Creativity Policy Violation- Creative Standard Take Down From Stolen Photos With No Appeal

[PrettyTiffin]

Three of my listings have been taken down for breaching 'Violated Etsy Creativity Standard'.  and when the third listing was removed my star seller badge has now also been removed and threat that my shop will be suspended.  I have sent two messages to Etsy in the last week and did not receive a reply.  This is not acceptable.  

As Etsy provide zero useful advice as to why the listings are taken down and no way to appeal I turned detective. 

 I had a suspicion it was something to do with images as I have experienced my images (and copy text) been stolen before and I deal with these situations as and when they arise usually by direct contact with a seller to highlight the copyright breach. 

I could not see anything on the listing itself that would infringe upon Etsy policy, so I did a search on the images. I found from a reverse google search that the images were appearing on AMAZON INDIA- a seller in Indian selling on Amazon had stolen a number of my images (from the listings 'violated') and they appeared on Amazon India in a low resolution. This is a copyright breach on their part, not mine.  I immediately filed a report with Amazon India and they quickly removed the listings of this seller that displayed my copyrighted images. I have the Amazon case paperwork to share with Etsy re this violation and the action Amazon promptly took (can I just say here I never thought I would have anything positive to say about Amazon but there you go!) however it is impossible to contact someone at Etsy,   If Amazon can care for copyright issues so quickly why can't Etsy? Amazon within 24hrs of my complaint took responsibility for someone who is not a seller on their site who raised a copyright issue and penalised their own seller as they reviewed and saw the copyright issue and acted promptly. Etsy it. seems can't even grace us with the presence of a human adjudicator. 

 All photography is owned and created by me, either commissioned by a professional photographer by me (I have paid hundreds in pro photography fees and used my own styling of the images to invest in my business and shop) over the past three years or else the images are physically styled and also taken by me. In short I own all photography that appears on my shop.    

 It seems Etsy are now relying on robots not programmed well enough to do a job that should at least be double checked by a human when an image duplicate is flagged up- especially when it appears on a site famous for stealing images and designs- TEMU, SHEIN, ALI BABA AND AMAZON are names popping up on these forums for others who have discovered a similar fate to mine in stolen photos then stolen designs as competitors scramble to recreate the item in the photo.  As first I did not understand why these three listings  had been taken down as all my listings follow the same structure and made in via the same process. I work with two partners in India, I commission heritage and new designs that are hand painted onto steel. It is very hard to copyright designs, some are heritage designs that artists paint habitually as part of their culture and art heritage and into this we weave modern colours and our own designs too, bringing a modern twist to heritage designs. However some products and designs originated by me are copied. I regularly have to tell one of my partners please remove that image from your artist portfolio, that design/or colour way is commissioned by me and can be copied if you promote it as a generic design. Annoying as this is I am also aware that in reality every item is hand painted and unique, you cannot mass produce hand painted designs in the small scale industry where these products are made and have been made for hundreds of years!   You cannot stop an artists from painting what they want to paint and sell their work, even if that be an interpretation of yours. 

My own website I have actually blocked from being viewed in India to protect my design  IP and photos, however of course many of my designs and unique colour ways can be found in my Etsy shop for anyone across the world to see and copy. I think having read the forums of people having photos and designs stolen and them appearing on TEMU, SHEIN and ALI BABA I will now block China, I am wondering if we are engaging in a silent trade war with the huge retail giants. 

It is no surprise that two of three listings effected are top sellers- if someone is going to copy you/steal your images they are going to go for the best sellers right?!  Two of the three have been listed with great reviews for a number of years. they both feature the wonderful photography I am so proud of. 

My Indian partners are also distressed about this. When I tell them last week- I don't know now if I need that product we have in production as I can no longer sell it on Etsy. Our business has grown as we offer support to our network of artists partners, whom we have a brilliant relationship with. This 'take down' does not only impact me, but the artists I work closely with who create the pieces we work on together..   

