COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT....AGAIN!!!

OH NO!! NOT AGAIN!...yes, I am afraid it is true. My friend Kathy Weller contacted me just a week ago to tell me she had seen this lovely key chain on Amazon.com with the name Lee Hiller Designs next to it. She knows my work and knew this was my fabric design licensed to Andover Fabrics and part of my "Dem Bones" Halloween line. Well,how can this be she thought? Why doesn't it say Carol Eldridge? MMMM, I better contact Carol and let her know, thought Kathy, being the wise friend that she is.
Note:my copyright clearly marked on the selvedge of the fabric! So I check it out and I saw the name Lee Hiller Designs....and I am thinking to myself, who is Lee Hiller and what is she/he doing with their name on my copyrighted design?? So I googled the name Lee Hiller Designs and come up with a website of a photographer from Hot Springs, Arkansas ...(three things came out of Hot Springs, Arkansas, Bill Clinton, Walmarts and Tyson Chicken) who has a website with a copyright notice clearly marked right on the home page along with the caveat that you cannot use any of her images without her permission since all the images belong to her....are you seeing a trend here... aren't you wondering why she has a copyright notice on her website but ignores mine? I know I am....so I search a little deeper and I come up with a list of design categories that she has on her site, so for the fun of it I click on the Halloween one...mmm...dare I go through all 900 pages..what the heck, I have nothing better to do right? yes, 900 pages of Halloween products with designs on them... each page with about 12 designs or so on it..that is over 10,000 images and products, just in that one category...YUP! you do the math! check this out...
This is just one page of literally hundreds of pages of designs with products made by Zazzle the on-line shop you can send your work to and have it put on plates, mugs, aprons tee shirts etc...you can see the care and design ability of this woman ( she is a woman) took in using my design and "slapping" it down on her choice of items. That is my design in the upper right hand corner on a plate...(lovely).
Well, what do we have here...my skeleton design from the same "Dem Bones" collection I licensed to Andover Fabrics....on so many gross and cheap looking products....I shuddered as they unfolded before my eyes...mugs, aprons, tiles in frames, cards, ornaments, plates, coasters, clocks, pencil holders, fabric swatches...on and on and on and on and on....

and she is selling quilting squares using my fabric design...
oh and a lovely designed apron with my skeletons just plunked as a square right on the top of the apron...now that's creative...
here's a closer look at my pumpkin/skull design on a plate...complete with a gold rimmed border... perhaps I should order a set for my family for Halloween...tempting...
oh, a framed tile for my kitchen...
a nice mug is always handy....
and who wouldn't want a Halloween star(?) with the skeletons right in the middle to hang up on their...ummm...Halloween bush?
If you weren't big on the skeleton apron the pumpkin/skulls apparently are available in the same adorable square format (shows so much design skill I can hardly stand it) on their very own apron!
and if you are lucky enough to have one of those mug racks, you could add another of my designs to that with this mug with the pumpkins/skulls.
and who couldn't use another set of coasters for Halloween... but wait...she has moved out of the Halloween category into my "Fiesta" fabric collection based on one of my trips to Santa Fe...perhaps you need a card to send to a friend who is upset because her artwork has been ripped off yet again...



are there words...

This is the star of the collection...a pencil box...how perfect, I think I will order one for all my clients, I am so proud... but this next series of designs just kills me...this is a coordinate stripe I did for the "Fiesta" line... quilters need fabrics like this to make their quilts, little ditzy all over prints, stripes, dots to fill in areas around the primary patterns...so she ripped off a stripe... I mean how pathetic is that to rip off a stripe...a stripe...only the lowest of the lows of not creative or talented people would need to steal someone's stripe...



branching out into clocks now...
framed tiles
and it goes on and on and on and on... to be continued....

Comments

[michelle]

carol,

i love your work and this is so terrible that someone would be so blatant to take someones work and just plaster it all over zazzle! Just a fellow artist who feels your frustration!

[barbara]

And is this "ladies" A** in a sling yet. Let us hear the rest of this story!! As we read I do hope a certifieed letter from your lawyer is on its way to her and the website company. But I must say she does have good taste. She did pick some good designs!!

[Jeanette]

I would love to hear what happens next! This is just plain BAD and Im so sorry you have to deal with this. On a brighter note.... this "lady" sure must not be the the sharpest tool in the shed if you know what Im saying? ;)

[Gina Lee Bean]

This is imply unacceptable! I can't believe this. As an artist myself, I see this happening more and more and it sickens me to know that some people have the nerve to rip off other artist's hard work and claim it as their own. An overhaul on how copyright laws are legally monitored and enforced is well over due! It's stealing and these people should be made accountable for that. I am so sorry that you are having to go through this Carol.

[Jen Norton]

Wow. I found your story on a LinkedIn comment and I had to come see for myself. The stripe just kills me...seriously? Wow.

[karenharveycox]

I am so sorry that this happened to you. I am an artist and I design fabric on Spoonflower. I am so upset that my designs are able to be pinned by anyone to Pinterest via Spoonflower or Etsy.

Don't they realize that this can create a wonderful opportunity for people like you have mentioned to copy artists work. I don't' know if this person copied directly from your fabric or not. It just seems to me that with the advent of Pinterest, copyright has just flown out the window.

Want to read more of what happened.

Karen

[toko busana muslim]

Thank you for posting this. It’s exactly what I was looking for!

[Jackie Von Tobel]

There was a post on this thief in particular on the copyright thread of the Art licensing Group a couple of months back. Many people came forward to say they had been ripped off by her and her husband. I know a few threatened legal action but it does not seem to phase this woman. She will keep at it until someone with big bucks and lawyers can afford to file a suit against her. It might be worth contacting a copyright attorney and suggesting a class action suit on contingency against her. It might shut down other rip off artists if many artists who are being ripped off by the same person group together and sue. Good Luck and sorry for your pain!

[health insurance orlando]

i really like your perform and this is so dreadful that someone would be so outright to take a person's perform and just plaster it all over zazzle! Just a other specialist who seems your frustration!

[ghd hair straightener]

we have yet another robin's nest in our dwarf spruces on our deck. Its like a revolving baby hatching house!!3 perfect blue robin's eggs, I wish I could take one to replace the one Colby broke to your house, but then there would be one less little birdie.