIS is exactly why I love Regretsy. Well said.
May 27, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Put a heart on it!
May 27, 2011 at 1:55 pm
I gave that bitch a state with a heart on it. Bitches LOVE states with hearts on ‘em.
May 27, 2011 at 1:10 pm
I bet no one is making a Colorado pendant.
May 27, 2011 at 5:32 pm
they are, but it has a square in it instead of a heart.
May 27, 2011 at 7:16 pm
Or Wyoming.
May 27, 2011 at 1:15 pm
THANK YOU for posting this. I don’t deny that that UO did was wrong, but oddly enough, I was lusting over the pendants in sudlow’s stop the day BEFORE this whole shit dropped. I’ve been asking everyone who posts about it what they think about the OTHER etsy artists who are selling similar stuff, but they either a) get all defensive, or b) say that it doesn’t matter. It DOES matter, that this one person is throwing a fit that a big company is ripping off “THEIR DESIGN OMG,” which gets them a million sales, but no word on anyone else who makes these, whether it be other etsy seller or SkyMall.
May 27, 2011 at 10:04 pm
I think you’ve touched on something really significant here: that even when confronted with contrary evidence–solid evidence–”believers” will stick with the story they like. And everyone likes “Corporation as Bad Guy.” I’m not defending UO (don’t shop there, never have), but it burns my buns that Koerner is getting away with this, and half the Internet is helping! It’s really embarrassing for anyone who takes metalwork/creativity/social networking seriously. . . .
May 27, 2011 at 1:23 pm
It could also be said that a lot of etsians try to copy the aesthetic that Anthropolgie has cultivated for quite some time–you know, dreamy, creamy, whitewashed vintage-inspired barnwood shabbniess we see splashed all over the front page all the time? I saw that look in Anthro long before I knew what etsy was (I believe it’s been around since 1992 and they certainly had their look firmly established before etsy’s ’05 launch) so it does go both ways. I’m not defending Anthro, I’m just further agreeing with the idea that it’s hard to pinpoint who’s stealing from whom, if stealing is even the right way to put it.
May 27, 2011 at 1:27 pm
Crap, well thank you for this post- I’ve been all over Twitter & leaving comments on UOFB page- I honestly didn’t stop and think. It did briefly occur to me that the states weren’t THAT original- no offense to anyone who makes them, but it is a similar thing with the hearts.
I don’t know- thank you for taking the time to look into that.
I still won’t shop there again either.
May 27, 2011 at 1:45 pm
I’ve seen similar designs in Ohio since I was a kid, where they’ve been plugging the state as “the heart of it all” since 84.
May 27, 2011 at 1:45 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 5:13 pm
UO called it the “I Heart Destinations necklace”, so it wasn’t the same name.
May 27, 2011 at 1:46 pm
As a dealer in Vintage charms, I have seen several state charms from the 50′s and up that look similar to the supposed original ‘state with a heart’ by Truche!
They were Sterling Silver made with “stars” or “hearts” cut out where the capital city was located …. Texas was one of the first I ever saw with a heart.
I am so GLAD to see this ‘charge’ approached with “Regretsy” skepticism; although I in no way condone ‘copying’, I personally think this claim is possibly a bit over the top.
Of course I know UO and Anthropology are Known for using indie artists for inspiration – and that is never ok, but it is what it is.
I won’t shop at either of places either but not because of Truche.
May 28, 2011 at 11:46 am
Hearts in Texas is kind of inescapable. The stars at night are big and bright – deep in the HEART of Texas… and anyone who has lived in Texas or even visited here for a decent amount of time will know how nutty natives get about the state.
May 27, 2011 at 1:48 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 2:19 pm
I have had a t shirt that says I <3 Virginia at a little rest stop place, they also had I <3 Maryland, I <3 New Jersey and I <3 New York.
I really don't think the I <3 insert state here idea is new or revoloutionary. There is a chick on etsy who has been selling felt pillows of states with hearts on them for years as well.
