I would have written earlier, but I've been really sick. When the spirit is "sick", I imagine the body is not far behind. Cynthia was even going to don some rubber gloves and pry me up out of bed and head to the hospital if I didn't improve. I guess the fear of an expensive hospital bill put my body on the mend.
As far as The Incident is concerned, it still stings. It's a much more complicated matter than it appears to be. For various reasons, I'm not going to name names or point fingers. My hope is that The Culprit reads these words and knows what they did was wrong. Consider this a warning to those who wish to steal. This is not acceptable and if the exploitation continues in any form, it will not be tolerated.
Speaking of thieves, my family's company is being ripped off again, by a company called, Forever Silvers. One of the designs they've stolen even has my fingerprints on the back of it. I was shocked to see it in the latest issue of Stringing magazine. As you can tell from my participation in the magazine (even having one of my pieces on the cover of it), I love the magazine, but was horrified to see them list this evil-doer as a resource. Please boycott Forever Silvers and let the editors of all the beading magazines know that you support artist made original designs and reject knock offs. It is important to bring this to their attention.
I wish that my decision to "stay" would be more poetic or profound, but really it's just a thing that I'm going to have to take day by day. Whether or not content is edited, obscured, or omitted completely has yet to be seen. I want to continue to be genuine and authentic here, hopefully inspiring others and definitely creating community. Thanks again to all of you out in the blogosphere who continue to read and have encouraged me to continue chronicling my everyday inspirations and aspirations.
16 comments:
I love you huge, Andrew Thornton.
Sending you a big hug, Andrew.
Glad you are sticking around.
We all need to stick together on this.
Enjoy the day!
Erin
Thank you for sticking around! I am spreading the word about the rip off of your sister and brother-in-laws design. What goes around, comes around & the thiefs will regret it!
Hugs and feel better!!!!
Jolene
Hang in there my friend. Try not to let the bastards get you down...and remember there are a lot more of us in your corner than there of them.
Love
Margot
Keep your chin up! You sound like the last couple of months have been particularly mean to you and that you deserve a break that these copycat thieves are not letting you have. I hope 2010 brightens up for you in all ways. We're all behind you!
Rebecca x
So glad you are on the mend! And not going anywhere but up!
Andrew, hope you are feeling better quickly. Have missed you....uhm huh!!!!
Thanks for the heads up on Forever Silvers. I would think if there is enough flack that the magazine would at least run a retraction on the info. I will, at the very least boycott any buying from them and comment to any companies we see carrying their products, not just their copies!
I actually saw this pendant and thought "oh a GGS pendant" and then was surprised that it did not say GGS in the resource references. I thought it was a mistake. Can't you take those guys to court for that? I think you can.
Assert copyright and sue! You own the copyright to the design. I'm sure the magazine will help. It's a pretty open and shut case, and you can probably find a lawyer to take it on contigency.
if you need more info, email me.
I just went to their website and it appears they have stolen quiet a few designs from your family. It never ceases to amaze me what some people will do. Well just know that your friends and fans will only buy from the real deal! Glad you're staying!
As for the stealing of the bead designs are concerned, my family is contact with a lawyer and she's handling it.
With my own recent issue, it's a very expensive process to deal with... the culprit in question is not a new person, but an established designer... and I don't have a solid working relationship with the publication. Nor do I have the energy for a fire-fight right now. On a different day, I might have considered it... but really I'm just tired and beat down at this point and having to deal with that is so not on the agenda. If, however, this continues, then it'll force my hand. But at this point, it looks to be more trouble than it's worth.
Wise decision Andrew. It's not worth the money or your time. It would probably we a hollow victory at best. In the end,it still will not deter people or persons from stealing your work.
This "culprit" knows who they are and if they can live with that and sleep at night then they have a lot more problems then just ripping people off.
I hope everything works out in your families favor and that Forever Silvers gets jurisprudence!!!!!!!!!
In the meantime Forever Silver can SUCK IT and consider them boycotted!
We should all post this on our blogs.
Wow! Forever Silvers web site sucks ass. It looks like they've ripped off everyone from Blue Moon Beads To Vintaj To Green Girl Studios & Who knows who else, maybe they will get busted & fined for copyright infringement for more than just your families work. Serves them right. I'm glad your fingerprints are still in the design that's just more proof against them !!!! GO GET EM GREEN GIRL !!!!!!!!!! LET THE BOYCOTT BEGIN !!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Andrew, I'm a recent new reader of your blog, as well as your sister's. I've really nothing new to add to the topic, but I am an aspiring jewelry artist and as such, it is disheartening when I read of the trials and tribulations that many of my jewelry-world heroes go through involving this particular issue, whether they are the target of being copied or in some cases being called out as copy cats (in this instance, perhaps they've unconsciously created a design that was similar to someone else's work--not in the out right blatant copying as has happened with both your's and your sister's work)
The discussion of copyright is ongoing with me and my husband as I begin to toss around the idea of having my own little jewelry business. It's frightening, really. I just want you to know how important it is to someone like me starting out to have someone like you to look up to and should ever such a thing happen to me, I can say, what did Andrew do, how did he handle this? No matter the end result, you are an inspiration and I do hope you will stick around.
Hey Dorinda! Welcome to the blog. You know, we've been around in the business for awhile now. (My sister has been around longer in the beading community than she'd like to admit.)
For me, most of my designs are made for publications or magazines. When I see reproductions or pieces inspired by the ones published in the magazines, I am actually pretty thrilled and love that my work has inspired someone to make their own. My work can get pretty pricy, and I can understand wanting something and having to settle on making it oneself. However, the design in question only appeared on the blog and I was informed by a reader first that they had seen The Culprit reproducing my design. What stings is that the person in question submitted the piece to a publication I had hoped to work with and therefore has spread a shadow of doubt about how original my designs are... even though I had created the source material first. This effects how I'll be able to work with this publication and possibly ruined my chances. That's not cool.
It also stings because it came at a low period. A lot of things are changing for me, and when you're in that uncomfortable growing stage... things hit harder.
Well, if you're making "standardized" designs, you should definitely consider copyrighting your pieces online. For the charms and components that my family makes, they are all copyrighted. This helps protect us if the need arises. However, if you're doing more one of a kind work, it's much harder.
And I'll definitely stick around as long as it feels like the right thing to do!
This situation stinks but you know what, I only feel the urge to go out and buy the real deal just to show The Culprit.
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