The Etsy/UrbanOutfitters Debacle
Last week, the internet was awash with the story about Urbanoutfitters, a corporation that has a reputation of repurposing (or, put more simply, stealing) smaller/independent artists, had struck again. This time they had stolen the premise of work by Etsy jewelry designer Truche and were were selling it online [original story]. The internet, in typical fashion, went mental, disparaging UrbanOutfitters for their flagrant thievery. The thing was, the outrage seemed justified—until I read a piece on the blog Regretsy. The blog makes several interesting points, including this:
But what part of the design is proprietary? The shape of a state or country isn’t really something anyone can lay claim to. So you’d have to conclude that it’s the addition of the heart that makes it her design.
The Regretsy goes on to point out another Etsy designer posted a very similar piece in 2008, before Truche was in the heart/state game, and jewelry designer James Avery was making very similar pendents in 2009. (You can find the visual proof on the Regretsy blog linked above)
The blog post concludes with the following statement:
Are all of these independent designers on Etsy stealing from each other? Or this is such a simple and generic idea that many people can come up with it at once? Certainly the idea of a charm in the shape of a state is nothing new; they’ve been selling those to tourists for years. Is it such a leap to put a heart in one? That seems like a logical progression from the I heart NY design, which I first remember seeing in the late 70′s.
The author gets to the crux of the issue—the concept just isn’t that original, and if you want to give someone credit, maybe it should be Milton Glaser, whom originally designed the iconic “I Love New York” logo in the 70s.
I guess the morale of this sordid tale is that we, as internet citizens, should take a second before we e-lynch the supposed perpetrators of these crimes.
