On one side of the sign, I painted, “You Look Nice Today” followed by a little heart. This was on the side of the sign that I thought people would see on their way to work. On the other side of the sign (the side I thought people would see the most on their return back to the neighborhood) I painted, “I’m So Happy You’re Here” with another little heart. It was a small gesture that I genuinely hoped would make my neighbors feel good.

A few days ago, friends started sending me links to the H&M UK website. Apparently, H&M were so impressed by my work, that they were using it on pillowcases and doormats, with no credit or compensation.

An email to H&M received the following response:

Really?

Here’s a copy of a complaint a friend sent via H&M’s customer service portal. Please note their reply.

Some friends have been posting on H&M’s Facebook page, which is being scrubbed clean of any mention of this incident as quickly as possible.

Except for this statement:

I think it is pretty obvious what H&M have done. I hoped you wouldn’t mind sharing this with your readers.

Thank you,
Tori LaConsay

- H&M on Facebook
- H&M on Twitter
- H&M Customer Service

HEY H&M

- Thanks to Maya on Facebook for the INSPIRATION

UPDATE: From H&M’s Facebook page

Harry Potter-Like wants you to look under his robes and explore his Hogwarts.

You’d think they’d have a potion for that.

An intriguing mix of tobacco and coffee that starts out strong, but after three or four showings, you’ll never see it again

Wooden and largely one note

A full bodied performer that does not translate well to other products (see “Abduction”)

I don’t know who Robert Patterson is, but I bet this doesn’t look like him either.

Few people realized Edward Cullen had a lazy eye because they were distracted by his hay wig.

This is either Mario Lopez or that guy from CSI Miami.

I’ve seen my share of “reborn” dolls in the last year, but this is the first reborn vampire baby I’ve run across. And I’m only sorry I wasn’t in my car at the time.

Meet Jasper Dean, “the remarkable offspring of Jasper and Alice”.

Click image to view eBay auction

From the description:

GORGEOUS TWILIGHT BABY

HIS FANGS ARE SECURED INTO HIS MOUTH BUT CARE SHOULD BE TAKEN WHEN USING HIS MODIFIED PACIFIER AND BOTTLE OF FAKE ANIMAL BLOOD.

IF YOU CHOOSE TO CHANGE HIS NAME LET ME KNOW AT TIME OF ADOPTION AND IT CAN BE PUT ON HIS ADOPTION PAPERS.

The auction has now ended, with a winning bid of $90 plus $25 in shipping.

Someone paid $115 for this fucking thing, and they are going to talk to it and sing to it and cuddle it and pretend to feed it animal blood from a baby bottle every day. That’s what’s out there people, and that’s why I don’t leave my house unless I have to.

Have a good weekend!

2. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-ASSED CHINTZ

3. HE WHO CAN NOT BE SPELLED

4. YOU POTTER, YOU BROUGHT HER

5. HARRY CODDER AND THE CHAMBER OF SEAFOOD

I can’t think of anything more American than shameless copyright infringement; except maybe making the customer wait 5 weeks for shipping.

Happy 4th!

Oh look, I’m reproducing this without your written permission. Because I don’t need permission. Because these are LEGOS. And please don’t use the internet anymore without my permission because I have a web site, so it’s mine.

This is actually from a lesser known version of Twilight, starring Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort and Alice Ghostley as Leelee Sobieski.

Some of you liked what I wrote. Some of you were very frustrated by my observations, and have taken to the internet to vent your butthurt.

It doesn’t surprise me. There’s nothing worse than a cock-block on your rage boner.

What I wasn’t expecting was for Urban Outfitters to cite me in their official response to the allegations. That’s put me in an interesting position, and it’s made me want to put a finer point on my opinion.

So let me start by saying that I didn’t write the post because I like Urban Outfitters. I don’t like them very much at all, to be honest with you. And there may very well be good reason to call for a boycott, but this particular reason isn’t it.

A boycott is a very serious thing, and if you’re going to start a social media shitstorm, you better have the facts on your side. You may think it’s exciting to be one of the Twitter mob, but with power comes responsibility. I think there’s room for critical thinking in 140 characters.

With that said, here is my effort to be absolutely clear:

• I do not think Truche stole the idea from anyone else.

I think she believed this was her creation. She was wrong.

Now that she knows she was wrong, I think it’s unethical to continue to accept orders. I’m also frustrated with people urging you to buy these pieces to “support” her. She is profiting from an idea that isn’t hers. Isn’t that what everyone is angry about? Or is it okay if you have an Etsy store?

