⚠️ PEOPLE ARE IMPERSONATING ME! Have you had a youtube comment reply to you with my profile picture, encouraging you to text a WhatsApp or telegram number? That's a FAKE bot that is pretending to be me. I don't ask people to call or text me, EVER! If you text it, they will try to scam you into buying something that is fake. I show how the scam works in this video: ua-cam.com/users/shortstaek09vYlJ8?feature=share I can't believe people can be so cruel 🥺 and I am so sorry that this happens! If you see a fake bot, please report it. Thank you 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you Emma. I watch your videos (I love them!) and I have noticed it happening in your comments section too. You'd think that a travel/cruise channel would be immune but nope!
@@WholesaleTed Oh wow, thanks so much! I took your course recently which was fantastic, I'll be launching my store soon and you made it so easy, much appreciated. I get all kinds of romance scams, even people selling fake merch of mine! Bonkers. I imagine yours is more frequent being in the money-making space. Ps if you ever need a UA-cam friend, I'd love to chat, it's a strange and often lonely job as you know. 😂❤
@@sixfigureskibum just to confirm, you did not get a reply from me. You got a reply from someone impersonating me, asking you to contact them on an app. I do not ask people to contact me. Please do not contact anyone claiming to be me (or a UA-camr) asking you to message them, they are a scammer impersonating them!
The obvious characters is one thing. But there needs to be a check on some things that shouldn’t be able to be trademarked. “Plant mom” or “boy mom” or “savage” are all basic words that should not be allowed to be taken by one person.
But "plant mom" or "boy mom" aren't words, they're phrases. And phrases can be Trademarked. People can still have the individual words like "plant", "boy", "mom", etc. in their business title. They just can't use them in the exact same conjunction as some else's business title. You can't say "Plant mom," but you can still say something like "Moma's Pretty Plants" or something like that.
@@nonyabusiness3619 even still, these are pretty common phrases that shouldn’t be allowed to be trademarked. And savage I did have to take down partially on Etsy because it was trademarked in the UK on tshirts.
no words should be able to be taken by anyone. using the guns of government to have monopolies on words isn't right. It's only to protect big corporations against competition. That's how people like Bill Gates and many others really got rich, not by inventing stuff. Patent trolls protected by government.
There is SO much Disney themed stuff on Etsy, that I bet the site would lose a ton of revenue if all those shops got closed all at the same time! Disney DOES NOT play around, so NEVER try selling anything Disney related (or any brand) if you don't want your shop closed by them. I've seen SUPREME brand take some shops down too.
i had a pizza-related listing taken down because the word supreme was in there somewhere lol..absolute clowns they are (im guessing more of a bot issue)
Some copyrights become no longer valid after a certain time. I believe Pooh Bear already has been and a movie was made, they didn't face legal action afaik.
I don't care for disney, and I would never recreate it - not because of copyright-claims, but because I don't like the company. So simply. Some people are just not that original/ creative, because they grew up drinking the disney kool-aid.
@@RoseaCreates Pooh bear from 1926 is no longer under copyright/trademark protection, but Winnie-the-Pooh w/ red shirt etc is still protected and will be for a very long time. The words Winnie-the-Pooh cannot be used to sell the 1926 version of Pooh bear either. Just wanted to clarify a bit more. :)
Actually, even you sell from your own imagination, unless you didn't use any reference you can get anywhere, there is a chance you accidentally create something alike to others. Since there are also cases in Etsy that even just names are issue, let me give this example: In Japan's anime, if authors will sue other authors for copyright, anime industry will shut down in no time. Many animes have similar references to the point that their names, looks, plot are the same. Go back to product to sell. If we both sell something related to flowers. At least 500 artists decide to do that. Half, if not more than half, will have similar styles. Now, they have similar styles. What's next? Where do they referenced these flowers, etc. To be honest, when I see other artists digital art now, I think it was similar to others as the styles are too common. Solution? We already know what makes copyright infringement. But if we take so much consideration about others, it's kinda a headache. To be honest, big companies copy each other's idea in order to win the competition. Is copying idea illegal? Yes. When CEO learned that an employee leaked their idea, they fired that employee automatically. We're businessmen/women in this field. Problems like this happens. Business do close. Business do open. As a CEOs, we must be ready.
@@AiSakurai but illustrating some flowers is reasonable for them to be similar to something else, compared to using a well articulated character like Mickey Mouse, which is obviously a copyright infringement on one, if not, the biggest brand on the planet.
I do creative audio production for broadcast. A good rule of thumb I always use (when it comes to copyright) is try to imagine the most ridiculously far-fetched lawsuit being thrown at you, make it 50% MORE ridiculous...and you're about halfway there. That's kept me safe for about 40 years.
I've also seen people twist themselves into pretzels say something like, "I am not selling this image because I don't own the copyright to it. You're merely paying me to put this image on a shirt for you and the buyer is responsible for following copyright law." Mind you, this is not a disclaimer on a custom-made order where the buyer is providing the graphics to a print shop; this is a person who is selling Disney-branded products in their store. As someone who works in the legal field and sometimes has to deal with copyright, trademark, and knock-off products, this sort of legal disclaimer is not cute or some sort of ingenious workaround. It does NOT hold up in a court of law. And, if anything, it's worse than nothing at all because you can't even plead ignorance of the law or the copyright; you admit guilt and willful intent right from the get-go.
I actually heard a story a year or so ago where some guy was on vacation at the beach and some other guy came up to him and asked him where he got his funny T-shirt. The guy on vacation told him he made it himself and even gave the guy his store information. Surprise! The guy who came up to him worked for Disney and followed up with a lawsuit for trademark infringement. I don't remember the dollar amount but it was huge.
I do print on demand and print customers’ images on canvas. Sometimes they send me copyrighted images and I tell them I don’t do this and cancel the order. I hope this is the right thing to do
@@muhammed1234566 Yes. Even if the customer provides an image to you, they have to have a license to use it. I'm not sure if a personal use license would be sufficient, since you're making it just for them and will not use the image again. But better to be safe than sorry. If they have you a bootleg image, you'll be the one who pays damages.
@@kerim.peardon5551 No they don't.... A license is for commercial use, which you do not need to put an image on a shirt. You do need it to sell said image as a basic product or service. Clearly you need to learn how to do your job better if you think its unlawful for someone to put an image on a shirt that I requested and provided. Thats hilariously dumb. The ONLY way that becomes illegal is if the content of said picture violates LAW, such as a depiction of R or CP. AND EVEN THEN! The law that would be broken is the possession and distribution of such, not the act of putting the picture on the shirt. Wow, no wonder our courts and officers are going to shit, you all are just the arm of the corporations at this point.
Parody is a hard one to understand. But, I have always known that copying a cartoon is a big no-no. There was a preschool in the town where I went to college that had Disney characters painted on their wall outside around their playground. Disney came in and gave them a cease and desist order. It made the news. However, Hanna-Barbera came in and, for free, put their characters up there for all the kiddos to enjoy.
Parody is something I would never try to claim. It's a real defense but it's easy to get it wrong. In the case of Frizzle that is very clearly parody, but for most people who claim "parody" they usually aren't meeting the legal standard of parody.
@@WholesaleTed Its going to really hurt them in court. The Bob Ross thing was stretching it, but actual Minnie products AND you claim commercial licenses is a level of entitlement that should bring the biggest fines possible. It's people like that that ruin the space for the rest of us. On the other talking point about artwork POTENTIALLY looking like something copyrighted I could see BIG problems in the future on that. There are only so many things that can be created, similar in the music industry in that only so many tones exist in certain combinations that are pleasant to the ear. Eventually you won't be able to make anything because of the career suit filers. Similar to how youtube strikes work where someone can just CLAIM a strike but not even be affiliated with the original work just because they don't like you or don't agree with you. Or they are a competitor and are trying to shut you down because you are selling more than they are. The Telegram spammers are some of the worst violators and honestly all the big channels need to come together and file a BBB claim against Alphabet and file a class action not only for allowed copywrite infringement but knowingly endangering the public and putting our nations security and safety at risk. It's obvious Google is just going to ignore it and we can't allow that anymore. It's a federal crime and a national emergency at the amount of people getting scammed.
I work in a Legal Department of a large company and I can tell you the first thing that we would do in a case like this is send a "cease and desist letter" to the infringer. If that doesn't work, in the case of Etsy, we'd file a "copyright infringement claim" with Etsy. If that doesn't work we may or may not sue depending on how much money the infringer is making. If they are making less than it would cost us to sue them we wouldn't sue. We'd just keep sending letters and filing claims with Etsy or whoever was hosting the site. So your own success in copyright infringement can wind up putting you out of business, ironically. 😅
Seriously like crawling in a bear cave in the winter, cuddling up to it, and being surprised that it mauls you. You don't try to cheat certain companies -- Disney is a prime example.
