I like to think that one person can make a difference (good or bad) in this world. Because of this, I often will email embroidery design websites to ask them to remove their designs that violate copyright/licensing laws. Sometimes I feel I have succeeded. Many other times I fail. I do wonder though if more embroidery artists (that is what we are) would speak up and tell them no more money unless they stop the illegal use of artwork and or ideas... Just how many voices would it take? Cute has between 10,000 (regular) and 30,000+ occasional users. What if we all spoke up?
Perhaps if we did, then legitimate embroidery websites would be able to afford to stay open. Too many close because they cannot afford to stay open. In the recent months I have seen a few very good sites close their doors and more to follow before the year end. How many more need to close? I believe we could change this trend. If we all worked together, we could keep the honest ones -- the true artists -- in business. Sadly, many (even some Cuties) would rather have it all for free or cheap including designs from stolen artwork. Too many "share" (read steal) designs. Please, make the changes needed to keep our artistic release alive.
Perhaps, if we individually see this happening, we would take it upon ourselves to take action. I think my problem is that I don't see and/or know which designs are pirated.
The other problem is that if both sites say they have copyrighted the design, consumers would not know who the original creator actually is. I know a lot of creative people say that their designs are copyrighted when in fact they never actually got a copyright on the design since it costs money.
This is a complicated issue and it behooves us to "police" sites ourselves and take action.
This is a difficult problem to solve and especially difficult to control with so many countries posting websites.
I recently saw someone accuse a digitizer of stealing another digitizer's designs . When you looked at the designs and compar
In some cases you must go with what they say to be true. However, Mickey Mouse is never acquired by anyone but iBroidery for a design. If a website is showing a movie/cartoon character or a sports (or other) logo for sale -- you can bet it is illegal. If you know the artwork can be purchased from a legitimate art source, then go with what they say.
