Ok, I was in Hot Topic today, and I saw a very familiar necklace… It was apparently a necklace that was very similar to DestroyX’s Skull Hands necklace minus the “x” and the heart, and it was green.

This shirt on Hot Topic’s website a little too similar to artwork from Lora (Lora8 on deviantArt)?  It looks like Hot Topic used Lora’s design to create a direct knock off.  This is a sad issue indeed for designers who showcase their work online, only to have it stolen for another company’s profit.

http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Apparel/TShirts/Shout-Out-Love-Tee-259404.jsp

Lora’s work can be found at  http://www.elastika.org/2010/05/lora/

Hot Topic has apparently discovered street art. However, sadly for Hot Topic, one of the artists is Banksy and the designs don’t even appear to have been redone.

D*Face Original “Pop Tart”

http://www.dface.co.uk/vault_item.php?image_id=35&vault_id=1&itemNo=6

Hot Topic Tee “ZOMBIE PIN UP TEE”

http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Apparel/TShirts/Zombie-Pin-Up-Tee-Plus-Size-227898.jsp

Banksy original “Gansta Rat”  2004:

http://www.originalprints.com/printview.php?dx=3&page=1&id=21655&sid=f6a191aafe400ff202d724cd44d70e21

Hot Topic RAT BOOM BOX T-SHIRT

http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Apparel/TShirts/FashionTees/Rat-Boom-Box-TShirt-253566.jsp

Banksy “Bomb Hugger”

http://www.guyhepner.com/pieces/banksy-prints-bomb-hugger

Hot Topic BOMB HUG T-SHIRT

http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Apparel/TShirts/FashionTees/Bomb-Hug-TShirt-263209.jsp

Vera Brosgol, an illustrator and story artist on such films as Coraline, has apparently been copied by Hot Topic or Pierce the Veil, or both. I suppose when they were going over this with their tracing paper and crayons, they thought that making it more homophobe-friendly and all-around way lamer might place it outside the realm of copyright infringement. Shameful on so many levels.

Vera’s original image:

[link to original]

The copy:


[link]

This news came from a post on Vera Brosgol’s own twitter feed at http://twitter.com/verabee.

Update: It seems this might go under speediest resolution ever. Vera contacted Hot Topic today and was already told that they will pull the shirt from their site and stores starting tomorrow (via twitter). This could possibly be the work of a dishonest designer, but who knows. I hope they will also stop all orders of the shirt that may have already been placed. Though perhaps they can send one to Vera as a souvenir?

Irony comes in some interesting forms.  For years I have been preaching about big companies blatantly ripping off lesser known artists. Despite this, sometimes the little guy can be just as much a plagiarist. I was walking into one of my favorite record stores today when I saw a giant poster advertising this:

Which reminded me a lot of one of my favorite video games:

Don’t get me wrong, EA is no saint. In the past the game company has had several lawsuits filed against it for questionable business practices and has even gone as far as erasing parts of their own Wikipedia entry to cover their questionable ethics. However art theft is art theft, especially theft as blatant as this. Lets have a closer look shall we?

Photo Left URL: http://www.gamespot.com/users/xHiTmAnxi/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25734820 (Center Picture on page)

Photo Right URL: http://www.myspace.com/dmwcd (top banner on page)

The “S” really gives it away. Whoever copied this didn’t even bother hiding where  the “S” was cut off by the Need for Speed text.

Here is the link to their  main site and myspace:

http://www.denversmostwanted.org/

http://www.myspace.com/dmwcd

Go nuts.

Hot Topic has used fan art from DeviantArt member lastscionz

Follow the link and you’ll see Hot Topics version:

http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/Apparel/TShirts/NoveltyTees/Battletoads-Toadally-Rad-TShirt-238589.jsp

The artist is aware of the rip but does not know what to do. If anyone can help him out he has his contact on his site listed above.

YTWWN SAYS: this is an interesting one because he has made an original artwork based on licensed characters, just as fan art. Now one of the licensee of the characters has used it without his permission. Thoughts?

The Like is a band from Los Angeles, CA. Earlier today I was clicking around their message board and came across this this post from 01/29/07.

So today..

..I was out shopping when suddenly I stumbled across this:
A hat with the “the like ‘Bunny” on it, but instead of writing “The Like” in the heart, it was “I Like U”.
I had to take a picture and couldn’t help but wonder if this store had gotten permission to use The Like’s “logo” on this hat..? This was a store called “Cubus” and is located all over Scandinavia (I’m from Norway..)

All the lines of the bunny, heart, and font were straightened out/neatened, and all the smudges were removed, along with the left ear ink blot and part of the right foot ink blot, but those changes don’t change the fact that the hat is a blatant rip off.

We at UNIF clothing came out with this Michael Kruger T back in late 2006. I was just informed through email that a site in Holland called LARGE (looks like the equivalent to Hot Topic) decided to take our creation and totally crap it up. Sizing is off, their outer glow is horrible, and oops, no sequin glove?  Good try though.  Our is at UNIF, theirs is at LARGE

Blah. Not the first and prob not the last.

I have been looking around, trying to see if Hot Topic made a deal with Nina Ricci about this or anything but I have found nothing, so I brought it here to see what you guys think or if anyone here knows anything to clear this up.

THIS is a picture of Nina Ricci’s original fragrance, “Nina”:

and this is the Twilight-themed perfume that Hot Topic is releasing:

Source: http://nowsmellthis.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/12/28/4038097.html

As you can see, the bottles look pretty much exactly the same. I know the fragrances are not the same though. The notes in Nina are mostly fruity and floral, there’s citrus, apple, some vanilla, peony, moonflower, etc. You can find all the notes for Nina here: http://www.nina-parfum.com/

The people in the Now Smell This link pointed out that the notes for the Twilight one are Lavender and Freesia (apparently they’re written on the box, perfumes never do that.) I’ve also seen comments in other places saying it smells more like PineSol than anything else.

So, what’s going on here?

[EDIT]
Seems like they ARE going to sue!

The Originals – From The Hundreds Winter 2007 Line, Artist: Electrik Suicide

http://www.thehundreds.com/store/collection_07winter.html

The Questionable – Norma Jean and Breathe Carolina 2008, Artist: Electric Zombie

Here

and Here