May 27, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Thank you! Reading all the tweets of outrage yesterday was making me a little nuts, and I drafted my own blog entry in response last night. Your post helps reassure me that I’m not totally crazy
and so here’s what I wrote: http://feralchick.blogspot.com/2011/05/twitter-scream-plagiarism-and-copyright.html
May 27, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Wow, you make some good points, Ms. Winchell. As a Marxist-type, I’m more than willing to say it was the corporates who screwed over the leetle sellers. But at the same time, you do have to wonder when something stops being a sort of “duh!” idea and starts becoming an original one. Hrm…much to ponder upon.
May 27, 2011 at 2:00 pm
This going on a t-shirt now: “I’m not generally the voice of reason”
May 27, 2011 at 2:03 pm
OMG!!! That’s MEEE IN THERE!! AYYAYAYA!!! Thanks for finally including moi!! (I’m not being sarcastic.
I’m glad you said this, because I was thinking it when I saw this whole thing going down and I knew it was not going to be a popular opinion.
The little lady in questions (truche) wrote me a couple of months ago telling me I was a rip-off artist and accusing me of all sorts of stuff, and I had never seen her shop before!
I had a customer who wanted a state with a heart where her home town was and I did it for her and then I listed as a item in my store. That was it!
I was little put off that instead of approaching me nicely she automatically called me a copier. I mean, I know it wasn’t the most original idea ever, but I didn’t copy it for her!
thanks April, you are awesome, as always.
Marie
May 27, 2011 at 2:29 pm
“not popular” is some understatement! I am still floored by how many people have jumped on this bandwagon–it’s deeply disturbing and doesn’t bode well for the future of social networking. :/
May 28, 2011 at 9:51 am
I think, unfortunately, online social networking just makes a human nature/ mob-rule truth painfully obvious. People tend to jump on bandwagons (myself included, at times) without real thought or research. They also automatically attack opposing views in the heat of the moment.
I knew that after all the initial hoopla, there would be some rational thought applied.
Sometimes the easiest thing to do (perhaps not the right thing) is to let the initial commotion die down and then appeal to the calm rational individuals.
May 28, 2011 at 9:53 am
I do wish that I had started this whole thing, that way I could have gotten 1000 sales in two days!
May 27, 2011 at 3:17 pm
That is an interesting bit of information. Sounds like the cupcake who cried rip-off.
May 27, 2011 at 3:23 pm
yum cupcake.
May 31, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Interestingly, if you go to her feedback, the first one (Ohio)that she sold on etsy says: “One of the shops I consign with requested this!” so they must of shown her something they liked, that they would like similiar…?
May 27, 2011 at 2:15 pm
OK first of all those state with a heart charms have been around for YEARS. I highly doubt that etsy seller came up with it. FOR REAL
May 27, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Yeah, I’ve seen that design around. It wasn’t at Urban, either, because I never shop there. I don’t think anybody can really claim the rights to it.
May 27, 2011 at 2:27 pm
I’m jealous! If UO copying me means hundreds of sales if I bitch about it, I want in on the deal!
May 27, 2011 at 2:28 pm
And the moral of the story is? They all look crap no matter who makes them ;p
May 27, 2011 at 2:30 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Ok, that wasn’t too long. As usual, I agree with HK. I’ll save my pitchfork for that big piece of cake that’s waiting for me.
May 27, 2011 at 2:36 pm
I lived in Texas in 1989-93 and they were selling necklaces like that at all kinds of tourist places. It’s not a new idea for Etsy or Urban Outfitters.
May 27, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Truth is, everyone is copying everyone. There are no 100% original designs out there anymore. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a matter of reality.
So if you think someone copied you, either be flattered, or realize they could have copied someone else that is doing the same thing, perhaps the person you copied from.
May 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Designers have always stolen designs from each other; that’s a large part of how fashion works it’s way through the culture. Much more troubling to me are the frequent and generous contributions founder and president Richard Hayne has made to anti-gay social conservatives like Rick Santorum. Perhaps the hipsters dumb enough to shop there (and its corporate sister Anthropologie) deserve that kind of leadership, but I’d rather not have the sale of trucker hats finance the restrictions on my Constitutional freedoms.
