The Final Blow to Handmade!

[#1]

I do believe these congress / government people absolutely DO NOT care how many people are put out of business or loose their jobs. Soon there will be nothing produced in the USA???

First the CPSIA NOW this.

Design Piracy Prohibition Act
Read article here http://bit.ly/1186IQ

[POUTFITS]

i feel pretty helpless about this, considering the money that is behind lobbying it.

[Art2ArtColorado]

marking

[NossubGallery]

crazybeads says:
NOSSUBGALLERY says:
isgood says:
This new law is supposed to protect original works by fashion designers, correct? Why is this a bad thing?
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If I get the drift of this thread correctly - by not allowing others to be 'inspired' by the original work of the designer. :-)


-----there is a big difference between 'inspiration' and 'counterfeit'...if someone's 'inspiration' is so similar that it could be considered 'counterfeit' - that's what it should be called.
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I agree - that is why I put 'inspired' in quotations. 'Inspiration' is a term that is very loosely used, and some people get much more 'inspired' than others.

[Former_Member]

Seems like there has been alot of final blows lately...

[Former_Member]

Forgive me if I missed it on the first page, but is there a link to the entire Act?

[NossubGallery]

The links are on a new thread in Business Topics.

[Former_Member]

Thanks!

[Former_Member]

I read and signed. That's enough bad news for one day. And now, back to work.

[isgood]

crazybeads says: -----there is a big difference between 'inspiration' and 'counterfeit'...if someone's 'inspiration' is so similar that it could be considered 'counterfeit' - that's what it should be called.

===========

As it stands in the US, there is no copyright protection for garments, in that they are "useful objects". So counterfeits are legal, just as long as you do not copy trademarks (labels, logos) or artworks. Some people argue that because of this lack of protection for original works in fashion design, there isn't a viable fashion industry in the US like there is in France, where there are these certain protections. In the US, new and upcoming young designers can't make a name for themselves because they are knocked off and diluted before their works can become well know and attributed to them. I think this is a very valid point.

Copyright, (and to a lesser degree, patent and trademark protections) help the creative and innovative. These are some of the few laws out there that protect the little guy from big business. It's much more damaging to have your original works knocked off by a large company that can mass produce your artworks and flood the market. Copyrights provide protection for individual artists from this kind of piracy. Isn't this something that should be promoted here on ETSY?

No company is going to be able to corner the market on "A" line skirts with this new law. All basic elements of fashion design are in the public domain, at this point. It's how you put the details together in a completely new way that makes your item unique and therefor worthy of protections as an original work.

Personally, I'm all for more protection of intellectual property rights for artists & designers and their original works. If you don't copy others and do your own work, you have nothing to fear from this new law and it may even help you realize some credit and compensation for your original works.

[PincushionCrazy]

I suspect this is all about "big business" lobbying the government to protect their copyrights.
Unfortunately, it affects the little guy too, but they won't have the money or means to fight for their rights like the big companies do.

[Former_Member]

Hate to say this but things are only getting worse. I never thought our wonderful free society U.S.A. would come to this. I know that there are a lot of people on Etsy that supported Obama, but, he is very idealistic in his thinking and very naive. Just wait until he puts more of his thoughts into Congress and Legislation. I wish we could have a vote on some of the items he has put in motion since the beginning of the year. Almost positive we do have a right to, but we are being denied. Any thoughts on this subject. (I am going back into my garden to do some more work). Check in later.

[Heartistic]

Don't worry guys, i work as a designer in the fashion industry for 15 years and this would be impossible to aply. This is mainly the big companies who copy. They copy with the help of big Departement Stores Buyers who order samples from small Designers and ask their big favorite accounts if they can do the same for less. This is a standart practice I'm sorry to say.

For graphics don't forget that when you save your final design there is a date in your computer that would be helpful in case of a litigation.
The big firm are not going to play with this and won't try to enforce their copyright rights unless they are sure that their designs comes directly from inside and that their hired designers didn't copy without their knowledge.... that the company who copied them is as big or more than they are. They won't spend money on fighting small designers who do limited production and most of the time insolvent or barely profitable and visible.
I had an experience while working for a big company here in LA, of being copied by a big italian firm 10 years ago. I designed an artwork for a silk shirt fabric, I sent a copy of my artwork to a production plant in Korea. They send me a great strike off, I classified the file in house and we went into production.
6 months later, I aked an Italian Fabric company to show me their recent designs to buy. The Sales Rep came with a bunch of Artworks and what do I see!!!! A copy of my artwork from a few months before!!! I told the guy who could not beleive it, so snobb and denying that his Italian company could not do that, they were the best and so on that I had to retrieve the files and showed him!!!! His boss and my boss got aware of it and figured out after some research that the production house in Korea sold the artwork and produced the fabric for the Italians after we were done with it. Nobody said anything because that production plant was important for both companies.... No copyrights infringments suits and so on happened... my boss just got a better deal on the next production that saved him big bucks. Now I laugh about the fact that Los Angeles, USA got copied by Italy and usually that's the reverse...
I was shocked for a while, this is the reason why I want to be independant because of the huge amount of copying between the big firm so the private labels companies.

[Former_Member]

it'll never be enforced for us. just like the cpsia.

just keep on keepin on.

[isgood]

Heartistic- I agree with you and have seen many situations just like you describe.

[Former_Member]

i mean the lead thing....not cpsia. lol

[Former_Member]

I don't think this act has anything to do with the CPSIA so even talking about both together does not make any sense.

Should this thread be in this section?

[Indiscretion]

I think it indirectly has a relation to the CPSIA -

[ksewingbasket]

Time to run with sissors...anyone with me??

[Indiscretion]

*grabs all 6 pairs of scissors at hand*

[Former_Member]

I sent an email to my Rep & Senators.

Honestly, I think "It'll never be enforced," or "The big companies will never use it to sue small companies," are dangerous attitudes to have. Once a law like this or CPSIA is in place, sure, it might not be enforced or used against the small guys *now*, but it's there. And once it's there, it's not likely to go away - how often do laws that were bad ideas actually get repealed? Not that often as long as they're constitutional. Heck, even laws that aren't constitutional sometimes take decades to make it through the courts and get repealed.

And as long as it's on the books, all it takes is one power-hungry (or crazy or stupid or just misguided) person in the wrong position and suddenly everyone who had forgotten it even exist is getting slapped with fines or lawsuits that can bankrupt them.

[SewIntoYou]

I just signed the petition, now going to to other thread.

[Former_Member]

I'm not so sure this law will actually hurt us little guys. Seems to me that this law is proposed to actually protect little shops like us Etsy sellers from the big design companies who sometimes scout out small designers' ideas with the sole purpose of ripping them off. Though, who knows what will happen if it's passed?

[Former_Member]

WhiteFlagDesigns, if you, as a little guy, can afford to trademark every design you make, then you're fine. If, however, you design something unique, and don't trademark it, somebody can come along and trademark your idea, and then you yourself can't make that item any more.


Like soooo many laws, on the surface things seem like good ideas, but when you bring the financial power aspect into it, inevitably it's the truly big players who win the game.

[Former_Member]

Example: the American company attempting to patent Basmati rice.

[Former_Member]

I vote we all go nekkid from now on