Yeah. Disney has no morals. All they care about is money, and ironically they've blown a lot of money on failing IPs. They have to flex their legal muscles, lest they reveal that they have no originality left to offer and the IPs in their control are better represented by fans making silly trinkets and fan made content. They ruined classic franchises like Star Wars and Marvel, so they can't let other people upstage them.
From what I heard about the Etsy shop is they received a cease and desist from Disney and refused to take it down as you can see by their own site still being up. Which is just crazy, because they may not have ended up in court, if they’d complied. You definitely don’t want to go up against a company like Disney. Or others, but Disney is not one you’d want to mess with.
Part of the issue is that a lot of these sellers are from China and do not have a US based address. This makes mitigating their counter notices extremely difficult as they are nearly impossible to sue. Typically, IP holders have to file a complaint with the CBP to block imports.
I'm astounded by how many people violate copyright of big brands. When I was a freelance graphic designer, I remember a client, who was a Real Estate Agent, they wanted to include their 'Nespresso' coffee maker on their advertisement pamphlets. The photo they gave me included George Clooney with the Nespresso machine. I'm like "Yeah nah bro!"😂😂
This made so much sense. Let’s just be honest, not many people take the time to look over legalities when creating online stores and trying to sell because their motive is always going to be to make money by providing what they believe will sell. I hope this gets plenty of views by people who need this education. It will save them a lot of time and money that’s for sure.
It's about time Etsy took action. There's so many people on there using and copying others' photos, visuals, characters and content. As an artist it put off the entire site a long time ago.
I totally agree. People complaining about big business shutting them down is ridiculous. If you don't own the IP rights then you have no right to sell products. Go create something original on your own. Then see how you like it if someone starts selling products without your permission.
It's only because they're big companies, small or individual artists have gotten they're work stolen for print on demand, attempted to get the offending listing taken down and yet Etsy ignores them
@j Do not be deceived, they are ONLY protecting multinational conglomerates. The artists/maker sellers are being completely $h@t on, while they let Chinese manufacturers steal out images, product designs & even copy/pasted image descriptions and REFUSE to do anything about it. Since they went public, it is clear they are part of the agenda to destroy small American business. But diSnEy? Bend over backwards to “protect” them!
@@narrowwing That's because Etsy are money grabbing greedy leeches, who are happy for a factory in the Far East selling 1000s of cheap, crap items 'touted as hand-made' making ETSY money to stay up and running, even if reported. They are the new Ali-Express (Etsy Express!) 💩🤡
I was JUST telling a friend of mine that I couldn't believe all the people using Disney art on Etsy. It's about time! I am setting up a POD store in Etsy and everything on my store is MY OWN ARTWORK! I am a commercial artist and I don't want to copy anyone else's artwork. At least when I get my pages uploaded I won't have to worry about being closed down for stealing! Another copyright infringement that really irks me is BEATRICE POTTER... aka PETER RABBIT! They put the same paintings of Peter rabbit straight from her books! She was an amazing artist and woman, and her stuff is protected forever! Yet people keep using it on lots of things. People, be forewarned... if you are copying Peter rabbit on items, stop now! I don't know where Raggedy Ann and Andy stand but I'm betting the are off limits too! Love your channel! Love you!!
Yeah the term "Disney inspired" is abused so badly on Etsy- inspired anything in general on there. It was still is an art thief paradise. Like the BJD doll recasts that can devastate a small/new artist. It can take months to even years to make and perfect a BJD doll to not only move an still look beautiful and hold a pose beautifully. All to be stolen an mass produced for a fraction of the price, there is no way to compete.
Yea.... seems like you are the ignorant one here. You do know that every single 'original' disney story before the 2000's are ALL taken from already existing stories that they changed to be 'kid friendly'. Disney's 'original artwork' is all just artistic interpretations of existing artwork. You artists who advocate for more copyright enforcement are just burring yourselves over and over again. If anything Disney should be paying you all to make art for them to profit off of, since very few of the main characters are things they can even claim (truthfully) to be theirs at all.
Don't support it by supporting Etsy. Etsy is not going to market your art nor your products. Any sales you make will be driven by your marketing efforts 👌 Google analytics = you may as well expend that energy marketing your own website where you can have control over your own business
My only surprise is just how long the sellers knocking off Disney merch got away with this. I sat designing a T-shirt this week for hours upon hours. That’s my time my dime .. then some lazy Twat comes along in 6 months time and knocks it off .. then I’d be pissed too. Although I wouldn’t have Disney’s finances to raise a lawsuit to fight it. Size matters lol 😂
When you think about how much revenue Etsy are earning via these Etsy shops selling copyright/trademarked items, maybe they should be sued as well for profiteering illegally.
The fan art thing has me boggled. Head to any big anime, gaming, etc. Convention and there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of fan art depictions of well known characters that are sold as fan art. So I'm wondering how that works? Also I've commissioned artists to draw fan art for me. But since that was just for me would that be under fair use? It gets really confusing sometimes.
One mistake I had made - and luckily I caught it before getting into trouble - is to create an image of a brand of car. While we often think of intellectual properties in regards to movies, books, music, etc., technically by representing a brand of car in an image I was infringing on the brand's trademark. It's those sneaky situations - like describing cookies as Lemony Snickets - that can end up biting us in the end. Thank you for sharing this video!
while i agree no one should steal anyone elses creative works, there is something to be said for Disney allowing thousands of people and millions in china to get away with selling their stuff. It dilutes their claim, AND it feels like selective prosecution. They should pursue ALL of them. I'm sure they have enough lawyers.
Just putting an excerpt from an email Warner Brother’s sent me regarding using licensed Harry Potter fabrics to make products: While we appreciate your effort, unfortunately, no disclaimer can protect your listing from being infringing if you are utilizing a protected trademark in your listing title, metatags and/or product description. You cannot legally sell items that include trademarks or copyrights of another company, even if you were unaware of the legality of your listing. Selling fan art and other items “inspired by” our protected properties still pose a risk to the seller and Etsy as these disclaimers are not legally recognized or enforceable. The only exception is in the case of items handmade with licensed Harry Potter fabric, and we ask that you include the exact text “made with licensed Harry Potter fabric” so we can easily differentiate between legitimate licensed fabric and counterfeits.
Great explanation of the difference between copyright and trademarks. Probably useful to note that copyright applies automatically in other countries that have signed up to the Berne Convention and other treaties, although the release date (when copyright expires) may differ between different countries. Trademarks only expire if they are not defended (e.g. Xerox, cellotape) and the House of Mouse is diligent about defending them. So, while Mickey's first film "Steamboat Willie" has entered the public domain this year as its copyright term has expired, the Mouse himself is trademarked and so unavailable. We've yet to see if stills from the film are usable (it'll take a court case in the US to determine this) as the depiction of Mickey in it is very different from the trademarked image we all know.
Just do a search for Marilyn Monroe, or Elvis, or Frank Sinatra, or any of the celebrities in the 50's, 60's, or 70's, you'll find LOTS of vendors selling fine art prints with nearly 200k individual sales per vendor. And I guarantee they are not authorized to do so. I hope all these unscrupulous sellers face jail time. It's what they deserve for stealing copyrighted images and making money off things they don't own. And Etsy looks the other way as there pockets are filled.
The Bob Ross Enterprise has a lot of nerve suing anybody, since they have literally stolen his trademark from him while he was dying from cancer. Even his own family can not profit from their father’s mega art merchandise. After years of his hard work & love of teaching people to enjoy art, he fought until his dying breath to regain the ability to leave it to his family. I understand needing protection from copying (I’m an artist myself), but the system definitely has flaws. I know someone who’s video was pulled because her singing bowl supposedly sounded like one of their songs…Really? How ridiculous is that? 🤦♀️
I make art, paint etc. I had Kobe Bryant’s attorney give me a no no letter on Etsy. Actually two of them. Etsy removed my star seller rating because of it, now I get maybe one sell a day on my store.
It's not random. Disney purposely waits until you make a decent profit before they come after you. They have to prove damages which they can't if you haven't made a profit.