Here’s an article from The Philadelphia weekly from a few years back:
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/clothes_make_the_man-38368134.html
May 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Here’s another story… I was in an original hard rock band in the 90′s called Sonic Veil (not to be confused with the Sonic Veil that’s on myspace now -that’s not us. We don’t exist anymore). Anyway, I was writing what I thought was a very cool 8and original* riff by random screwing around on the keyboard, and my drummer said “That’s Deep Purple” and I said “No, I just wrote that”
And we got into a big argument. And then I went home and put on a Deep Purple album – I think it was “Who do We Think We are?” and sure enough, there was that riff.
May 27, 2011 at 2:58 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 5:19 pm
I think when people are demanding a boycott of a corporation for thievery, the issue of who was first or who copied who is very much the question – or should be.
This is not to say that I support Anthro or UO, but I am at least clear on why I don’t shop there, and it’s not because I read something on Twitter.
May 27, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Right on HK!!
May 27, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Yeah, I know all you cupcakes out there despise me and come over here and give me a thumbs down. Very obvious. No biggie.
If your opinion mattered to me, I would use a fake name, different from my Etsy shop name, and I wouldn’t tie this account here with my REAL twitter. I do not fear your hate. Hate on cupcake brigade.
May 27, 2011 at 6:14 pm
exactly!!!
May 27, 2011 at 3:21 pm
As an Iowan living in Grant Wood country, we never ever pass up the opportunity for pitchforks. Pitchforks, pitchforks, pitchforks!
May 27, 2011 at 3:26 pm
People really do come up with similar things all the time. Can anyone lay claim to smiling food plushies or felted cupcakes? Thanks for this wonderfully reasonable post, April.
May 27, 2011 at 3:37 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 3:42 pm
this douche also made a TUMLBR account, and managed to get it reblogged by many hundreds of people and alos included a link to her own site, trashing urban outfitters etc to try and get sympathy purchaes! http://imakeshinythings.tumblr.com/post/5855716317/not-cool-urban-outfitters-not-cool
May 27, 2011 at 7:24 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 3:43 pm
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May 27, 2011 at 7:22 pm
She said a bunch of other people sent her the same link, too.
May 27, 2011 at 3:46 pm
1000 sales at $55.00 ea = 5$55,000
Is that correct?
May 27, 2011 at 3:46 pm
$55,000 ???
September 21, 2011 at 11:45 am
It’s at $165,000 now.
May 27, 2011 at 4:11 pm
That’s more than I make in a year. Wish UO would steal from me and piss off the TwitBlogshpere.
May 27, 2011 at 4:26 pm
in 2 days, no less.
May 27, 2011 at 4:29 pm
First thing I thought when I saw these pics was the cutting boards that another Etsy person sells:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/AHeirloom
There is nothing original about sticking a heart in a state. If they do it properly, they stick it where the capital is.
May 27, 2011 at 4:46 pm
neither is sticking a stake in a heart
May 28, 2011 at 11:35 am
OH, those are adorable! I might have to get one when I move out of my precious Texas
May 27, 2011 at 4:47 pm
This put-a-heart-on-it thing has been going for ages now, which to my mind indicates that people aren’t considering all their entrail options.
Why not a liver or a kidney? Or a spleen?
I suppose it takes guts to be the first.
May 27, 2011 at 4:50 pm
I have all sorts of anatomy at my shop (shameless plug) INCLUDING a ribcage with a heart on it!
May 27, 2011 at 4:55 pm
meh, I don’t think it will be replacing my Texas keychain where the gulf coast makes a bottle opener. I mean, there’s love, and then there’s opening bottles, and really, you gotta figure which one is more useful at beer thirty.May 27, 2011 at 7:27 pm
So true. I’ve amassed a large collection of keychains over the years and my TX bottle opener is hands-down my favorite.
