Thursday, April 7, 2011

Woo!

Done...ish. That's right I have finished tatting the large order. I even pressed the lot of it, counting, double counting and counting again as I packed it. All that remains is the terror inducing task of shipping it to the other side of the planet. Yes, I have shipped all over the world, but never an order of this amount, one that will have to go through customs and absolutely have duties attached to it. There are invoices to create, which I never do and forms to fill out. I'd like to say that I'm never agreeing to this sort of thing again, but never say never right. Oh, and when I say that I sing the song from American Tail not that other song by that name.

In other news, apparently I should not have apologized for ranting. I was going to take it all back today, but I did really mean it. I mean, I don't apologize for the rant itself, only the way it made a few people feel, which was unintentional. The incident that spurred it was resolved with a simple, 'I didn't know' and I believe them. I really do appreciate all the comments of support though, they are really wonderful to read. I did want to respond to one comment though regarding etsy's stance on copying. Copyright protection is the sole responsibility of the the copyright holder. That means, it's your job to tell them with proof in the form of a dmca take down notice. Once they have that they either contact the infringing party to remove the items, or in the case of widespread abuse shutdown the seller. There are varying opinions on their use of this power in this regard, but my personal experience with one particularly aggressive copycat was quite positive. The offender literally disappeared off the Internet, in that form anyway, after I submitted the dmca to etsy.

Of course I was also on the other side of that once long ago when I first started my shop. It was unintentional on my behalf as well. It was a single item left over from a custom order for a friend, but the pattern from a credit less picture they found online turned out to belong to a very aggressive copyright protector. In that case I was asked very nicely by etsy to remove the listing which I immediately did and I learned a very valuable lesson. It also spurred me to design more and look where that has gotten me.

So, today begins the great remaking of sold items that will likely last for sometime as I've been working on the large order for three weeks and even though sales have been slow, they have still existed and I haven't remade a single thing in that time. The hardest part will be deciding what needs remaking first, maybe alphabetical or by date sold...see hard. Well, off to it then, there is no rest for the wicked.

6 comments:

jenilin said...

yeah i looked yesterday i think it was gone!!!!! i was pretty shocked at the outright comment that it was a copy of yours.

Anonymous said...

copy-write can be a tricky thing. For example, I loved the portrait necklace and after a bit of digging around I managed to find the picture of the original design. Now even after a very brief look at the picture it is pretty obvious that the only change was to leave out a ring and a couple of chains at the corners. This makes me wander how much of a modification is enough to NOT infringe copyright?

TotusMel said...

@cat-82 You're absolutely right about the portrait pattern. It's my understanding that vintage patterns are generally no longer covered by copyright so anything I have based on or modified from vintage patterns could also be created similarly by others and that particular necklace is also listed by another seller as well.

Honestly for me it's more about respecting other creators ideas and designs. If someone is actively trying to find a loophole to make it okay make the same piece as someone else for sale, then they already know they're doing something that at the very least is not nice, but that's just my opinion.

tulsinator1219 said...

I have been keeping up with your etsy and blog for about a year now. I just want you to know, your work has quality and experience in it. I could find cheap imitations if I wanted, but the point is it won't be yours. I really find value in your work and not just for the pieces, but also for your mission. Spreading the art of tatting and putting up your patterns to help people learn is such a wonderful thing. I have grown so much as a tatter because of you! Thank you!

Anonymous said...

@TotusMel I agree, there is a fine line between admiring work and wanting to emulate it, and being a downright copy-cat!

I for example, followed your pattern for the queens feet then decided to make the slave bracelets from the picture as a wee project. My sister loved them and wanted a set but being unsure what your stance was on copying for personal use I spent days coming up with my own design.. It would be so easy to simply copy you and earn off your hard work but where is the satisfaction in that? My design may or may not be up at your standard of work but I'm so proud of it because its my own.

Katie said...

This looks amazing. I am so happy to have found your blog....now, I need to check out your etsy shop. Beautiful work.