Yeah I figured that. I can imagine that corporate lawyers are not cheap so it wouldn’t make sense for Disney to go after an Etsy store that only made a few sales vs a store that made millions in revenue
Warning, I'm not a lawyer, so don't take my knowledge as fact, always contact a professional for the proper legal advise. I've been a screen printer for 30 years. There are big companies that have a whole team of lawyers who's only job is to sue people for copyright infringe are. Budweiser,Disney, Gibson(all big Instrument companies)etc. There used to be where if you changed a design by 15-18 percent you could legally due it as a parody. They would still sue and drag the court case out for years. The company I worked for had a full time lawyer and would fight back winning 99% of the cases against them. There is an ongoing case like this going to the Supreme Court in the USA right now involving Jack Daniels vs a company. A lot of small companies can't afford to fight and often are forced to settle. Giving the fact they left the second shop alone that you mentioned in your video, they have money to fight, unlike first company you mentioned that didn't. My guess is they waited for these shops to grow to large numbers and massive profit because sites like Etsy track how much they make before they sued them. If Disney wins expect massive lawsuits to follow and possibly against Etsy for allowing designs to be sold.
Etsy doesn't immediately take down your shop. By the time your shop is taken down you've been given like a dozen warnings. But anyone can file a complaint against you, even fake complaints. It happens all the time. Of course if Disney says stop selling their items I would do it immediately!! Those other shops are still selling just bc they haven't been taken down yet. I'm sure IP infringement notices are going out daily 😬
@@gothampops I didn’t get any warnings at all and my shop just got permanently suspended yesterday. Their emails don’t help either as they don’t specify where I went wrong. 😓
@@veec.3367You must have a design or keyword that is trademarked or copyrighted. Lots of words are automatic now. Especially with SEO growing daily it’s easier to find sellers who are using them.
This isn't true, at all actually. My shop was suspended and I had to appeal - NO warnings, nothing - they reinstated because it was a "mistake" but I lost all those sales in the meantime. Awful.
I think Disney is going hard because the Original Mickey Mouse's copyright is going to expire at the end of 2023. I imagine that if they want congress to renew the copyright, it would be more likely if Disney demonstrate they are actively pursuing copyright infringement violations.
The original Mickey Mouse should’ve been in the public domain for decades now but every time the trademark is about to expire Disney fights it and somehow gets Congress to change the rules for them to keep Mickey Mouse trademarked indefinitely
An important thing to note here is that Etsy clearly do not proactively prevent copyright theft, as a maker and creator myself I find the lack of ethics abhorrent, I'm amazed that a platform for creators does not make any effort to protect creators from theft of their property, why would anyone want to place their goods on a house full of thieves just to be stolen by them?
Good. I’m sick people of people so lazy they have to steal another’s intellectual property. ETSY asks you tick a box to say “I created this myself” but doesn’t explain the full ramifications of that. Plagiarism, stealing, enfringing, call it what you like, I call it lazy.
The number of sued myself over the years as an artist. I don’t draw anyone’s anything, characters or anything, all original works. I don’t do fan art and I refuse to steal other people’s creations and entities.
Such a good video. Also, fun fact (Also not a lawyer) IP owners can sue for damages not just take your listing down. Etsy showing how many sales a product or store makes must make working out damages super easy.
The number of products sold has nothing to do with "damages." No Etsy sellers should fear an actual court case over their little online shop. Worst case, their shop will simply be shut down. This video features a much higher-profile "influencer" couple who ran a large business, which included a small Etsy shop. A mom who sold a dozen stickers last month shouldn't waste her energy fearing a corporate court battle.
One detail about the Bob Ross case though, Trademark is not like copyright in regards to derivatives, in the case of trademarks it hinges around whether consumers could be deceived into believing the item belongs to the company/brand. In the case of the Bob Ross keycap I could see people being mistaken that they could be buying a sanctioned product.
I run my own small laser engraving business. For custom jobs, I dont do anything that is obviously copyrighted. For things that i just make and sell, I make sure to either buy the rights to the artwork (a few bucks on the site the artists sell on), use copyright free images (careful to make sure they are actually copyright free) or use AI generated art, because that way I know its one of a kind. Im also registered as a LLC so there is some protection in that. Still have to not be stupid or completely oblivious about using copyrighted and trademarked materials though lol.
I'm a cosplayer and when dealing with clothes, a lot of clothing can't be copyrighted. Well, that is until it can. I can make Darth Vader's suit and cape all day long and sell it as long as I don't reference Star Wars or Darth Vader. I make and sell that helmet and I'm in trouble with the mouse. I can make and sell Cinderella's dresses and say it's Cinderella as long as I don't say Disney...I can't make and sell Tiana's. I can't mass produce and sell storm troopers at all but Mandolorians are in a hell of a grey spot. Off Disney, into comics, I can make and sell Superman's suit and cape but the moment I put that S logo on there, I'm toast. I also make low content books on Amazon. I used the term "bullet journal" and got knocked on it. I had no idea that was copyrighted. I apologized and removed my listings. Now I do my due diligence.
Bullet journal is copyrighted? Good grief. At this rate, just talking will be. It's ridiculous. I'm surprised most everyone isn't accidentally infringing something somewhere.
Here are some tricky examples: You can't use celebrity name in your artwork without their permission. Like if you do a portrait and name it Kim Kardashian that is not allowed. Nowadays is popular to redraw movie posters, and name it by adding "my version", like "my version of Star Wars movie poster". If you have something like this you better remove it before someone notice it. However, it is allowed to you use sentence from a movie in your design, but you can't use the name of the movie or the character. As for font: you can't use the specific font if you didn't buy a license for it. However it is allowed to use font if you convert it to curve and it is good practice to pay the author for the font.... Copyright area is a huge one and there are lot of do's and don'ts!
I think it gets out of control with certain combinations of words being trademarked or copyrighted. I just read that bullet journal is one. Like...come on.
Disney loves to sue everyone. Including teachers who show their movies to a classroom of children. So, it really is not safe to do ANYTHING remotely related to Disney or looks anything like it.
thank you! helped me a lot! This week etsy sent me a message saying that I was violating the trademark rights of some products, I don't have any brand, but today that I see point 2 I think I had some word, and it is that I learned the experience with a drawing from among us that I put on a shirt some time ago.
They don't take down those, but they took my painting which was called a Cinderella Princess and didn't have absolutelly anything to do with the Disney. I painted it myself completelly from my imagination, thinking of books I read as a child. It didn't resamle their character or any other character thay exist. And they don't owe copyright to the name. Its an old story that has a variation in every country and not copyrighted by anyone. Never the less - the listing was removed by Disney request.
As Ai technology continues to advance, it is becoming increasingly easy for companies like Disney or Etsy themselves to use image and text recognition software to identify instances of copyright infringement. This is a very feasible option nowadays
That's a good point: although I doubt Etsy themselves will do this. The technology already can exist - UA-cam shows that. When you upload a video, their scarily-fast AI copyright checker looks over it for potential IP infringement before monetization. However, Etsy knows legally they aren't obligated to do that. The courts ruled that Etsy are not obligated to remove copyrighted content unless they get a takedown notice from the IP holder. So as they earn money from these products selling, I don't see any incentive for them to develop this and lose themselves money. Disney on the other hand...
I don't think it has anything to do with AI... Etsy can simply add a piece of code that every shop that has the keyword "disney" would be suspended. They just don't do that LOL
John - Etsy isn't going to do that though. They have protections (safe harbor) and if they start curating their marketplace... it pierces some of those protections. When someone files a DMCA or other type of takedown... Etsy's role is to be neutral. Unless the laws change.. this is how things will remain.
If I had the store mentioned that was singled out, then I would determine what minority discrimination that Disney and Etsy based their discriminatory takedown of my store and lawsuit upon since clearly the lawsuit does not target these x (100s) of other sellers allegedly infringing the Disney brand. A simple Etsy search reveals mass amounts of infringement and yet... it's discriminatory bullying by Disney and etsy. In my worthless opinion which is also why I am no longer uploading new products to Etsy for sale and when my listings expire = goodbye Etsy. I can drive traffic to my own website instead of trying to work the etsy algorithm. This is the year that I learn SEO
I have also seen listings get notice because they are selling the item as new and the item can only be sold as new by an authorized seller because the company backs the new item with a warranty and a third party seller does not have the authority to sell the item with a warranty.
There are a LOT of artists creating paintings of celebrities for sale without their permission. It's playing Russian Roulette to do so. I tried to tell a young artist this and she got mad at me. So - take the risk of being sued if you want to.