I have numerous correspondence each day with my partners, discussing designs and evidence of the process and my creative direction of it. 

I am finding this situation extremely frustrating and upsetting. Every single one of my products and photography is open to being copied and stolen.  I feel like a 'sitting duck'  with a robot deciding mine and my artist partners fate. 

Before reading all the forum stuff I relisted one of the items with a watermark partially over the product and it was again immediately taken down. I read on forum on here after that, that another seller who has been subject to this same situation painstakingly reshot all his products only for them to be taken down again! I cannot take that risk of time to reshoot all to have a bot again remove them.  I would rather invest outside of Etsy and begin to sell elsewhere, if gradually all my images are stolen and the robot takes them down, what future do I or anyone have on Etsy? This situation is so depressing and what does this mean for the integrity of Etsy as a platform that really supports sellers investing in arts and small scale industry. My products are part of a dying heritage industry in India, being able to provide work to this creative community and celebrate the craft - Etsy should be all for this!

Their offhand action has had the reverse effect. It has meant a seller on AMAZON INDIA (with horrendous reviews and zero stock) has been allowed to steal images, damage and potential ruin another's business and take away support for the small artist community I work with, who I have grown with as my business has grown. And this is ethical? This is protecting and promoting creativity?

I feel like it is only a matter of time before more of my listing photos are stolen and etsy bots think I am selling a mass produced item where I have no creative input.  

 I have done some reading on how to better protect my products and in future will photograph all items with a tag showing my business name, plus a copyright watermark to deter people thinking of stealing images, designs and unique colour ways. A huge task! Because Etsy won't pay someone to do the job that can only be done by a human, listing are taken down (whilst others steal and sell your designs and photos on mass produced sites) and businesses built with care and love are being shut down without proper assessment. This is not OK. 

One of the products removed ironically the next day was posting by a customer and amassed over 40k views on TIKTOK and people couldn't find the product on Etsy! So both Etsy, I and by knock on effect my partners lost out on that surge of interest in our product   

Surely this is the tip of the iceberg. It's well known that those huge retail sites trawl the internet for designs to copy, the first place they will look is Etsy best sellers.  

I tried to place a link here to a brilliant article on a site called 'Value Added Resource', written in the past two weeks  that talks further about this issue and is a call to arms for both sellers and for Etsy to take responsibility for their robots and the businesses they have encouraged to grow on their site, who are being effected by this new robot adjudication without any duty of care from Etsy and not allowing any appeal for sellers- many top sellers star sellers, people with a good history of business and making.  I am not allowed to post it but you can find it by googling the site and also 'Creative Standard Take Down From Stolen Photos With No Appeal' people are noticing something is up and press are writing about it. 

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/etsy-creativity-standards-takedowns-no-appeal/ 

In the meantime I am hoping someone on here can advise how I can get in touch with an Etsy human to adjudicate these violations with a human understanding and see if I can get my products relisted (now they are removed from Amazon) and my star seller badge reinstated.  

But I am small fish and I sense unless Etsy quickly review the system and sellers take time to point out why it is flawed and speak up when impacted to encourage a new process for dealing with this then surely many more sellers livelihoods (and in my case my partners too) will be impacted.  

Come on Etsy, Please do better. We believe in you! We've invested in you! Don't mess it up. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

The takedowns have to be done by bots, there are over a million a year, it can't be done by humans,

however, they should up their staffing so appeals can be reviewed more quickly.

Log 1 ticket, and keep replying to that one ticket you still need help

if you open a second, the first one gets closed, and the new one is at the bottom of a pile.

phone and chat are outsourced, and mostly read from scripts, e-mail, and chasing the e-mail is the best way.

You could try social media, but that's hit and miss.

don't relist - etsy has flagged it as a takedown, if you edit and relist, they still know it's the problem listing, and take it down again, with a black mark against your account - the e-mail should have said not to relist it.

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