China Knock-Offs of Artist Work
Copyright – what is it exactly and how do we protect our work?
It’s really important that our work, our sites, our blogs and all materials be protected. Unfortunately it’s all too easy to see your work being duplicated or worse yet manufactured in China, where you are not protected.
In 2008, I was shopping at the Tucson Gem Show and came across these great ceramic pendants. I thought wow, I didn’t know that Marsha was selling her work here. Although I was shocked because they weren’t displayed well and in fact they weren’t up to her quality.
Upon closer look, they were indeed copies of her work. Knock-offs from China. I’m sure there are lots of other instances where her work was copied on Etsy as well.
So how can you make sure that you are protecting your work and at the same time discouraging those from taking the liberty of using your designs in their work.
5 Steps to take in Protecting Your Work:
- Post a Copyright Notice © on all printed and published materials including tagging photos of your work
This notifies any viewers or readers that the copyright is being claimed. It also should be dated. You’ll see this (or should see this) at the bottom of every website to protect the content.
- If you really want to protect your design, register it!
You are required to have this registration in order to file a lawsuit.
If you register within three months of infringement, you may be entitled to special statutory damages and to attorney fees.
The filing fee is around $45 and takes about 6 months.
- Give thought to creating commissioned work and having an agreement in place.
When someone commissions a piece of work, you can be considered work for hire. They can in certain circumstances own the copyright to the work. It is wise to have a Work-Made-For-Hire Agreement.
- The more ornate or unique the work is, the more likely you are to win a copyright dispute.
- Be clear with your photographer as to who owns the rights to the photos you use and how they can be used.
Just because you pay for your pieces to be photographed does not mean you own the photograph. If you want to use it in a magazine, the photographer may want to be paid additional fees for this.
This is a shocker to some artists who send in their pictures to national magazine and they want to publish you, but need funds to pay the photographer…again!
The $65 you paid for the shot may have particular uses that the photographer allows. Make sure you know how you can use the shot. You do not own it and they can use your photo in their marketing, publications, sites, etc.
You can *try* to get the rights assigned to you, arrange for dual rights, etc.
Copyright law has definite shades of gray. Even when consulting a lawyer on these issues there is no definitive black and white answer.
Having recently spent thousands on this issue with no resolve, I recommend protecting yourself as much as possible and dealing with as many respectable people as you can. It’s just a frustrating place to be where only the lawyers seem to make money.
Don’t get too wrapped up in it. Take these five steps to thwart wrong-doers, but don’t let it keep you from being creative.
If they copy you, decide how much you want to invest and how far you are willing to take it. All that negative energy takes a toll on you and your future creativity.
Consider if you would make more money and if it would make your art better to just push yourself to make more art instead.
Blog about it, get the word out, and then let it go.
By the way if you want to read more about Marsha and check out her work, I’d love for you to send her some love by “liking” her Facebook page and checking out her blog!
https://www.facebook.com/MarshaNealStudio
http://www.MarshaNealStudio.Blogspot.com/
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I always feel I just have to stay one step ahead in design terms…no matter how I protect myself I can’t afford to sue- and international law would be a nightmare.
This is very clear and concise — thank you. And while it is imperative that we try our best to be attentive and protect our work, I particularly like your statement, “Don’t get too wrapped up in it. Take these five steps to thwart wrong-doers, but don’t let it keep you from being creative.”
I agree that expending a lot of negative energy isn’t really a good thing — and certainly impacts on future creativity.
Thank you for writing a very informational article on copyright issues. I agree with Bonnie and Emma on both fronts. I personally know of someone who has spent way too much time obsessing over believing their work was being copied and blogging about it. There was actually some backlash from people who were new to the blog and they stated it had turned them away from the blog. The artist, whom I used to respect, showed some sides to her personality that also turned me away from her. She basically stated she needs to put her art out there for others to see every day and I saw that now she has a book deal, too. Common sense would dictate that if you’re so worried about your work being copied, maybe you shouldn’t be getting regularly published in magazines, etc. telling people exactly how you made your pieces and where you bought your supplies. But I digress. 🙂 That was just an example of negative outcomes from worrying about pieces being copied.
Copyright is a touchy issue, but unfortunately a necessary one. I’ve seen more overseas offenders using this malicious practice to no ends. Hopefully all artists can navigate the complex world of copyrighting their work and be successful and joyous in the end. 🙂 This article definitely gives great information and advice to further educate ourselves on this topic. Thank you, Tonya!
Thank you for the informative article. I’ve always put a copyright on patterns I’ve written and all the photos or drawings within them as well. And when teaching a class, I always let the students have a discussion on the subject so that they become aware of the work put into getting to that point and then having someone pirate your work. When students understand the subject better, they are not apt to copy or duplicate your work, but grow in their own way to create their own style.
If you can’t afford to be knocked off then get out of the game. I never see Chanel whine publicly like the little Etsy crafters. Egads people. This is a fact of life that all designers deal with. Business takes thicker skin than some crafters have.
The students are NOT the problem. It is the Chinese who knock off EVERYTHING. Give it up, you think you are EVER gonna win against them?
Move on, design something new.
Where do you draw the line between an original design and a design trend? A design trend is something many crafters like to incorporate into their designs because it appeals to a large number of customers. Duplicating others’ work in detail is obviously a violation both legally and morally, but, as the Bible says, “There is nothing new under the sun,” and sometimes the work of others helps you to become aware of techniques and subjects that have been incorporated into works of art and design for centuries.
Another consideration is that original designs, and the high quality of the finished product, are within the price range of a different customer than are the lower priced, lower quality mass produced knock-offs. Those who can afford to buy the knock-offs would not be customers of the original designer due to monetary restraints. Therefore, the knock-off producer would not be considered a true competitor. Also, I agree with some of the posts that maintain that if you are putting your work out there in publications and by teaching classes, you should expect some copying from beginning students, but no one will be able to establish a professional identity or thriving business without coming up with something original.