I’m glad. 1: I’m a Disney shareholder 2: as an Etsy seller myself this demeans the idea of hand made/vintage stuff which Etsy is supposed to be about (don’t even get me started on the p.o.d. B.s.) 3: it’s lazy 4: it pushes all the actual handmade stuff out of the spotlight as others do like the cheap Disney prints and those stores go skyrocketing to the front
If i were to draw my OWN ART of a character does it matter? How can they even trademark those ears??? Clothing usually isn't able to be trademarked ? Disney is really protective of their IPs but there's a line, you CAN DEFINITELY sell those ears because they don't own mouse ears they just can't have exact characters or be too close to ones the brand sells.
My wish as a POD designer is that consumers could be made more aware of the consequences of buying products that are possibly copyright infringed. For example, they may want to support a friend’s new little business endeavor by buying a cute little possibly copyrighted something at a cheap price, but do they know if/ when they do that, they could be putting their friend’s business and entire livelihood at risk?
Damn, Disney must be taking lotsa losses with their movies when have to resort to punching down just to get some merch bucks. Are the latest Disney releases really that bad?
Etsy can ban most of the stores selling Disney items by simply adding a code that suspends shops using Disney in their keywords... they just don't do that.
Another thing to be cautious of is when you’re buying or using free artwork from other sites. You really don’t know if they bought it from someone else and/or created it from another artists work. (Unintentionally or not) Also be sure to check quotes and sayings to make arise they aren’t trademarked.
@@cgarcia6039 yes - but what I’m talking about is sometimes people get them from other places and resell them as stock images and may not have the right to sell them. You don’t always know who actually holds the copyright.
I don't know if it's the place but I had a question since I wasn't aware of the fanart issue.. Would there be an issue for us cosplayers selling prints since most aren't cosplaying our own original characters?
Been telling people for years to stop selling other companies IPs cuz the lawsuits will be coming. They all laughed me off. This is what happens when sellers don't use common sense.
“Not knowing” or “Seeing others doing it” is no excuse, as a business owner it’s your legal responsibility to not sell copyrighted or trademarked items and it’s your responsibility to do the research to ensure the items you’re selling aren’t copyright or trademark protected… it’s also your legal responsibility to know this. As an artist who has had my work stollen online for decades now, I report sellers that I see doing this, not to Etsy, because nothing seems to come from that, but I now report it directly to the company being infringed upon.
I grew up in Lower Sackville, NS, Canada. The city was sued by Disney for their use of Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs characters. The city was divided into 8 sections for winter carnival, each was a dwarf or Snow. Carnival still happens, but it just isn't the same.
Interesting about the fan art. I like doing my own stuff, but I also do fan art of a rock band (not mainstream) that sells well. I also get stuff removed on RB because i've inadvertently done fan art of stuff i've never seen.
Its pretty simple, just don't use anything that you don't own or create. I have had my designs and products stolen and I hated it, and I am small fry in comparison to companies like Disney. It makes my skin crawl that people think it is OK to steal other peoples work.
Sparkling Dreamers I believe is the guy that takes his stuff and stands on Main Street in Disney selling. Disney starts with a Cease and Desist. When that is ignored, like Sparking Dreamers, it will progress to a lawsuit.
Thanks, this is very helpful. The people who most need to hear this are people who are just starting out and might think using someone else's IP is a good quick start. After all, they may think, "it's just a start, and I'm a little guy, no one will notice me." It's always a bad idea.
I saw Disney's digital items sold on Etsy for a long long time at a very very cheap price and thought.. well, look at that! These are illegal! I'm a digital artist and an Etsy seller. I saw people copying each other contents and reselling at a very competitive price all the time. It's really sad!
In blatant cases, I agree. But using a particular word or phrase that might be just obscure enough to not realize has been and then getting penalized for it? That's a bit too much. At this rate just talking is going to be some kind of infringement for someone 😂
There will always be illegal listings. I have no sympathy for anybody taking other people's idea's no matter the size of the business or company. Great post.
Did you know there are people who do nothing but troll the internet to look for copyright violations to sue. I was our Chamber Chair and this impacted two of our small businesses. One was a flyer posted online and one a tshirt design.
The first step would be to issue a "cease & desist" order, where the user would simply stop using that imagery. A lawsuit wouldn't even be a legal option unless that initial order was ignored - likely, more than one order would be required. Stop scaring people with hyperbole.
Thats why I have only been selling original products sourced directly for the supplier instead of copying. You never know when your years of hard work can go down the drain.
Why doesn't Etsy get sued too? Etsy is profiting off of letting these seller sell on their platform. Etsy is technically selling these items too since they make a commision off every listing that is added plus off every sell. Sellers need to put pressure on those who sue to also include the platform like Etsy, Amazon, Ebay, etc., since they are making income (much more by allowing lots of shops to sell unlicensed merchandise).
People use public domain items or can get licenses from companies to sell their brands if that is what they are into. I favour being original and developing my own style of design. In a world of copy cats I think researching long and hard even on your original artwork, domain names and product names is a wise move.
Developing your own style requires time, money, talent. It's so much easier and faster to steal someone else's tried and tested designs. I am amazed at some comments here accusing Disney being greedy for protenting their IP.
Im in the design bussines and people getting sued is nothing new in our space. It's fun when people get slapped with a lawsuit for literally using 1:1 elements and they act surprised
Some of these shops maybe in partnership or got permission to sell the IP items from Disney. I can’t imagine building a brand that large would take such risk.
Etsy probably gives up some sellers as "sacrificial lambs" to placate companies like Disney. Otherwise Etsy might find itself with a lot more closed sites.
Just like you have people impersonating you, there are people on Etsy that steal artist's work. A known living painter I know, her artwork has been stolen by people that sell HER WORK on ETSY she isn't a large corporation and these people have essentially STOLEN her work and making money. These people know they are doing it and have been notified by her and many artists even known ones can't afford lawyers, you know what ETSY doesn't always cooperate. They might be a huge platform but that is SO WRONG. Etsy needs to take responsiblity.
You are one of the youtubers that truly can't be impersonated. ) I appreciate your in depth knowledge on the print on demand business. I write about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I have really been held back in what merch I can create to go along with my site.
It's sometimes companies themselves who misunderstand (intentionally?) trademark law. Take apple for example, do I even need to explain? So, no, you are not a lawyer.
⚠️ PEOPLE ARE IMPERSONATING ME! Have you had a youtube comment reply to you with my profile picture, encouraging you to text a WhatsApp or telegram number? That's a FAKE bot that is pretending to be me. I don't ask people to call or text me, EVER!
If you text it, they will try to scam you into buying something that is fake. I show how the scam works in this video: ua-cam.com/users/shortstaek09vYlJ8?feature=share
I can't believe people can be so cruel 🥺 and I am so sorry that this happens! If you see a fake bot, please report it. Thank you 🙏🙏🙏
Happens to me all the time too, makes me so angry because people do fall for them (and they email me genuinely thinking it’s me) 😭❤️
Thank you Emma. I watch your videos (I love them!) and I have noticed it happening in your comments section too. You'd think that a travel/cruise channel would be immune but nope!
@@WholesaleTed Oh wow, thanks so much! I took your course recently which was fantastic, I'll be launching my store soon and you made it so easy, much appreciated.
I get all kinds of romance scams, even people selling fake merch of mine! Bonkers. I imagine yours is more frequent being in the money-making space.
Ps if you ever need a UA-cam friend, I'd love to chat, it's a strange and often lonely job as you know. 😂❤
@@WholesaleTed i got a reply from you once asking to contact you on some app
@@sixfigureskibum just to confirm, you did not get a reply from me. You got a reply from someone impersonating me, asking you to contact them on an app. I do not ask people to contact me. Please do not contact anyone claiming to be me (or a UA-camr) asking you to message them, they are a scammer impersonating them!
The obvious characters is one thing. But there needs to be a check on some things that shouldn’t be able to be trademarked. “Plant mom” or “boy mom” or “savage” are all basic words that should not be allowed to be taken by one person.
I definitely agree with the frivolous trademarks, I hate this too.
But "plant mom" or "boy mom" aren't words, they're phrases. And phrases can be Trademarked. People can still have the individual words like "plant", "boy", "mom", etc. in their business title. They just can't use them in the exact same conjunction as some else's business title. You can't say "Plant mom," but you can still say something like "Moma's Pretty Plants" or something like that.
@@nonyabusiness3619 even still, these are pretty common phrases that shouldn’t be allowed to be trademarked. And savage I did have to take down partially on Etsy because it was trademarked in the UK on tshirts.
no words should be able to be taken by anyone. using the guns of government to have monopolies on words isn't right. It's only to protect big corporations against competition. That's how people like Bill Gates and many others really got rich, not by inventing stuff. Patent trolls protected by government.
very true!
