Oy, long bar & bat mitzvah yesterday in niagara falls! the kids kicked ass, they practically led the whole service.
today was going to be weaving in the ends on the instant grat sweater & maybe some pictures if the light was good, show you the sahara progress, but i came into a problem in my e-mail. A young woman who goes by the psedonym "
The Bag Doll" (
www.thebagdoll.blogspot.com) has takem my
Eco Warrior Crochet Bag pattern, including the photo, and is selling it on Etsy as her own .... for the sake of posterity i'll post the listing below, since etsy will be taking it down soon (
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10465132). i'm not a copyright nazi, but she didn't even ask me! So i took some time to write to Etsy, and while i was doing that i decided to take a peek and see if she's stolen any others .... several. as a good citizen i wrote to another 3 people to let them know about their own burglaries.
I was going to contact the bag doll and yell a bit but i think i'd prefer it if Etsy just comes down on her hard & heavy.
| Home > TheBagDoll's shop > Bags > Crochet Net Shopping Bag |
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Crochet Net Shopping Bag | | | | Description | | This bag is perfect for personal use or as a shopping bag. Everyone is trying to do their part for the environment and this bag is ideal to help. Forget paper or plastic - use this bag when out shopping for clothes, household items, or splurging on those shoes you've been eying for weeks. Its crocheted with ribbon yarn, so it is long-lasting and strong enough to handle any shopping spree. This is completely 100% handmade by me, The Bag Doll. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me with your special order. Ciao dolls! | | Added on Mar 23, 2008 |
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| | Item ships from: United States |
| | ship to: | | • United States: | $5.00 ($1.95 if shipped with another item) | | • Everywhere Else: | $12.00 ($4.95 if shipped with another item) | | • Canada: | $5.00 ($2.95 if shipped with another item) | |
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| | TheBagDoll accepts the following forms of payment: |
| | • | | | • | Money Order | | • | Check | | • | Other (see description) | | | | |
9 comments:
OMG! I would be soooooo angry if I were you. I hope ETSY kicks her butt for you!!!
H-star,
You did the right thing! It's one thing to copy the idea for personal use but to claim it as yours and make money from someone else's hard work is ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!
.....and the dumb git didn't even have the gumption to make her own version with a different picture!!!
Sophia
I am so glad you let me know she stole one of my designs as well.
I did contact her. When I asked her about it, she was defensive and accused me of harassment. I reminded her that it was not I that broke the laws, and that I was trying to be kind to her...she's only 19. I considered it education...hers and mine! I also reminded her that if she made any money off the designs of other artists without their permission, she was required to turn over those funds to the artist(s).
She did not write back, and I've noticed that ALL of the items in her shop have now been removed.
Hard lesson. Thanks again!!!
Janet
thanks jan!
i wrote to her too and she didn't reply to me either. i asked her to remove my pattern, explaining that she was breaking copyright law and Etsy's copyright regulations, which i linked for her. I also suggested she take down any other patterns that were not hers before the other owners lawyer up. most everything in her store disappeared after that. :-) some of those patterns were from big companies, i recognized a recent Classic Elite.
i didn't really expect her to be apologetic, she didn't seem particularly mature.
xox H
Well....I did hear from her yesterday. Here's her note. Can you believe the nerve?!!
"Then perhaps you're not as educated as you think because you are doing nothing but harassing me and acting like a child. I have news for you lady.....you aren't fooling anyone. When I choose to relist that scarf on Etsy (and I will as soon as fall season gets here) there will be nothing you can do. You don't own the copyright to anything and will have no grounds to do anything to me.
Mandy Ferrugia / thebagdoll"
I am posting her letter to warn other independent artists/designers. She is seriously lacking in any kind of ethics. I know she is only 19, but this is ridiculous!
hmmmm, interesting, she used her real name .... and she has admitted to knowingly breaking copyright law and the intention to do the same in the future. By breaking copyright, unlawfully selling products that are not hers and using images that are not hers she has breached the subsection 5 of the Terms of Use Agreement with Etsy. (http://www.etsy.com/terms_of_use.php)
Under subsection 12 Etsy reserves the right to terminate an account, prohibit access to the site and take technical and legal steps to keep a user off the site.
I think you could politely contact Etsy, explain what happened, send copies of all correspondence, and ask them to remove her from the site. Don't tell her you are doing this.
In ther interm you should probably make sure there is a creative commons copyright statement on your pattern: http://creativecommons.org
This simply blows my mind. It shows that this individual doesn't have the ability to tap into her own creativity or is to lazy too.
I'm so sorry this happened to you.
What I think is particularly rich is that she once accused others of not being able to "come up with an original idea" on Etsy's blog! I never forgot that comment and it immediately soured me towards her and her shop. I found it really pathetic that she was obviously using other people's conceptualized ideas and copping them as her own but had the bottle to publicly whine about other people doing the same. Pot, meet kettle.
Here's the comment:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/etsy-finds-a-weekend-of-discounts-4897/#comment-148483
P.S. Her mother is beautifulbridget.etsy.com and she is just as unoriginal as her daughter. The leaf doesn't fall too far from the tree, eh?
well, this is how i see things: you make the world you live in, and then you have to live in the world you've made.
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