May 27, 2011 at 5:19 pm
OT: I didn’t grok the whole thing about the mustache, but ye gads, I do now. And I am sorry for it.
(Yeah, I think that link would break the site; just head to UO and search “Bikestache”.)
May 27, 2011 at 6:18 pm
This is all totally fine. Its just like…uh..how the Native Americans and the Chinese both came up with bow and arrows, but they’d never met! Or how birds have figured out how to peck the lids open on milk bottles at both ends of the country! How?! Come on explain that if you think you are so clever. You cannot argue with the science!
May 27, 2011 at 7:03 pm
When I read the original post about UO stealing, I immediately thought of a hipster friend of mine who I met in 2003. She had a tattoo of Idaho with a heart in it back then. And another friend of mine has been making state necklaces with swarvosky crystals on them instead of hearts for years. So I was glad to come on regretsy and see this follow-up.
It sucks to be an artist and find that someone might be ripping off your ideas (I’ve been there several times sadly). But I think this Truche girl may just be a little delusional to believe that this concept was entirely hers.
May 27, 2011 at 7:29 pm
I have a flat metal pendant shaped like Illinois with a heart cut out on it. Exactly like what she is selling. I bought it at ChicagoFest in 1978 for $5.00
May 27, 2011 at 7:06 pm
Back in April I was considering buying a piece from the Truche Etsy store, we emailed back & forth and I decided not to buy it because the price was too much. $50. Notice the price is now $55. This Etsy shop would NEVER have seen the light of day without this Urban Outfitters occurrence and she’s taking advantage of the people who sympathize with her by jacking up her prices. You do the math just how much extra she is making from greed now.
I ended up purchasing one of these necklaces today BUT from the SUDLOW store because she isn’t being a whiny uppity woe is me greedy bitch.
May 27, 2011 at 7:19 pm
I’m gonna make some round pendants with hearts on ‘em and call each one a different planet in the solar system. And when someone else makes round pendants with hearts on ‘em, I’ll sue the shit outta them.
May 27, 2011 at 7:58 pm
If someone made pendants that ACTUALLY looked like the planets in the solar system (I guess they’d have to have colors for that), that would be awesome. Heart or not.
May 27, 2011 at 8:20 pm
I thought this post was really refreshing. All too often I see people trying to lay claim on ideas or designs that are so simplistic and oftentimes unoriginal. That’s the thing I’ve noticed a lot majoring in Art and Design. Is it so hard to believe that ideas, like putting a generic shape in another generic shape, can’t be thought of independently by two or more people?
It’s similar to this issue: http://www.votedaisy.com/
Anyways, once again you’ve proven to really have a good hold on situations and I think you deserve full credit for that.
May 27, 2011 at 8:43 pm
They both ripped off James Avery. I’ve had my JA Texas charm for at least 4 years. JA also makes a similar Georgia charm with a cut out peach.
May 28, 2011 at 8:39 am
And James Avery ripped it off from some old fart at ChicagoFest in 1978, where I bought mine for $5.00
..and the old fart ripped it off from…
May 27, 2011 at 8:51 pm
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May 28, 2011 at 3:52 am
But there’s a really good chance that they came up with the design on their own as well. States and hearts have been done to death. And a lot of the other claims of theft are for similarly banal ideas, like a bone-shaped charm on a necklace.
May 27, 2011 at 10:25 pm
I’m not gonna lie, when I read “begging for the Regretsy Thugs to put the smackdown on Urban Outfitters” I totally envisioned a horrible hot pink rotary phone in April’s house, that rings and a cryptic voice tells her “It’s time” and then us thugs come out. Like the bat signal or something *snork* That was way funny to me =)
May 27, 2011 at 11:21 pm
Even the commercialized shit is becoming commercialized now. Ever see all the Keep Calm And Carry On crap in Walmart? I wonder who will win THAT war-Etsy sellers or Walmart?