There is SO much Disney themed stuff on Etsy, that I bet the site would lose a ton of revenue if all those shops got closed all at the same time! Disney DOES NOT play around, so NEVER try selling anything Disney related (or any brand) if you don't want your shop closed by them. I've seen SUPREME brand take some shops down too.
That’s pretty much the point of this video
i had a pizza-related listing taken down because the word supreme was in there somewhere lol..absolute clowns they are (im guessing more of a bot issue)
Some copyrights become no longer valid after a certain time. I believe Pooh Bear already has been and a movie was made, they didn't face legal action afaik.
I don't care for disney, and I would never recreate it - not because of copyright-claims, but because I don't like the company. So simply. Some people are just not that original/ creative, because they grew up drinking the disney kool-aid.
@@RoseaCreates Pooh bear from 1926 is no longer under copyright/trademark protection, but Winnie-the-Pooh w/ red shirt etc is still protected and will be for a very long time. The words Winnie-the-Pooh cannot be used to sell the 1926 version of Pooh bear either. Just wanted to clarify a bit more. :)
That’s why it’s best to sell your own imagination not someone else’s it just feels better when you sell a product created and made from your own ideas
Actually, even you sell from your own imagination, unless you didn't use any reference you can get anywhere, there is a chance you accidentally create something alike to others.
Since there are also cases in Etsy that even just names are issue, let me give this example:
In Japan's anime, if authors will sue other authors for copyright, anime industry will shut down in no time. Many animes have similar references to the point that their names, looks, plot are the same.
Go back to product to sell. If we both sell something related to flowers. At least 500 artists decide to do that. Half, if not more than half, will have similar styles. Now, they have similar styles. What's next? Where do they referenced these flowers, etc. To be honest, when I see other artists digital art now, I think it was similar to others as the styles are too common.
Solution? We already know what makes copyright infringement. But if we take so much consideration about others, it's kinda a headache. To be honest, big companies copy each other's idea in order to win the competition. Is copying idea illegal? Yes. When CEO learned that an employee leaked their idea, they fired that employee automatically. We're businessmen/women in this field. Problems like this happens. Business do close. Business do open. As a CEOs, we must be ready.
@@AiSakurai but illustrating some flowers is reasonable for them to be similar to something else, compared to using a well articulated character like Mickey Mouse, which is obviously a copyright infringement on one, if not, the biggest brand on the planet.
Exactly
I do creative audio production for broadcast. A good rule of thumb I always use (when it comes to copyright) is try to imagine the most ridiculously far-fetched lawsuit being thrown at you, make it 50% MORE ridiculous...and you're about halfway there. That's kept me safe for about 40 years.
I've also seen people twist themselves into pretzels say something like, "I am not selling this image because I don't own the copyright to it. You're merely paying me to put this image on a shirt for you and the buyer is responsible for following copyright law." Mind you, this is not a disclaimer on a custom-made order where the buyer is providing the graphics to a print shop; this is a person who is selling Disney-branded products in their store.
As someone who works in the legal field and sometimes has to deal with copyright, trademark, and knock-off products, this sort of legal disclaimer is not cute or some sort of ingenious workaround. It does NOT hold up in a court of law. And, if anything, it's worse than nothing at all because you can't even plead ignorance of the law or the copyright; you admit guilt and willful intent right from the get-go.
Haha that is a VERY good point - that is worse!
I actually heard a story a year or so ago where some guy was on vacation at the beach and some other guy came up to him and asked him where he got his funny T-shirt. The guy on vacation told him he made it himself and even gave the guy his store information. Surprise! The guy who came up to him worked for Disney and followed up with a lawsuit for trademark infringement. I don't remember the dollar amount but it was huge.
I do print on demand and print customers’ images on canvas. Sometimes they send me copyrighted images and I tell them I don’t do this and cancel the order. I hope this is the right thing to do
@@muhammed1234566 Yes. Even if the customer provides an image to you, they have to have a license to use it. I'm not sure if a personal use license would be sufficient, since you're making it just for them and will not use the image again. But better to be safe than sorry. If they have you a bootleg image, you'll be the one who pays damages.
@@kerim.peardon5551 No they don't.... A license is for commercial use, which you do not need to put an image on a shirt. You do need it to sell said image as a basic product or service. Clearly you need to learn how to do your job better if you think its unlawful for someone to put an image on a shirt that I requested and provided. Thats hilariously dumb. The ONLY way that becomes illegal is if the content of said picture violates LAW, such as a depiction of R or CP. AND EVEN THEN! The law that would be broken is the possession and distribution of such, not the act of putting the picture on the shirt. Wow, no wonder our courts and officers are going to shit, you all are just the arm of the corporations at this point.
Parody is a hard one to understand. But, I have always known that copying a cartoon is a big no-no.
There was a preschool in the town where I went to college that had Disney characters painted on their wall outside around their playground. Disney came in and gave them a cease and desist order. It made the news. However, Hanna-Barbera came in and, for free, put their characters up there for all the kiddos to enjoy.
Parody is something I would never try to claim. It's a real defense but it's easy to get it wrong. In the case of Frizzle that is very clearly parody, but for most people who claim "parody" they usually aren't meeting the legal standard of parody.
@@WholesaleTed I agree with you totally.
I'm honestly shocked at how bold these knuckleheads are. This is BLATANT infringement and I do not feel sorry whatsoever for them.
The listing I was most surprised by was the Disney SVG Graphic Pack that said you could use the Disney pictures for commercial purposes 💀
Yea this vids pointless
@@WholesaleTed Its going to really hurt them in court. The Bob Ross thing was stretching it, but actual Minnie products AND you claim commercial licenses is a level of entitlement that should bring the biggest fines possible. It's people like that that ruin the space for the rest of us.
On the other talking point about artwork POTENTIALLY looking like something copyrighted I could see BIG problems in the future on that. There are only so many things that can be created, similar in the music industry in that only so many tones exist in certain combinations that are pleasant to the ear. Eventually you won't be able to make anything because of the career suit filers.
Similar to how youtube strikes work where someone can just CLAIM a strike but not even be affiliated with the original work just because they don't like you or don't agree with you. Or they are a competitor and are trying to shut you down because you are selling more than they are.
The Telegram spammers are some of the worst violators and honestly all the big channels need to come together and file a BBB claim against Alphabet and file a class action not only for allowed copywrite infringement but knowingly endangering the public and putting our nations security and safety at risk. It's obvious Google is just going to ignore it and we can't allow that anymore. It's a federal crime and a national emergency at the amount of people getting scammed.
@@usernameiphone3gkid like the air in your head.
@@WholesaleTed that store is now gone.
I work in a Legal Department of a large company and I can tell you the first thing that we would do in a case like this is send a "cease and desist letter" to the infringer. If that doesn't work, in the case of Etsy, we'd file a "copyright infringement claim" with Etsy. If that doesn't work we may or may not sue depending on how much money the infringer is making. If they are making less than it would cost us to sue them we wouldn't sue. We'd just keep sending letters and filing claims with Etsy or whoever was hosting the site. So your own success in copyright infringement can wind up putting you out of business, ironically. 😅
Seriously like crawling in a bear cave in the winter, cuddling up to it, and being surprised that it mauls you. You don't try to cheat certain companies -- Disney is a prime example.
😂😂
Yeah. Disney has no morals. All they care about is money, and ironically they've blown a lot of money on failing IPs. They have to flex their legal muscles, lest they reveal that they have no originality left to offer and the IPs in their control are better represented by fans making silly trinkets and fan made content. They ruined classic franchises like Star Wars and Marvel, so they can't let other people upstage them.
Yes! 😂
Don't try to cheat, period.
From what I heard about the Etsy shop is they received a cease and desist from Disney and refused to take it down as you can see by their own site still being up. Which is just crazy, because they may not have ended up in court, if they’d complied. You definitely don’t want to go up against a company like Disney. Or others, but Disney is not one you’d want to mess with.
Part of the issue is that a lot of these sellers are from China and do not have a US based address. This makes mitigating their counter notices extremely difficult as they are nearly impossible to sue. Typically, IP holders have to file a complaint with the CBP to block imports.
I'm astounded by how many people violate copyright of big brands. When I was a freelance graphic designer, I remember a client, who was a Real Estate Agent, they wanted to include their 'Nespresso' coffee maker on their advertisement pamphlets. The photo they gave me included George Clooney with the Nespresso machine. I'm like "Yeah nah bro!"😂😂
I had one customer trying to use the Yahoo! logo on a product without permission in the early 2000s.
