Sunday, April 17, 2011

If this is not illegal, it should be

Somebody takes imprints of existing items and sells them on Etsy... I mean... it's one of the easiest things in the world to take an imprint of an object, and use it to copy the object, but that girl looks rather modern. That means, the person who made it is probably still alive, or at least there hasn't been 70 years from his/her death. Or at least the company who bought the design still owns the copyright. You can't just take an imprint of anything that happens to fancy you and sell that as a mold, to encourage and enable others to steal copyright.
Or - obviously you can.
Which means, that if I make a cameo of polymer clay or resin or something similar, sell it and this person gets her hands on it, I can find my unique, original artwork copied by every dick, tom and harry, and in a couple of years there's no saying who did what first, and my original will be counted among the "dime a dozen" crap.

Another thing I was really disappointed today with, was the different Etsy teams... as anyone and their dog can start a team, anyone (and their dog) starts a team, and then uses the fancy names. I checked out a couple.

There was a group about people who collect, buy and sell foxes, and only one of the members had an item with a fox to sell, and that was also the only item with a fox in the combined favorites of the team members. Really disappointing.

There was a team about people who either were big girls wanting fashionable, beautiful clothes, or selling fashionable beautiful clothes to big girls, or supporting anti-sizism in clothes selling at Etsy. The same thing there. Might be that the members were big girls, or supporting big girls, but not one was selling clothes to big girls, or favorited such items. *sigh*

Nevertheless, the biggest disappointment was a group that had named itself after the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. My reaction was: "Oh, steampunk! Or something other, extraordinary, handmade... This must be good!"
It was not. I find selling "vintage" from 80's VERY ordinary. Anyone can have a second hand store. Now... making something new with the vintage finds, that would have been extraordinary. Selling new-made things made with old patterns older than me, that would be interesting. Inventing new techniques, creating unusual combinations, exciting artefacts, weird, odd, interesting... that's what I was expecting from a league of extraordinary Etsy sellers.

I have to say that I wish I had the nerve. I named my shop "cabinet of curiosities and fair of vanities", shivering of the imputence and the pretentiousness of it, and I intend to live up to the name. That's why I haven't been selling anything there. Nothing seems worthy the name - curiosity and vanity...

1 comment:

nannygoat said...

Your Sweet...You've taken the thoughts right out of my head. Iknow when you do put something for sale it will be wonderful ! And I will do the same :)I will be watching for you...........
Sinecerely, Your Friend