There are two problems here: copyrights and crafting.
One can copyright anything. The problem is that some countries, China being one of them, are notoriously lax about copyright enforcement. We cannot stop doing business with China; the lure of cheap labor overrides the intellectual property theft. Even hypersensitive Apple continues to outsource their computers to China despite the knock-off Apple stores springing up like weeds throughout that country! Nor can we look to our government for support: at most US government issues spineless protests when Chinese intellectual theft gets too blatant. If the laws are not enforced, nothing will protect creative thinkers.
We have to be realistic. Beads have been personal adornments for thousands of years. How can any modern crafter claim to have designed something so utterly new that no earlier artisan ever made something similar? And how many crafters have learned a design in class then marketed it as “original”.
We can’t fight mass production or international copyright infringements. What we can and should focus on is giving due credit to those who shared their knowledge with us and being honest about what inspired our designs.
The next time you see a piece absolutely identical to one you made, find out where it came from. You may find that you were in the same class with the artist – or that it was inspired by a piece in a musuem.
Thank you Tanya for the information, but I understand the Chinese are notorius for copyright infringement, so I’m not sure that can help us prevent this kind of blatant intellectual/artistic theft.
I’m thinking maybe we should start a “BUY AMERICAN ARTISTS” or “BUY ” campaign on websites, etc. Encourage people to support artists in their own countries, even if it costs a little more. It keeps working…
The other thing to remember is “you get what you pay for”. You said the original pieces had much more quality than those copied by someone in China…Yep, if it’s too good to be true…The knockoffs were probably not even annealed, so they’ll probably shatter.
As for lawsuits: Frankly, my experience with lawyers is that if you win, they get most of the money and if you lose, they get most of the money. Internationally? Forget it — you’d probably owe them.
I think it makes sense to label your items with the copyright notice as Tanya suggests, educate your students, and then move on as the other posters have said. I have come across teachers who appear obsessed with copying, which makes you wonder why they are teaching. On the other hand, some teachers have said go ahead and copy, we don’t care! One or two have even said it’s okay to teach their class, probably because they know that the students are no competition for them.
Life’s too short to waste energy on things beyond your control.
Thanks Tonya for posting about this. It is hard to even explain how it feels to see not just one little piece, but a number of pieces from a collection you’ve made be copied (actual molds and recreations of pieces from my hand carved texture plates).
There is such a fine line of being inspired by and copying someones work. And when someone knowingly takes something made by a person and has copies made with the intention of mass production and reselling them at a fraction of the cost, flooding the market with knock offs – that is just wrong. It goes well beyond “being inspired by”.
And it is a huge waste of positive creative energy and time to spend pursuing copyrights. But that is where cataloging, dating, copyright your work ahead of time, then hiring a good lawyer, who can step up and take care of things for you comes in.
The bottom line for me for the decision to hire a lawyer was not because I wanted to rake in the cash (these pieces don’t sell for much, so profit? Really? Not likely. International – you’re kidding right..).
The two big reasons are:
1. I would be letting go of all my copyright and intellectual property rights for those designs in the future if I did not proceed with this. Even more would be flooding the market with no end to be seen.
2. The pieces that are being knocked off – knowing that they are glazed ceramic pieces – are the glazes lead free? Are they going to eventually craze and separate from the clay body? What if someone gets injured from one? Then they try to sue me because these “look like” my work? They are my textures aren’t they? They are earth clay aren’t they? Then they must be mine. No way am I setting myself up for dealing with that situation without a firm ground to stand on. Especially knowing that these are out there.
So with that little bit being said and offered up to anyone in a similar situation – please keep track of your work, your sketches, your inspirations. Document and Date things. Copyright is important.
If you care to read up on my thoughts about this issue, and how best to “Keep Form” check out my blog posts on it. I leave my thoughts in a few posts, none of them recent (and they will be in reverse order because of the default search), because I walk ahead of this game. I keep on making new work and let my lawyer deal with all the crap that goes with protecting my body of work…
http://marshanealstudio.blogspot.com/search/label/Remember%20Form
Hope you never find yourself in this situation with your work…
All the best,
~Marsha
Thanks to everyone for their input.Hopefully we never go through what Tonya and Marsha have experienced. Being informed and prepared goes along way in this business.
I know this is a thorny subject and the rules seem to differ with every person that you ask as well, I’m in the UK, so if I saw a design that had been copied from a jeweller in the US, should I inform them ?, if a person took a US based designers’ class online and sold the work she made from it is that an infringement ? I actually got asked to repair a copy of one of my own designs, that a client got as a present, she thought it was under my guarantee and the only difference from my original was what it had been threaded on, which was what had broken I didn’t have the heart to tell her as she had been given it by a special friend. How much of a design could you use as inspiration ? I always credit anything I am inspired by so if I used a colour combination for example or a style of bead but different colours am I copying ? I want to create original artworks but read a lot of beading books, magazines and websites I fear that sometimes some things may be close, and I know some others are closer too is there somewhere we could clarify this for once and for all ?
I know I always try to make new works, and if I see anything even similar in shops already I wouldn’t use a design that was similar or close to it but it must be even harder for those who are not only published but also well known too
and I would hate to even accidentally do that as ignorance is not in this case a defence but a worry for me
Very interesting article and also the comments! Humorously enough, I have been inspired by (“copied”) a few of the bead designs found on Chinese websites. Turn about is fair play! (Of course, my work is a whole lot more carefully crafted, I use better quality metals, and it’s never an exact copy.)