This made so much sense. Let’s just be honest, not many people take the time to look over legalities when creating online stores and trying to sell because their motive is always going to be to make money by providing what they believe will sell. I hope this gets plenty of views by people who need this education. It will save them a lot of time and money that’s for sure.
It's about time Etsy took action. There's so many people on there using and copying others' photos, visuals, characters and content. As an artist it put off the entire site a long time ago.
I totally agree. People complaining about big business shutting them down is ridiculous. If you don't own the IP rights then you have no right to sell products. Go create something original on your own. Then see how you like it if someone starts selling products without your permission.
@@inkwell9651 So true.
It's only because they're big companies, small or individual artists have gotten they're work stolen for print on demand, attempted to get the offending listing taken down and yet Etsy ignores them
@j
Do not be deceived, they are ONLY protecting multinational conglomerates. The artists/maker sellers are being completely $h@t on, while they let Chinese manufacturers steal out images, product designs & even copy/pasted image descriptions and REFUSE to do anything about it. Since they went public, it is clear they are part of the agenda to destroy small American business. But diSnEy? Bend over backwards to “protect” them!
@@narrowwing That's because Etsy are money grabbing greedy leeches, who are happy for a factory in the Far East selling 1000s of cheap, crap items 'touted as hand-made' making ETSY money to stay up and running, even if reported. They are the new Ali-Express (Etsy Express!) 💩🤡
I was JUST telling a friend of mine that I couldn't believe all the people using Disney art on Etsy. It's about time! I am setting up a POD store in Etsy and everything on my store is MY OWN ARTWORK! I am a commercial artist and I don't want to copy anyone else's artwork. At least when I get my pages uploaded I won't have to worry about being closed down for stealing! Another copyright infringement that really irks me is BEATRICE POTTER... aka PETER RABBIT! They put the same paintings of Peter rabbit straight from her books! She was an amazing artist and woman, and her stuff is protected forever! Yet people keep using it on lots of things. People, be forewarned... if you are copying Peter rabbit on items, stop now! I don't know where Raggedy Ann and Andy stand but I'm betting the are off limits too! Love your channel! Love you!!
I had a store that was all my artwork and got shut down after 2 days. No explanation.
Yeah the term "Disney inspired" is abused so badly on Etsy- inspired anything in general on there. It was still is an art thief paradise.
Like the BJD doll recasts that can devastate a small/new artist. It can take months to even years to make and perfect a BJD doll to not only move an still look beautiful and hold a pose beautifully. All to be stolen an mass produced for a fraction of the price, there is no way to compete.
Yea.... seems like you are the ignorant one here. You do know that every single 'original' disney story before the 2000's are ALL taken from already existing stories that they changed to be 'kid friendly'. Disney's 'original artwork' is all just artistic interpretations of existing artwork. You artists who advocate for more copyright enforcement are just burring yourselves over and over again. If anything Disney should be paying you all to make art for them to profit off of, since very few of the main characters are things they can even claim (truthfully) to be theirs at all.
I have never heard of a copyright that protects a work forever, but maybe they exist.
Don't support it by supporting Etsy. Etsy is not going to market your art nor your products. Any sales you make will be driven by your marketing efforts 👌 Google analytics = you may as well expend that energy marketing your own website where you can have control over your own business
My only surprise is just how long the sellers knocking off Disney merch got away with this. I sat designing a T-shirt this week for hours upon hours. That’s my time my dime .. then some lazy Twat comes along in 6 months time and knocks it off .. then I’d be pissed too. Although I wouldn’t have Disney’s finances to raise a lawsuit to fight it. Size matters lol 😂
You need to photograph and date and sign your work, then you have lawful proof!
@@openyoureyes4799
Thank you for this great advice 📢
When you think about how much revenue Etsy are earning via these Etsy shops selling copyright/trademarked items, maybe they should be sued as well for profiteering illegally.
The fan art thing has me boggled. Head to any big anime, gaming, etc. Convention and there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of fan art depictions of well known characters that are sold as fan art. So I'm wondering how that works?
Also I've commissioned artists to draw fan art for me. But since that was just for me would that be under fair use? It gets really confusing sometimes.
One mistake I had made - and luckily I caught it before getting into trouble - is to create an image of a brand of car. While we often think of intellectual properties in regards to movies, books, music, etc., technically by representing a brand of car in an image I was infringing on the brand's trademark. It's those sneaky situations - like describing cookies as Lemony Snickets - that can end up biting us in the end. Thank you for sharing this video!
while i agree no one should steal anyone elses creative works, there is something to be said for Disney allowing thousands of people and millions in china to get away with selling their stuff. It dilutes their claim, AND it feels like selective prosecution. They should pursue ALL of them. I'm sure they have enough lawyers.
Just putting an excerpt from an email Warner Brother’s sent me regarding using licensed Harry Potter fabrics to make products:
While we appreciate your effort, unfortunately, no disclaimer can protect your listing from being infringing if you are utilizing a protected trademark in your listing title, metatags and/or product description. You cannot legally sell items that include trademarks or copyrights of another company, even if you were unaware of the legality of your listing. Selling fan art and other items “inspired by” our protected properties still pose a risk to the seller and Etsy as these disclaimers are not legally recognized or enforceable. The only exception is in the case of items handmade with licensed Harry Potter fabric, and we ask that you include the exact text “made with licensed Harry Potter fabric” so we can easily differentiate between legitimate licensed fabric and counterfeits.
Thank you for sharing this, this will help a lot of people!
So fanart is illegal but AI stealing art directly from other people is legal? Make it make sense...
Great explanation of the difference between copyright and trademarks. Probably useful to note that copyright applies automatically in other countries that have signed up to the Berne Convention and other treaties, although the release date (when copyright expires) may differ between different countries. Trademarks only expire if they are not defended (e.g. Xerox, cellotape) and the House of Mouse is diligent about defending them. So, while Mickey's first film "Steamboat Willie" has entered the public domain this year as its copyright term has expired, the Mouse himself is trademarked and so unavailable. We've yet to see if stills from the film are usable (it'll take a court case in the US to determine this) as the depiction of Mickey in it is very different from the trademarked image we all know.
Just do a search for Marilyn Monroe, or Elvis, or Frank Sinatra, or any of the celebrities in the 50's, 60's, or 70's, you'll find LOTS of vendors selling fine art prints with nearly 200k individual sales per vendor. And I guarantee they are not authorized to do so. I hope all these unscrupulous sellers face jail time. It's what they deserve for stealing copyrighted images and making money off things they don't own.
And Etsy looks the other way as there pockets are filled.
Ridiculous, especially the derivative and the mickey flower shape part, i mean truly, where does it end with these people? owning a SHAPE??
The Bob Ross Enterprise has a lot of nerve suing anybody, since they have literally stolen his trademark from him while he was dying from cancer. Even his own family can not profit from their father’s mega art merchandise. After years of his hard work & love of teaching people to enjoy art, he fought until his dying breath to regain the ability to leave it to his family.
I understand needing protection from copying (I’m an artist myself), but the system definitely has flaws. I know someone who’s video was pulled because her singing bowl supposedly sounded like one of their songs…Really? How ridiculous is that? 🤦♀️
I’m not saying people should steal other peoples ideas but Disney needs to relax
I make art, paint etc. I had Kobe Bryant’s attorney give me a no no letter on Etsy. Actually two of them. Etsy removed my star seller rating because of it, now I get maybe one sell a day on my store.
It's not random. Disney purposely waits until you make a decent profit before they come after you. They have to prove damages which they can't if you haven't made a profit.
Yeah I figured that. I can imagine that corporate lawyers are not cheap so it wouldn’t make sense for Disney to go after an Etsy store that only made a few sales vs a store that made millions in revenue
Warning, I'm not a lawyer, so don't take my knowledge as fact, always contact a professional for the proper legal advise.
I've been a screen printer for 30 years. There are big companies that have a whole team of lawyers who's only job is to sue people for copyright infringe are. Budweiser,Disney, Gibson(all big Instrument companies)etc.
There used to be where if you changed a design by 15-18 percent you could legally due it as a parody. They would still sue and drag the court case out for years. The company I worked for had a full time lawyer and would fight back winning 99% of the cases against them.
There is an ongoing case like this going to the Supreme Court in the USA right now involving Jack Daniels vs a company.
A lot of small companies can't afford to fight and often are forced to settle. Giving the fact they left the second shop alone that you mentioned in your video, they have money to fight, unlike first company you mentioned that didn't.