May 28, 2011 at 2:36 am
I like I heart Colorado the best. “This square of metal with a heart stamped out of is so touching. I feel connected to my heritage.”
what.
May 28, 2011 at 5:44 am
Well, there is always this too…
http://blog.oregonlive.com/pdxgreen/2008/01/the_story_behind_the_greenhear.html
Publish date – Jan 29, 2008
Eh…
May 28, 2011 at 9:20 am
I work in the field of Intellectual Property (Patents and Design protection) and can tell you that every inventor/designer thinks that what they have made is original. I can tell you that it is virtually guaranteed it is NOT. This always hurts the inventor’s/designer’s pride but you have to understand…there are TONS of designers out there and a few of them are designing something almost exactly the same as you.
All this Urban Outfitter deal does is give the so-called original artist much more publicity than they ever could have dreamed of. The Etsy artist should be thanking Urban Outfitters.
May 28, 2011 at 11:26 am
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May 28, 2011 at 11:28 am
Honestly, I might of purchased one of truche’s pendants since she’d place the heart where ever you wanted it… but it seems to me like someone was trying to profit off of some controversy. I don’t think her pendants look significantly better – better material, yes… overall appearance, no. I have a Texas pendant with a heart cutout over Austin that was purchased my senior year of high school (2005) in ATX. Thinking a silver state shaped cutout with a heart in it is an original idea is just plain idiotic. But hey, congrats to the seller and everyone who decided to support her delusions!
Everyone knows UO steals ideas, but really… THIS is the one people decided to get outraged about?
May 28, 2011 at 4:36 pm
STOP THE PRESSES!! My my…what do we have here??
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/36641969
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/50469974
May 28, 2011 at 6:06 pm
BGS that doesn’t count! If it’s an Etsian vs. an Etsian then the entire discussion must be shut down! Only when the offending party is an Evil Corporation will the Twitter hordes make some noise. Learn the rules, please.
May 29, 2011 at 5:15 pm
I can’t help but chuckle at this.
May 28, 2011 at 8:00 pm
So I get a convo with this link,
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/29808504
(see date)
yet there is still no way of knowing who listed it first…
then I get this link:
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/16180982
Listing states: “Designed by me and laser cut out of black acrylic. Tiny Mario flower power!”
Oh, so who knows what Etsyian ripped it off from the other, I don’t know and at this point I don’t care, but it’s okay for truche to make NINTENDO’s heart just sink, by robbing their design and calling it her own. Hmm…
June 7, 2011 at 8:54 am
One rule for me, another for all you lot!
May 28, 2011 at 10:01 pm
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/7648521/page/10
RobWhite says
I think it’s about time we close this up. Discussing any potential legal matter on the Forums is dicey, dicey stuff, but once some Etsy community member begins to be spoken of negatively, we’re compelled to bring the discussion to a close. Please keep in mind that linking to a site which calls out another Etsy member is tantamount to calling out that member here, and is viewed accordingly.
————————
Nintendo’s heart is still sinking…
May 29, 2011 at 7:40 pm
I completely agree with April on this one. It’s way too generic of an idea to claim anyone copied anything.
Just two minutes ago in fact I was eating some cocada cookies and I looked at the back of the package and the company’s logo is a silhouette of of the country of El Salvador with a heart inside it surrounded by the words “Producto de El Salvador”.
Obviously this is a pretty common idea.
May 30, 2011 at 11:58 am
I saw this on Sudlow’s site:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67641256/long-distance-love-customizable-necklace
At least it’s a little different, but I thought it cute
May 30, 2011 at 11:31 pm
MileyFuckingCyrus has something to say about this too. I’m amazed she can speak through her beaver teeth.
http://twitter.com/#!/MileyCyrus/status/73876223377416194
Also here.
http://cocoperez.com/2011-05-30-miley-cyrus-urban-outfitters-twitter-rant/?from=PH
May 31, 2011 at 7:19 am
I’m proud to be part of a subculture that doesn’t jump at the chance to bust someone in the face without putting rational thought behind grey area. twitter might beg for people like miley cyrus to jump onto the hate-wagon, but the larger community of makers and maker-blogs have given ample thought and consideration to the circumstance. appreciated applauded, our government can’t always make that noble step!
