Creator finds copy of product on Amazon

[Dannyalcatraz]

I watched this video a couple of days ago. (I'm subscribed to the channel.) I have friends who have had things like their T-Shirt art stolen and resold. I've had my pictures downloaded and sold. People who will steal from creatives have zero conscience and China is the Wild West for art theft.

We have a fridge magnet with badly photoshopped images of our 2nd and 3rd border collies on it. We don’t know how the manufacturer got a photo of our dogs, because this would have been in the mid/late 1990s, and we weren’t sharing pix online back then.

 

[Ryujin]

We have a fridge magnet with badly photoshopped images of our 2nd and 3rd border collies on it. We don’t know how the manufacturer got a photo of our dogs, because this would have been in the mid/late 1990s, and we weren’t sharing pix online back then.

Were they shot professionally, or were they your own snaps? If professionally then they might have been part of someone's portfolio as well, and those get shared like crazy whether online, or not.

 

[lynnfredricks]

It is frustrating as a creator but, this is absolutely nothing new in business.

If you share something publicly and possibly demonstrate its worth in the market, someone is going to copy it. And they will likely provide something extra to (at least minimally) differentiate themselves.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Were they shot professionally, or were they your own snaps? If professionally then they might have been part of someone's portfolio as well, and those get shared like crazy whether online, or not.

I mean, it’s not like we’re unaware of the possibilities, we just don’t know the particulars.

It was at a low-budget photo place, like the services offered at department stores and some drug stores back then. The dogs are together in front of one of those “marbled” backdrops. One is seated, the other is lying down.

But as those places ceased operations, they had to do SOMETHING with the photos & negatives they still possessed. So it’s quite possible they got sold or even dumped.

 

[Waller]

Huh. So I watched the video. It's not a copy of her product, it's just a product in the same category---book nooks--as hers (a category which existed before hers). She was even confused how to make and use it, as it's different to hers. It's kinda similar thematically, but a lot of that stuff is--"library in a stone castle" isn't exactly an idea she invented, and neither are the mirrors etc.

She's got 4M followers on YouTube and works in a very expensive looking studio. I think she's doing OK. She's not a little underdog here.

 

[Jahydin]

And to be clear, for those that don't follow her, she only made the one. She's not mass producing these.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I struggle to comprehend how people can imagine that ideas are something they can own.

 

[GreyLord]

It's the combined ideas of the Infinity Mirror, Pepper's Ghost, and the library scene. The combination is something that wasn't really done until her project.

Infinity Mirror and LIbrary scene were absolutely done before she did it, yet see no place she attributes the originals...

Nor even those who created the book nooks before her.

What is fair for the goose should also be fair for the gander.

Edit: That said, I've absolutely had things stolen and sold of mine. It's not just China that does it. Hollywood and other places absolutely will steal your stuff if they think they can get away with it, and many major companies will also.

The bigger questions she should be asking if she is really concerned is not to each individual company she is pursuing to try to get them to stop, but the major one which allows them to operate in the first place. Why is that online company or companies allowing this to be sold in their marketplace?

If she is really that concerned, she can go after them with lawyers.

However, as I brought up (and I am not a lawyer) seeing how much of her idea existed prior to her creation, I don't think she's going find a lot of luck going the legal route as I feel she may have done similar things in her creation.

The difference is, it doesn't appear she was trying to mass produce it and gain a profit off of it. Those on Amazon...obviously are trying to get a profit off of it.

Which brings up the next point...did she file for a patent (if this really was an original idea), or a trademark, or some other way that would legally protect her idea?

If not, she may be up the creek anyways.

 

[dbolack]

 

[Clint_L]

I struggle to comprehend how people can imagine that ideas are something they can own.

I struggle to comprehend how you can think they are not.

If I write a book, should Amazon be able to take it and monetize it while paying me nothing for my original idea, just because they are a big corporation?