My guess is they waited for these shops to grow to large numbers and massive profit because sites like Etsy track how much they make before they sued them. If Disney wins expect massive lawsuits to follow and possibly against Etsy for allowing designs to be sold.
Etsy doesn't immediately take down your shop. By the time your shop is taken down you've been given like a dozen warnings. But anyone can file a complaint against you, even fake complaints. It happens all the time. Of course if Disney says stop selling their items I would do it immediately!! Those other shops are still selling just bc they haven't been taken down yet. I'm sure IP infringement notices are going out daily 😬
You get three warnings.
@@gothampops I didn’t get any warnings at all and my shop just got permanently suspended yesterday. Their emails don’t help either as they don’t specify where I went wrong. 😓
@@veec.3367You must have a design or keyword that is trademarked or copyrighted. Lots of words are automatic now. Especially with SEO growing daily it’s easier to find sellers who are using them.
This isn't true, at all actually. My shop was suspended and I had to appeal - NO warnings, nothing - they reinstated because it was a "mistake" but I lost all those sales in the meantime. Awful.
@@gothampops that's not true - my shop was shut down and it was a "mistake" but I only got it back because I emailed a bunch.
I think Disney is going hard because the Original Mickey Mouse's copyright is going to expire at the end of 2023. I imagine that if they want congress to renew the copyright, it would be more likely if Disney demonstrate they are actively pursuing copyright infringement violations.
The original Mickey Mouse should’ve been in the public domain for decades now but every time the trademark is about to expire Disney fights it and somehow gets Congress to change the rules for them to keep Mickey Mouse trademarked indefinitely
An important thing to note here is that Etsy clearly do not proactively prevent copyright theft, as a maker and creator myself I find the lack of ethics abhorrent, I'm amazed that a platform for creators does not make any effort to protect creators from theft of their property, why would anyone want to place their goods on a house full of thieves just to be stolen by them?
Good. I’m sick people of people so lazy they have to steal another’s intellectual property. ETSY asks you tick a box to say “I created this myself” but doesn’t explain the full ramifications of that.
Plagiarism, stealing, enfringing, call it what you like, I call it lazy.
The only problem is that it is profitable..
The number of sued myself over the years as an artist. I don’t draw anyone’s anything, characters or anything, all original works. I don’t do fan art and I refuse to steal other people’s creations and entities.
Such a good video. Also, fun fact (Also not a lawyer) IP owners can sue for damages not just take your listing down. Etsy showing how many sales a product or store makes must make working out damages super easy.
The number of products sold has nothing to do with "damages." No Etsy sellers should fear an actual court case over their little online shop. Worst case, their shop will simply be shut down. This video features a much higher-profile "influencer" couple who ran a large business, which included a small Etsy shop. A mom who sold a dozen stickers last month shouldn't waste her energy fearing a corporate court battle.
Rule of thumb: stick to your own ORIGINAL idea, and if that includes others’ IP, get it properly licensed!
One detail about the Bob Ross case though, Trademark is not like copyright in regards to derivatives, in the case of trademarks it hinges around whether consumers could be deceived into believing the item belongs to the company/brand. In the case of the Bob Ross keycap I could see people being mistaken that they could be buying a sanctioned product.
I run my own small laser engraving business. For custom jobs, I dont do anything that is obviously copyrighted. For things that i just make and sell, I make sure to either buy the rights to the artwork (a few bucks on the site the artists sell on), use copyright free images (careful to make sure they are actually copyright free) or use AI generated art, because that way I know its one of a kind. Im also registered as a LLC so there is some protection in that. Still have to not be stupid or completely oblivious about using copyrighted and trademarked materials though lol.
I'm a cosplayer and when dealing with clothes, a lot of clothing can't be copyrighted. Well, that is until it can. I can make Darth Vader's suit and cape all day long and sell it as long as I don't reference Star Wars or Darth Vader. I make and sell that helmet and I'm in trouble with the mouse. I can make and sell Cinderella's dresses and say it's Cinderella as long as I don't say Disney...I can't make and sell Tiana's. I can't mass produce and sell storm troopers at all but Mandolorians are in a hell of a grey spot. Off Disney, into comics, I can make and sell Superman's suit and cape but the moment I put that S logo on there, I'm toast.
I also make low content books on Amazon. I used the term "bullet journal" and got knocked on it. I had no idea that was copyrighted. I apologized and removed my listings. Now I do my due diligence.
Bullet journal is copyrighted?
Good grief. At this rate, just talking will be. It's ridiculous. I'm surprised most everyone isn't accidentally infringing something somewhere.
Here are some tricky examples: You can't use celebrity name in your artwork without their permission. Like if you do a portrait and name it Kim Kardashian that is not allowed. Nowadays is popular to redraw movie posters, and name it by adding "my version", like "my version of Star Wars movie poster". If you have something like this you better remove it before someone notice it. However, it is allowed to you use sentence from a movie in your design, but you can't use the name of the movie or the character. As for font: you can't use the specific font if you didn't buy a license for it. However it is allowed to use font if you convert it to curve and it is good practice to pay the author for the font.... Copyright area is a huge one and there are lot of do's and don'ts!
So much more simpler to stay away from anything ET-entertainment industry stuff and 100% create your own art
I think it gets out of control with certain combinations of words being trademarked or copyrighted. I just read that bullet journal is one. Like...come on.
Thanks for putting subtitles in different languages !!! And thanks also for sharing valuable content
Disney loves to sue everyone. Including teachers who show their movies to a classroom of children. So, it really is not safe to do ANYTHING remotely related to Disney or looks anything like it.
Bob Ross was not notorious, he was notable.
Thank you bc I wanted to say something but didn’t know how to without sounding like a pedant 😅
“ITSY”😂
thank you! helped me a lot! This week etsy sent me a message saying that I was violating the trademark rights of some products, I don't have any brand, but today that I see point 2 I think I had some word, and it is that I learned the experience with a drawing from among us that I put on a shirt some time ago.
So what about all those designs being sold on Shein and Alibaba deliberately copied? Are they above US copyright laws because they are China based?
Yes because China is a sovereign nation. However trademark and IP holders can take action in China to pursue their claims there
They don't take down those, but they took my painting which was called a Cinderella Princess and didn't have absolutelly anything to do with the Disney. I painted it myself completelly from my imagination, thinking of books I read as a child. It didn't resamle their character or any other character thay exist. And they don't owe copyright to the name. Its an old story that has a variation in every country and not copyrighted by anyone. Never the less - the listing was removed by Disney request.
As Ai technology continues to advance, it is becoming increasingly easy for companies like Disney or Etsy themselves to use image and text recognition software to identify instances of copyright infringement. This is a very feasible option nowadays
That's a good point: although I doubt Etsy themselves will do this. The technology already can exist - UA-cam shows that. When you upload a video, their scarily-fast AI copyright checker looks over it for potential IP infringement before monetization. However, Etsy knows legally they aren't obligated to do that. The courts ruled that Etsy are not obligated to remove copyrighted content unless they get a takedown notice from the IP holder. So as they earn money from these products selling, I don't see any incentive for them to develop this and lose themselves money. Disney on the other hand...
I don't think it has anything to do with AI... Etsy can simply add a piece of code that every shop that has the keyword "disney" would be suspended. They just don't do that LOL
@@MeyTribe however some people are smart to not use the words Disney or mouse. Disney can still catch them
John - Etsy isn't going to do that though. They have protections (safe harbor) and if they start curating their marketplace... it pierces some of those protections. When someone files a DMCA or other type of takedown... Etsy's role is to be neutral. Unless the laws change.. this is how things will remain.
Ironic, a company who stole their stories and art from other people now has the power to control others from using 'their' stories and art.
Thanks!! As an artist, a refresher on the details is always good form!
If I had the store mentioned that was singled out, then I would determine what minority discrimination that Disney and Etsy based their discriminatory takedown of my store and lawsuit upon since clearly the lawsuit does not target these x (100s) of other sellers allegedly infringing the Disney brand. A simple Etsy search reveals mass amounts of infringement and yet... it's discriminatory bullying by Disney and etsy. In my worthless opinion which is also why I am no longer uploading new products to Etsy for sale and when my listings expire = goodbye Etsy. I can drive traffic to my own website instead of trying to work the etsy algorithm. This is the year that I learn SEO
I see this same thing with all the "starbucks" likeness items being sold
I have also seen listings get notice because they are selling the item as new and the item can only be sold as new by an authorized seller because the company backs the new item with a warranty and a third party seller does not have the authority to sell the item with a warranty.
Etsys been ruined by garbage sellers. I dont shop there anymore because 70% sellers are running scams.