May 31, 2011 at 9:21 am
I really want a Minnesota one, but now I don’t know where to get it. :-/
May 31, 2011 at 11:50 am
When I read the story I thought of these personalized state pendants sold in the Signals catalog. They use stars instead of hearts though and actually personalize to the city of your choosing.
May 31, 2011 at 1:31 pm
And that itself is exactly the same as this in SkyMall (though maybe there is an agreement between them, I don’t know):
http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=102825053&pnr=85G
May 31, 2011 at 2:27 pm
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June 1, 2011 at 8:54 pm
*yawn*
June 2, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Cool, spam.
May 31, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Wow, this is like our generation’s version of Edison VS Tesla. Great points in your article! I’m curious as to how this will end.
June 1, 2011 at 12:31 pm
I have learned from having my own shop on Etsy that once you put your work out there, its open season on being copied. Copyrights mean nothing. Change it 10% and you are legal. Another person’s work can be called “inspiration”. As an artist, you just have to suck it up and move on to your next big idea and hope you are ahead of the curve.
June 1, 2011 at 7:54 pm
As with what LakeBeachComber says, suck it up and move on. If someone can easily copy your artwork then get better, get more inspired and MOVE ON. Everyone that asks me why I post anything online I respond with: If someone can copy exactly what I’m doing, then kudos to them and I need to start recreating myself. Weavers and Fiberartists have been pissed at Chico’s for even longer than this has been hapening. So after scanning thru the posts, I agree with Helen Killer, not really worth it. (The lawyer sitting next to me says they need a design patent anyway).
June 3, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Forever 21 “Rabbit Love” (New Arrival 2011):
Gnome Enterprises “Bunny love” (1st production April 2008):
June 7, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Hey look, there’s this: http://www.etsy.com/listing/22081189/its-log
Sooper original.
June 10, 2011 at 7:08 pm
I know that I was given a charm bracelet in the early 80s with a metal Texas-shaped charm with a heart stamped on it. I remember it because I was thinking WTF did my aunt just give me?
So that idea has been around a heck of a long time.
January 4, 2012 at 8:38 pm
It’s one that would be very very VERY hard to copyright, and even then, it couldn’t be just a shape pretty close to the correct shape with a heart of any size anywhere on it. Something as generic as this might even just be public domain. I have a pendant from when I was a kid in the early 80′s of California with a heart. Stands for “California Love.” Whoever tries copyrighting would have to show why they should have the copyright for a design that is mainstream.
May 12, 2012 at 9:03 am
What about this for a more blatant form of theft by Urban Outfitters…
Here is a link to see my signature link shoe which I developed before April of 2011. I already sell cuffs and accessories to Free People part of Urban Outfitters but we had no agreement about the shoes and also they didnt say a word, just copied them and have them in all their stores! I am in production with these shoes in a factory in Portugal too. You will see images of the two comparisons here on Every Clog Has its Day Link, just go down a little to see the article on Karen Kell Shoes…
http://everycloghasitsday.typepad.com/every-clog-has-its-day/2012/05/day-12and-something-that-sucks.html
May 12, 2012 at 9:09 am
on the previous link there is a button to press where you can complain directly to Urban Outfitters so they know your thoughts on copying.
Here is the link to my facebook business page where you can see my shoe images and theirs…
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Karen-Kell-Collection/138018046311258#!/photo.php?fbid=229704793809249&set=a.141322429314153.28437.138018046311258&type=1&theater
June 19, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Just as an FYI…James Avery has been selling the Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma pendants since the mid nineties. I bought one.
December 29, 2012 at 3:56 pm
I have a vintage charm that my parents bought for me in Texas back in the late 70′s which is the shape of the state of Texas with heart on it. I think she stole from that designer.