Crafters, if you copy someone's design that you've seen online you're not just a CF, you're a thief.

[ThingsBeingVarious]

I have a small, successful craft business and mostly sell online, which means there are loads of photographs of my work for anyone to see. Yet again I've just been made aware of someone copying my original design and selling the product - she probably thinks it's okay because she's raising money for her local charity. And sometimes my 'followers' and customers will send me a photo of the copy they've made saying I've 'inspired them'.

I know people often say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but it really fucks me off. People should think up their own designs, not scroll through Pinterest or Etsy or wherever looking for ideas to nick. Or if they haven't got any original ideas they can BUY patterns from other crafter's.

Going by the amount of law suits and the advertising that x product is just as good but much less in price I doubt it for the (terrible quality) dupes. I am hypocritical though as one of primarks mascaras sails very close the wind but its actually cruelty free and better quality than the expensive version- they don't market it either in the same way as aldi.

Dont you think its likely that someone is seeing your work and thinking to themselves how cheeky it is that you copied them?

Now OP has given a vague idea on the type of thing I don't know, if an animal or whatever is very stylised then there's every chance it is pretty unique.

So if I was a painter for pleasure and decided to paint myself the mona lisa, that would be wrong?

Can send out a copyright message with your product? In the art world your painting is copyrighted. If you paint a picture from a photograph which you didn’t take yourself you are breaking copyright.

In general I'm with you but I think you are taking your grievances too far when including those who are making it at home for their own use. Your view of Pinterest is clearly not shared or it wouldn't exist.

Very little is truly unique.

If your designs are copyrighted then you need to pull up whoever is copying and selling them , for charity or not .

This looks like it’s Amigurumi, clay or some form
if sculpture since it’s 3d

In the commercial design/art world it’s to be expected that anything remotely successful will be ripped off at some point, it happens everywhere all the time. Even if the law is broken taking legal action is just not worth even contemplating, 9.9 times/10 the only winners are the lawyers and it is financially crippling even if you have a strong case.

If you are that bothered then send a formal ‘cease and desist’ letter, most of the time (and especially at amateur level) it frightens the life out of people and is enough to put and end to the issue.

There is often moral outrage at copying but no one exists in a bubble and we are all influenced by what others are doing/current trends etc. If your work is good it will continue to happen, just make sure you have a strong brand and are constantly evolving and developing leaving those who copy your work in your shadow.

@bellac11 "Don't you think its likely that someone is seeing your work and thinking to themselves how cheeky it is that you copied them?"

No, I genuinely don't think that's the case - I've been making my stuff for a few years now, lots of online sales and occasional fairs, and I've never had anybody even say they 'remind them' of another person's work. I get lots of comments about how original my work is and people asking how I come up with my ideas. I'm not surprised people are sceptical that my work is genuinely all my own ideas because lots of art and craft is generic (and clearly from the responses here the majority do copy!).

@ConfusedBear I have done a couple of free tutorials of my simpler designs, mostly as a way to engage followers and that's worked well. I used to naively think people would understand the stuff I didn't make tutorials/sell patterns for was not to be copied. I think I will write something about this on my sales platforms.

@Inkpotlover I love the idea of sending the copiers an invoice! I really don't enjoy the awkwardness when I message telling people not to copy my original designs, although I have, so far, received only nice apologies and promises to stop.

Sympathy to anyone else who also feels their work gets ripped off. It's definitely a losing battle going by the responses here 😢

I think it varies where craft passes into art tbh. Copying something like a sweater which can be replicated stitch for stitch then a close imitation is just someone working out the construction. However copying something like thread painting is much more a theft of inspiration.

In my mind, most amigurumi fall closer to the sweater than thread painting, although I have certainly seen some exceptional creations that break the rule. Similarly in pottery, copying functional items is different to copying something sculptural or the decoration of an item. One is just learning from construction, the other crosses the line.

I’d be guessing this is fibre arts

Oh and of course that only applies to personal use, and crafting to learn anyway. Any selling of something "inspired by" another design is questionable to say the least.

I originally voted in your favour, OP. I’ve spent most of my life thinking and making ‘original ’ things - and seeing them copied. When I was working, I managed (on the whole) to get paid enough for them to be happy and prosperous. The most egregious rip offs were pursued by the people I was working for.

I still agree that a blatant copy being sold on is annoying and a bit dishonest (as ‘for charity’ meh, you can give what you want, it’s not up to other people to ‘give’ something they have ripped off).

I do think that someone copying a craft work for their own pleasure is different. I used to teach ‘how to ‘ classes in both the intellectual and artistic skills I made my living by. The aim was to help other people to do that : was I ‘stealing’ from myself if I suceeded?