I mean this just makes sense. It’s straight of copy cat. I’m an artist and knew this is a big NO NO. Come on let’s be original people!
There are a LOT of artists creating paintings of celebrities for sale without their permission. It's playing Russian Roulette to do so. I tried to tell a young artist this and she got mad at me. So - take the risk of being sued if you want to.
I’m glad. 1: I’m a Disney shareholder 2: as an Etsy seller myself this demeans the idea of hand made/vintage stuff which Etsy is supposed to be about (don’t even get me started on the p.o.d. B.s.) 3: it’s lazy 4: it pushes all the actual handmade stuff out of the spotlight as others do like the cheap Disney prints and those stores go skyrocketing to the front
If i were to draw my OWN ART of a character does it matter? How can they even trademark those ears??? Clothing usually isn't able to be trademarked ? Disney is really protective of their IPs but there's a line, you CAN DEFINITELY sell those ears because they don't own mouse ears they just can't have exact characters or be too close to ones the brand sells.
My wish as a POD designer is that consumers could be made more aware of the consequences of buying products that are possibly copyright infringed. For example, they may want to support a friend’s new little business endeavor by buying a cute little possibly copyrighted something at a cheap price, but do they know if/ when they do that, they could be putting their friend’s business and entire livelihood at risk?
Disney are getting worse by the day, a multi TRILLION dollar company suing a 2 person Etsy business 😮..really bad..
Hi Sarah, I love your videos. I know this isn't the focus of your channel, but could you please make a video on life in New Zealand?
Damn, Disney must be taking lotsa losses with their movies when have to resort to punching down just to get some merch bucks. Are the latest Disney releases really that bad?
Trying to rip off Disney IP doesn't seem like a smart move for anyone who doesn't want to be sued into atoms.
A genuine thank you for all the info provided. You are amazing 🤗🤗🤗
On my old shop Etsy removed an item that was copyrighted. They didn't take down the whole shop.
😑 too many people can't think for themselves. It's a shame copyright infringement has been going on forever.
Etsy can ban most of the stores selling Disney items by simply adding a code that suspends shops using Disney in their keywords... they just don't do that.
Etsy definitely could but they have no legal obligation to currently, so I honestly doubt they will!
Yes, but that would affect vintage stores selling 2nd hand Disney items.
Disney is rarely used as a keyword
Another thing to be cautious of is when you’re buying or using free artwork from other sites. You really don’t know if they bought it from someone else and/or created it from another artists work. (Unintentionally or not) Also be sure to check quotes and sayings to make arise they aren’t trademarked.
Using stock photos that are non copyrighted is fine
@@cgarcia6039 yes - but what I’m talking about is sometimes people get them from other places and resell them as stock images and may not have the right to sell them. You don’t always know who actually holds the copyright.
I don't know if it's the place but I had a question since I wasn't aware of the fanart issue.. Would there be an issue for us cosplayers selling prints since most aren't cosplaying our own original characters?
Been telling people for years to stop selling other companies IPs cuz the lawsuits will be coming. They all laughed me off. This is what happens when sellers don't use common sense.
So Etsy is just a mountain of copyright infringement lawsuits waiting to happen.
If it wasn’t for copyright infringement, Etsy wouldn’t exist. Disney must be having some financial troubles now.
“Not knowing” or “Seeing others doing it” is no excuse, as a business owner it’s your legal responsibility to not sell copyrighted or trademarked items and it’s your responsibility to do the research to ensure the items you’re selling aren’t copyright or trademark protected… it’s also your legal responsibility to know this. As an artist who has had my work stollen online for decades now, I report sellers that I see doing this, not to Etsy, because nothing seems to come from that, but I now report it directly to the company being infringed upon.
I grew up in Lower Sackville, NS, Canada. The city was sued by Disney for their use of Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs characters. The city was divided into 8 sections for winter carnival, each was a dwarf or Snow. Carnival still happens, but it just isn't the same.
Interesting about the fan art. I like doing my own stuff, but I also do fan art of a rock band (not mainstream) that sells well. I also get stuff removed on RB because i've inadvertently done fan art of stuff i've never seen.
Its pretty simple, just don't use anything that you don't own or create. I have had my designs and products stolen and I hated it, and I am small fry in comparison to companies like Disney. It makes my skin crawl that people think it is OK to steal other peoples work.
Unfortunately its not that simple, when you have sellers in China stealing others' art all the time and getting away with it..
I always wonder how artists are allowed to paint Disney characters into their artwork? Because they look exactly like the characters
Disney should pressure Etsy for letting anyone post their stuff
Sparkling Dreamers I believe is the guy that takes his stuff and stands on Main Street in Disney selling. Disney starts with a Cease and Desist. When that is ignored, like Sparking Dreamers, it will progress to a lawsuit.
Thanks, this is very helpful. The people who most need to hear this are people who are just starting out and might think using someone else's IP is a good quick start. After all, they may think, "it's just a start, and I'm a little guy, no one will notice me." It's always a bad idea.
I saw Disney's digital items sold on Etsy for a long long time at a very very cheap price and thought.. well, look at that! These are illegal! I'm a digital artist and an Etsy seller. I saw people copying each other contents and reselling at a very competitive price all the time. It's really sad!
Yeah they took down a paw patrol chip bag I designed 5 years ago they aren’t playing
I have way more respect for those who hone their skills and create their own artwork vs just profiting by stealing from others.
In blatant cases, I agree. But using a particular word or phrase that might be just obscure enough to not realize has been and then getting penalized for it? That's a bit too much. At this rate just talking is going to be some kind of infringement for someone 😂
There will always be illegal listings. I have no sympathy for anybody taking other people's idea's no matter the size of the business or company. Great post.
I can't believe the amount of people who make tons of money and don't understand this. Insane. Do your research. GREAT video.
Did you know there are people who do nothing but troll the internet to look for copyright violations to sue. I was our Chamber Chair and this impacted two of our small businesses. One was a flyer posted online and one a tshirt design.
The first step would be to issue a "cease & desist" order, where the user would simply stop using that imagery. A lawsuit wouldn't even be a legal option unless that initial order was ignored - likely, more than one order would be required. Stop scaring people with hyperbole.
Thats why I have only been selling original products sourced directly for the supplier instead of copying. You never know when your years of hard work can go down the drain.
I always found it crazy some businesses sell Disney related items and get away with it.
Why doesn't Etsy get sued too? Etsy is profiting off of letting these seller sell on their platform. Etsy is technically selling these items too since they make a commision off every listing that is added plus off every sell. Sellers need to put pressure on those who sue to also include the platform like Etsy, Amazon, Ebay, etc., since they are making income (much more by allowing lots of shops to sell unlicensed merchandise).
hopefully Disney sues Etsy. they shut down stores that do nothing wrong but allow all this to go on.
People use public domain items or can get licenses from companies to sell their brands if that is what they are into. I favour being original and developing my own style of design. In a world of copy cats I think researching long and hard even on your original artwork, domain names and product names is a wise move.
Developing your own style requires time, money, talent. It's so much easier and faster to steal someone else's tried and tested designs. I am amazed at some comments here accusing Disney being greedy for protenting their IP.
Im in the design bussines and people getting sued is nothing new in our space. It's fun when people get slapped with a lawsuit for literally using 1:1 elements and they act surprised
Some of these shops maybe in partnership or got permission to sell the IP items from Disney. I can’t imagine building a brand that large would take such risk.
Etsy probably gives up some sellers as "sacrificial lambs" to placate companies like Disney. Otherwise Etsy might find itself with a lot more closed sites.
It’s one thing if it’s just one or two items sold, but when their whole business is based on IP they didn’t create, I mean.... that’s not right.
Just like you have people impersonating you, there are people on Etsy that steal artist's work. A known living painter I know, her artwork has been stolen by people that sell HER WORK on ETSY she isn't a large corporation and these people have essentially STOLEN her work and making money. These people know they are doing it and have been notified by her and many artists even known ones can't afford lawyers, you know what ETSY doesn't always cooperate. They might be a huge platform but that is SO WRONG. Etsy needs to take responsiblity.
What about upcycling items that were licensed such as t-shirts, wrapping paper, blankets and fabric?
You are one of the youtubers that truly can't be impersonated. ) I appreciate your in depth knowledge on the print on demand business. I write about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I have really been held back in what merch I can create to go along with my site.
What about Canva elements are you allowed to mix elements and sell them for instance like on graphic t-shirt?
It's sometimes companies themselves who misunderstand (intentionally?) trademark law. Take apple for example, do I even need to explain? So, no, you are not a lawyer.