She’s not a hero. She’s not a victim. There are real victims out there who are barely keeping a roof over their heads. A woman who made over 1000 sales based on a false claim does not need a T-shirt.

I also hear people saying that Urban Outfitters “stole” Truche’s copy, and I’m not buying that either. If you think Truche was actually the first person to say “I Heart” anything – much less “I Heart New York” you are drinking the hand crafted Kool-Aid from recycled cups.

But let’s just play Devil’s Advocate for a moment and say yes, Urban Outfitters did see this design in Truche’s store and decided to make their own version.

It isn’t hers.

Would that make Urban Outfitters’ thievery okay? No. But buying from Truche doesn’t make anything right. Whoever created the design first owns the copyright, and that’s the only person who has been harmed.

And not just by Urban Outfitters, but by Truche and all the other Etsy artists who make this same design without permission.

• Collective consciousness means the collective consciousness of all people, not just Etsy artists.

No matter where you stand on the issue, we all seem to agree that it’s possible for artists to independently think up similar ideas without knowledge of another’s work.

So why are we unwilling to consider that a corporation could do the same? After all, it’s not a corporation that comes up with an idea, it’s a human being who works there. People are fallible, whether they work for themselves or for a company you hate.

But we don’t really care about those people, because, well, fuck them. All corporations are evil. Every corporation is Halliburton. Big Pharma, Big Corn, Big Formula, Big Tobacco and finally, Big Necklace.

No one really wants to give the benefit of the doubt to Urban Outfitters, because they aren’t a likable company. I mean think about it; in one corner, you have a company that has stolen designs in the past, helmed by a man whose politics are extremely distasteful. And in the other corner, you have a cute blonde crafter, crying big owl tears over being oppressed by the Man. WHO YOU GOT?

Look, it’s easy to be fair when you like someone. But sometimes fair is not about what’s easy.

If you want to punish Urban Outfitters, punish them for actual crimes. There are plenty to choose from.

• Just as there are some ethical companies, some artists are real douchebags.

I’m not going to go so far as to call Urban Outfitters “ethical”, though they do sometimes do good things. They really do work with independent artists, and have given many an Etsy seller their big break.

But artists are not exempt from the asshole gene. You don’t have to go to an office every day to be a ruthless jerk. Artists undercut each other, steal customers, engage in all kinds of shilling, bad mouthing and politics.

It happens every day. As soon as an idea becomes popular or a design starts to trend, everyone starts making it. Just surf through the closed Etsy threads, and you’ll see hundreds of artists complaining about being ripped off, right down to their photos.

Being progressive is not about reflexively coming down on the side of the artist. It’s about coming down on the side of who is right.

• Rushing to stick it to the Man sometimes results in creating a new Man.

Because of your misplaced outrage, Truche is now looking at over $50,000 in orders she can’t possibly fill by herself in the promised 3 to 4 week delivery time. And the orders keep rolling in.

What do you think that means?

It means she’s going to have to start hiring people to help her. And with all this media attention, she can’t risk doing it under the table. She’ll have to give out W2s and keep pretty tight books, and with so much untaxed income, she’d better think about filing with the state so she doesn’t get hammered at tax time.

Which means that she’ll be a corporation.

A corporation turning out copies of someone else’s idea.

But that’s okay, because the tide will turn soon enough. If there’s one thing people hate more than an Etsy seller being ripped off, it’s an Etsy seller getting rich.

TO THE TWITTER MOBILE!

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:

• A commenter left a pair of interesting links here and here

Thanks for the heads up.

Oh dear.

OMG I like to call them that too!

Most Twilight fans have empty jars of Tostitos Queso dip lying around in their bedrooms. Also Burger King trash. So materials aren’t going to be a problem.

BITCH YOU DON’T KNOW MY LIFE

That plastic cup hot glued to a Tostitos jar sure looks like an expensive candle! Take that, Jo Malone! Waaa laaa!

Please don’t say it. Please. Please.

Shit

This is Tasty Tree! She just opened her store for business yesterday, but she’s already got some awesome product photos.

Aren’t those cute? Here’s how you take them:

On a Mac, press command + shift +3

On a PC press “Print Screen”

Wasn’t that easy?

Tasty Tree Political Pops
Bakerella Political Pops

Tasty Tree Apple Pops
Bakerella Apple Pops

Tasty Tree Ice Cream Pops
Bakerella Ice Cream Pops

Tasty Tree Sesame Street Pops
Bakerella Sesame Street Pops

Hope this was helpful! Make sure you pick up my new book:

UPDATE: Tasty Tree has removed the images and her store is presently empty.

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