This is absolutely absurd. I contacted the seller kindly pointing out the extreme level of copyright infringement and of course never heard back. Why do people think they can get away with this?

http://www.etsy.com/shop/trulysanctuary

Now, this is kind of a curious situation –

Today I stumbled upon a blog post about Pamela Love, a NY based jewelry designer. I saw a necklace she had on, and instantly recognized it; I owned one just like it, created by Moon Raven Designs.

…

Even her “signature eagle claw” jewelry looked similar to a design they had listed:

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Thing is though, I’m not sure who copied whom — Moon Raven Designs has been on Etsy since November of ‘08, and Love started gaining popularity around ‘08 as well. MRD does have an ebay store which was around since ‘99, though because of expired ebay listings, I’m not sure if they have been selling the bird skull/claw pendants for that long. Here’s their seller page.

Artoncrafts on Etsy has apparently hit an identical note with the Mulberry Bayswater/Ledbury designer handbag.

Here’s a current listing. I submitted a report but I really doubt etsy will do anything about this.

Here’s the real version:

Here’s her version:

I’m sure it was a complete accident. Sadly, it seems that two people have actually purchased them. I wonder what other designer rip offs are in her store?

Ah.. Etsy, the new place to buy custom plugs and gauged jewelry.. and the new place to find designs to rip off! Myself and two other artists on Etsy are polymer clay plug and gauged jewelry artists.  Our hard work and original designs are repeatedly copied by another Etsy newcomer to the polymer plug art Etsy scene.

Someone brought to my attention today (again) one of my unique designs….in another artist’s shop… again. This particular design was recently featured (Sept) on the front page of Etsy and is also featured in my blog (in which the offender has just started following coincidentally). I have contacted this artist and so have the other two polymer clay plug artists on Etsy. According to the other two members, she has refused to acknowledge this breach of etiquette to them. She did kindly take one of my designs down after I asked her to. She stated that she ‘just made them for a friend and decide to post them on Etsy too.”  Stating “this design is so and so’s original design”  does not make it appropriate to make money off of someone else’s hard work. Even though the copied artist is rarely credited in the listing.  She makes GiovannaCoraggio designs, Grimbones Designs and BakedbyAsh’s designs and in some cases, sells them for less. Then claims she had no idea we had the same design. This weak defense does not hold up. I have actually had customers come to me and ask me why she has my design and if I’m going out of business.  Below are a few examples:

Baked By Ash Original Design

The Copy

GiovannaCoraggio Original Design (noted in post)

The Copy

GrimBones Original Design

The Copy

This is only a few! There are quite a few more. Go look for yourself.  These are the ones she refuses to take down. I do not believe in coincidence over and over and over again, especially when her ‘designs’ come out a week after ours. One offender, who has since shut down said in reply to being confronted by another artist that “there is no stealing on Etsy!” I beg to differ.

…which was subsequently ripped off and repurposed on Ebay by “coffeegirl“:

Lame. Lots of other piracy in that store, too, looks like.

Check this out;

This is a friend of mines street art which he gave me permission to turn into a t-shirt, I am the only person anywhere that has permission to use his concept.

The original design, featured all over the net and in Street Art Books.;

and my t-shirts;

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29492749

http://www.killingpeopleisrude.com/

And here is this rip off we found, not exact rip but he obviously got the idea from my friends work, I actually like the design, though for mine I stayed true to the original work. cafepress is a pain to get stuff pulled down…

There have been loads of copycats since this series of admittedly simplistic t-shirt designs, created by Alyssa Zukas, first appeared at Urban Outfitters in 2007. Most of the biters were clever enough to change things a bit, but not this time:

http://www.uptowngirl.tv/FrontStore/iGoodsView.phtml?iGoodsId=0026_00309

They even had the nerve to use the original Urban Outfitters product photography, AND Alyssa’s name, all over their site. The original tees have “Alyssa Zukas” and a bio screenprinted into the inner neck tag area, along with Urban’s made-up store brand “Spark in the Dark.” The oh-so-clever counterfeiters actually re-typeset everything, changed the name to “Lovely Kate,” and retained Urban’s “Spark in the Dark” logo in the exact same location. You’d think they were counterfeiting Louis Vuitton bags or something with this level of detail, not Urban t-shirts.

In case the aforementioned link gets altered in any way, here’s a comparison.

Alyssa’s original designs, photography by Urban Outfitters

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Counterfeit versions on the UptownGirl.tv website

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Nice of the ripper-offers to give Alyssa credit and all, but this was not an authorized situation, and Urban Outfitters was not granted permission to relicense the design to any third party. Straight up rip-off, through and through.

If you like the designs, support the original designer by buying the designs from her Etsy store

As a fan of lillyella (www.lillyella.etsy.com), I am accustomed to her designs. Today, I clicked on a link on the etsy showcase to go to her page.  The link was a bracelet I know she created.  To my amazement I was directed to ellejewels (www.ellejewels.etsy.com). I checked out this page and discovered most of her “original” designs had been copied.

Lillyella Silver Garden Branch Bracelet :

Ellejewels Naturale Olivine Bracelet:

I know you’re all thinking “how do you know who made it first?”. Thankfully they both run a blog, and ellejewels posted her “new arrivals this month” for august with very familiar stuff, including the above bracelet in red. Lillyella posts EVERYTHING on her blog http://www.lillyella.blogspot.com. Unfortunately there’s no search button, but I do know that this bracelet (in many colours) was up for grabs during her Christmas in July sale. I know for a fact most of her pieces sell quickly and sell out. A few more examples:

Lillyella :                                                                                           Ellejewels:

Lillyella:                                                        Ellejewels:

Lillyella:                          Ellejewels:

What do you think? Is it alright to steal the competition’s ideas and turn them into your own?  From the ellejewels blog http://ellecustomjewelry.blogspot.com : “We are adding new products to our shop on a daily basis as we expand our handcrafted jewelry collection with new and exiting designs.”  Yeah, New to You.

Creator of monsters, Krystal Osborne and her hand made Zombie Head Jewelry might not have been the first horror themed crafts to grace the shops of etsy.com but the theme of sculpted gore, monster heads, and disgusting adornments sure has picked up since she started in 2007.

Her creations have been featured in Girls and Corpses Magazine, Fracture Magazine, Synergy Magazine, and ShriekFreak Quarterly. She has also had interviews and ads heard on the Drunken Zombie Podcast, Zombies and Toys, WreckHouse Radio, and Rotting Flesh Radio. Last year she joined the Project Vinyl artists at the FX Convention in Orlando, FL to to benefit the American Cancer Society.

Two months ago, art thief Averok decided to woo a friend by sculpting his very own “Zombie Bracelet”

Krystal devotes a lot of time and energy into her creations and every piece is a horrific labor of love.
She loves all of her customers and fans of ZombieHead.Etsy.com for their support and the shared love of all things horror. She can also run much faster than copy cats when the zombie apocalypse comes.

Handpainting a direct copy does not make it legal to sell another artist’s work. Edward Bear and Christopher Robin © Estate of E.H. Shepard and Egmont UK Ltd. www.egmont.co.uk
The Etsy Thief is Reg123 and is located here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6506718

Original by EH Shepard:

reg123.etsy.com:

Original by EH Shepard:

reg123.etsy.com:

She also includes “an original drawing” that has some whiteout problems in the corner:

I just think this is shameful to act like you are creating works of art when it’s more like tracing and filling in the lines. Etsy needs to shut them down immediately.

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YTWWN SAYS: this is how to make original art based on pooh bear