I am definitely not the first.
And I am absolutely certain that I will not be the last.
Of course, I could be just imagining it. Flattering myself. But somehow, I don’t think so. The coincidence is too great.
What am I waffling on about? Copying, that’s what.
The pictures in this post are not of my dolls.
I found these photographs on Instagram the other day, whilst checking out the profiles of people who had recently liked my own photos.
I was looking for new and interesting folk to follow, but I got more than I bargained for, interest-wise.
These photos were posted just a few days ago. The dolls in them look, to my eye, interestingly similar to my own recent creations…
But is it also just an interesting coincidence that seven weeks ago this person happened to like one of my photographs of almost-identical dolls? Or that there are no earlier examples of similar ideas or designs amongst their own photographs?
I have a feeling… not.
The maker of these dolls seems to follow an awful lot of doll-makers on Instagram.
And whilst that is no crime, and nothing is truly original, and everyone is influenced by the work of others, there are… limits.
So what can be done about this sort of thing? Well, not a lot. To share your work is to invite imitation, apparently. They do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, don’t they?
I didn’t know you could block people on Instagram. But I do now.
And just for the record, I am not remotely flattered. ♥
After all the time and effort you spent adapting and creating these beautiful dolls, I too would not be flattered. They still aren’t a patch on.urs tho xx
Absolutely infuriating – but not a patch on yours for prettiness and charm.
I do feel you should name and blame. Copyright infringement is illegal. I don’t use Instagram, so I’m not aware of its T&Cs, but surely they have a policy to deal with this, like WordPress does? You have a lot of online data to support your case. And I agree, in this case, imitation isn’t in the least flattering, especially when it’s so badly and blatantly done.
Having researched a bit I think the recommended course of action is to send a “cease and desist” letter to the offending party. I haven’t named her as I don’t want to send more traffic her way (annoyingly she already gets more Instagram likes than I do). But I hate conflict and know that a) I would stress about it and b) it probably wouldn’t achieve anything anyway.
I know the feeling. I had someone appropriate a chunk of text from one of my blogs a while ago without attribution, using it to attack something I’d written. I thought it better to bury the whole issue rather than give her name and send people to her blog, but I did beef up the copyright statement I have on my blog. Having the ability to do that is one reason I prefer a blog to just putting up photos, I suppose… Anyway, for the record, your dolls are more original, beautiful, quirky and infinitely more desirable.
Thank you Kate. x
Your dolls have that spark that I love, the ones above do not..so someone could try to make copies of your work, but it wouldn’t fly with me because they just don’t have that wonderful something that is unique to you. Just keep doing what you’re doing and try not to worry about copy cats.
Thanks Jane – that is my plan (if you can call it a plan!) xx
It’s a tricky business with handmade items, isn’t it?
At Wild Apple, the art publisher I work for, the owner, John Chester, is one of the founding members of the Art Copyright Coalition.
http://artcopyright.net/about-the-art-copyright-coalition/
ACC works to protect artists from copyright infringement from manufacturers who reproduce the art on products without permission and without paying fees or royalties for the sales. This is something that can be done.
With one of a kind and handmade items it can be hard to trace who did what first, but the like on your feed suggests that your work inspired theirs. So sorry!!!
I guess as artists we need to keep adapting, changing and improving what we make to keep staying ahead of the copiers.
If you want to share the instagram name of the copier, perhaps others of us could (kindly, of course) tell the copier that we don’t think it’s cool to copy so closely 🙂
xo
Thanks Sue. I’m loath to send more traffic their way… and they would probably just deny the influence / ignore the comments anyway since they haven’t already acknowledged it. As I say, they follow an awful lot of doll-makers on Instagram, so I doubt this is the first time that someone else has “influenced” them (though I haven’t gone digging to find out).
I have already moved on / changed things I have done in the past to stay ahead of others and will continue to do so. And I will also check out the Art Copyright Coalition site – thanks for the link.