If this wing design pops up on any store besides mine, it’s an illegal copy. For months now, overseas factories have been making rip-offs of my Titania fairy wing design as flapping wings, & they're showing up all over the web, undercutting me. Them making flapping wings itself is not the issue, the issue is they're ripping off this specific design. Jordan and I both knew that eventually, big factories would make cheap versions of them. But they're ripping off my *specific* original wing designs to do it. Color variations don’t make it legal. Changing it 10% doesn’t make it legal, that's a myth. I'm the ONLY legit seller of this wing design. I filed with USCBP to stop imports at the border, but I don’t know if they’ll all be caught. I send removal notices, but anyone dealing with this knows certain sites are terrible at actually doing anything. Even when they do, these companies then file FALSE counterclaims, claiming rights they don't have, which means it can then go right back up within 10 business days unless I get a court order. The new Copyright Claims Board means we can now file 'Misrepresentation of a Claim' to fight some of them, but it still costs us. It adds up. I know the hot topic right now is AI art, but this actual blatant type of theft has been an even bigger problem without comparable media coverage or outcry. The real problem is a broken system. We need our education systems to teach about internet etiquette & copyright law, and better systems in place to protect us. DMCA laws need to be updated to better hold huge platforms accountable. They ignore us too often. Hell, maybe they can use AI to create an automatic detection & royalty system any time our designs & images are posted elsewhere online, wouldn't that be nice? Or divert funds from counterfeits to the original artist? YT does it with musicians' music, why not visual art? Please spread the word, don’t buy counterfeits! And if you haven't yet, see my 'Copyright' Highlight. The spread of copies of my photos without credit perpetuates the problem, small infringements often lead to more harmful ones.