You lost me at the kangaroo, though. God made him, not you; you are deriving your idea from an existing one. If you want a unique beast, and the credit for it, invent one.

@Tanfastic yes! I've had exactly that too - a couple of times people have sent me photos of their really poor copies of my most popular work asking what they are doing wrong - peak CF-ery!

@skyhaze "If your work is good it will continue to happen, just make sure you have a strong brand and are constantly evolving and developing leaving those who copy your work in your shadow"
Thank you for this, it's lovely advice and has helped me feel better.

The issue surely isn't that they are copying you but that it is being sold?
Creating an original piece of artwork is protected - one doesn't need to trademark or copyright it. But it has to be original. You can't claim a striped crochet hat is original unless it's a completely different design to anything else out there which I would think is very unlikely. And you can't sell images of, say a Banksy art (or ThingsBeingVarious piece of art). But one could sell an interpretation or in the style of.
As for those saying same designs are sold on Etsy argument- many designs are copyright free sold by websites such as Creative Fabrica and the artist gets a small commission when sold. Though if course there are copycats too, but they don't generally sell anything like the volume if the original.
In your case, I would contact the seller and ask for them to stop selling copies of your original, protected work.
You could also, if there is a demand (snd depending what kind of work it is) sell digital patterns? That way you can still make money.

A friend has done this . She has patented a particular craft item/image but it is very different to any designs I have seen.
A very niche item.

I have noticed a huge amount of material on Etsy that blatantly violates trademarks e.g. homemade Disney and Nintendo toys. Both companies are notorious litigious so I don't know how Etsy get away with it.

Etsy is a selling platform made up of individual shops - many are regularly removed for copyright infringements - Disney are very hot on this.
Etsy isn’t the issue, the individual seller is.

I fully agree. Your work is yours and not there for others to just take and use as their own.
I do cross stitch and i make a point of buying designs and kits only from the proper sources and would never dream of just copying. Sometimes it takes some effort but if someone has put in work and made something I want then it's only right that they get paid for that.

That's life, Aldi do it to M&S etc.

As annoying as it is (I used to have a small craft business with the same problem - i stopped because I fell out of love with doing it- not because of competition). Normally if you do it well you won't lose customers, hence why I still buy Colin the caterpillar and not the cheaper alternatives.

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen I neither make kangaroos nor believe in God.
But I do like what you said about the 'I'm only selling it for charity' line. I get that quite a lot.

Tbf the caterpillar was in a Jane Asher cakes book before M and S brought out their cake. I’m guessing she’d copied it from somewhere too

Other peoples photos?

I have done this, but as with uou, for my OWN personal use. I would never sell it on.

I also do cross stitch and the fb page I'm on are red hot on copyright of designers work, they even publish sites to stay clear of because they sell copies/'allow' sellers to sell copyrighted images.

The thing is that so many people haven't grown up learning and being given the opportunity to be creative that they genuinely don't understand what it is to design something from scratch. OP has outlined the process, but people think that, for example, replicating something they've found on Pinterest is creative. It's not. It can be clever and skilled, both of which are positive in themselves, but it's not creative.

If you copy a crocheted cat you find on Etsy or Pinterest to figure out how to do it, that's not creative. When you've figured out the technique and then make crocheted penguins from that technique, that's creative.

OP I'm with you to a point. We all copy as a form of learning. It can even be necessary. But in that process we usually say, "I'm copying X" or in some way let people know we're not the designer and/or credit them and we're trying something out. The moment that someone copies and then claims the design as their own, then to me they're stealing.

And yes, as time goes on there are less original ideas. That's the same in academia, which is similar in the area of studying the work of those who've gone before you to hone your art. We still reference every time we use someone's idea though and the academic community expects that, in part because they value their own work. Many people craft as a hobby and see other art-craft work as a bit like their hobby, so undervalue it. There aren't many people off reading academic journals at weekends to write academic essays just for the fun of it! So it's far easier to keep that form of "craft" as something to be respected.

I crochet and do understand op

I've never sold to make money particularly but started a Facebook page with a fellow crocheter who does.

We bought a pattern for a star blanket, I made a rainbow one for a friend's 'rainbow baby' and our page went wild with orders

It took me ages to get the perfect colours and I tweaked the pattern a little. I had literally dozens of messages asking for the pattern and colour pallette.

Some were from people who hobby make and were really polite. I was happy to share with them

Others just said "send me the pattern" or "pattern and colours?" And when I clicked their profile they were sellers

Nah!

That’s exactly what the Op is moaning about.

you bought someone else pattern and tweaked it. No one copying the Ops work will have it exactly the same. They will have all been tweaked.

You tweaked someone else’s design and then sold it. And we’re annoyed others wanted the design? Which was publicly available.