UPDATE: Anthropolgie’s Wooden Merit Badge Necklace Tutorial

Congratulations! But I wonder, if you didn’t post this fresh after the wound cause by the Urban Outfitters controversy, would anyone have made a comment?Keep up the good work!

Now having just received my first hate mail and threat for Thrift Core, I feel a small degree of the frustration you must have felt with your post.

It’s clear with everything you do for this website and fort artists that you heart is in the right place and your passion for artists and their integrity is clear. It shines in everything you write and make.

All of our favorite creative publications are based on recreating ideas at their core. Whether we like it or not, its part of the creative process. We brainstorm to come up with some incredibly unqiue, only to do a quick Google Search and find out it’s been done before.

For example: I was going to do an Alphabet series- then I wrote about one here on Papernstitch. Ouch, back to square one! But when you think about it- it’s been done since we saw those charts in grade school!

You tried to give credit where it’s due and survived the onslaught. Congratulations! 🙂 But I wonder, if you didn’t post this fresh after the wound cause by the Urban Outfitters controversy, would anyone have made a comment?

Hey there Brittni,

I too appreciate you bringing this topic up for discussion. After finding 3 bloggers in two days last week that were sharing files based on their copies my work, and losing days to addressing those infringements and looking for others, I really believe that educating the knockoff community about a few things may be a more productive approach to preventing infringement for me. So, I’m glad to see this being discussed.

In my experience, most of the copiers I have dealt with had no malicious intent and thought that they were doing something to help people. All apologized and complied with requests to stop distributing their electronic copies of my work.

It is disappointing that folks are being less than civil and less than understanding with you Brittni. I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing the anger of the segment of the public that is against knockoffs. I can get angry too. It is very upsetting to many artists to find their work copied, or to imagine it being copied when they see another’s work copied, and artists seem to come to each others’ aid when they see copies or knockoffs. I try to be civil with my copiers, but that can get tricky when one is trying to convey the seriousness of infringement.

I am also disappointed at the callousness of some of the segment of the public that sees nothing wrong with copying the work of others. In discussions I have been in, artists have been called arrogant, professionally jealous and overly proud with an overblown sense of ownership. If someone tells you they think their rights have been violated, it does not help to belittle them. You can certainly see nothing wrong with copying if you choose to, but there is no benefit to the conversation in kicking someone when they are down.

It is great to hear opinions on whether knockoffs are infringement, and if not, at what point sharing knockoffs or how to make them may be infringement. But, our opinions and what we non-lawyers think we know about copyright law are not what determines if a copy is a violation of copyright.

The holder of a copyright has the following rights regarding a copyrighted work according to copyright law:

The rights to reproduce the work in copies, prepare derivative works based upon the work, distribute copies of the work, and display the work publicly.

The creator of a copyrighted work also has the right of attribution and other rights concerning the alteration of that work.

If someone avails themselves of any of those rights without the permission of the copyright holder, they expose themselves to the risk of the copyright holder claiming infringement and the resulting penalties if it is determined that infringement occurred.

I don’t know if stating that one is copying or has copied an item, and then posting images of that item online and instructing the public how to copy the item infringes copyright of the copied item. I think it’s close enough though, so that if I am the creator of the copyrighted item I should contact the copier and let him/her know that he/she created an unauthorized copy of my work. If copies are being distributed, I have no choice but to send a cease and desist and request removal of the downloadable files and whatever other remedies I find necessary.

I have to do that to protect the rights provided by my copyright. Those rights are the basis of what allows me to make and sell reproductions of my artwork, which is how I support my family.

For me it, whether or not copies dilute my brand or offend my sensibilities or hurt my feelings does not factor into my decisions to pursue copycats. It comes down to whether or not a copy violates my rights.

I would hope for people who condone or actively participate in copying (and those who encourage others to copy another artist’s work through tutorials) to consider several things:

1) Is traffic on your website or helping others save money really worth the pain in the neck of being sued for infringement and the possibility of having to pay damages (possibly up to $30,000 per for infringement, up to $150,000 per for willful infringement)? If the argument for making the knockoff is the high cost of the original item, should you not then avoid exposing yourself to that high cost risk?

2) Though infringement is technically a violation of rights, to many artists and designers, it feels like theft. It feels like something has been taken from you. It is a troubling experience. For myself and many I know, it does not feel like flattery. It feels like someone likes your work, but not enough to obtain it through proper channels. When someone is encouraging people to make their own copy and not buy from you, it does not particularly feel like you have inspired someone. It feels like your ability to derive future income from your work is being affected. It feels a bit like someone knocked you down and took your lunch money. It feels like that person is saying, “I like what you did, but I don’t think your skill, expertise, vision, years of hard work, talent, and dedication to your craft had anything to do with how it came out. Anyone could do it.”

Please keep that in mind when you embrace an opinion that copying does not hurt anyone. You may not agree that creative people have rights, but it’s not necessary to say there is nothing new under the sun. No one would ever create anything inspiring if we all believed that. If you need to quote a bible verse while telling an artist your negative opinion of his or her rights (happened multiple times), why not: So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you…

3) I have never seen anything in copyright law related to art/design/craft that says that you can make one copy for personal use. But, if that is true, it may be prudent to consider whether sharing your copy online and using it to encourage others to copy goes beyond personal use. Sharing it online will likely alert the original artist of your copy, and if it’s in a post about how to copy the item, you may have to defend your actions. Hopefully, the artist will only ask that you remove the post, the images and not share or distribute the files to anyone.

I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on this here and for everyone’s efforts to discuss this.

@darla , sorry , I didn’t read your comment before i commented . I now see where it’s all coming from . Thanks for pointing it out .
Just my opinion on the negativity towards brittni’s intentions here .. She has always pointed out the source of images , D.I.Y’s etc . I don’t think the intention was anything else but to demonstrate how to make the necklace .
This sure is a hot topic now .. It would be wise to be mindful of the people on the other side of the screen – they do have feelings . We have to respect them .

Hello Brittni! Kudos to you for standing your ground, you sure are taking a beating well and that says so much to your creative warrior self. I read through all the comments and the sentence that truly speaks to me is about being mindful towards how you choose to conduct yourself online, it is easy to forget you are talking to real people, with real feelings and true hearts – that is overlooked at times. We are responsible for our behavior bad behavior and all AND there’s always two sides of a story. Knowing that I think it’s wise to speak with kindness, especially when hot about something, so you can make sure your responding from spirit and not ego. Sometimes that means refraining until you get all the fact and approach the person who has concerned you. This is what I was inspired to comment on when reading the post and through the comments , not the piece itself , for me that’s been over shadowed by the over all prickly attitudes.

I’m also inspired to mention that HGTV has shows designed specifically around getting the same designer look for less. They too, always give credit to the designer and then try and source things to create the same feel for less. HGTV is a huge corporation and wouldn’t dare violate another designer. Also, bringing affordable design to the public is what Target is all about – the look for less and they contract designers to create those modified looks from off the runway – in house.

I think that it doesn’t matter if you are ripping off big corporations or the small indie artists, in truth stealing is stealing no matter who from. I think this is a great conversation to open and am not sure where I stand. As a handmade Artist my gut tells me that it would bother me to see one of my designs on another site, but then again I’d have credit and have created looks for less myself. um. like my whole house! I love HGTV! Man you’ve stirred up a lot of controversy here! Best to you! stephey

I don’t think even Anthropologie would mind what you’ve done here. First of all, you are advertising for them. Secondly. the small number of actual DIYers (as opposed to the wannabe ones like me) out there are not going to break their bank. It’s the most sincere form of flattery they say; when people stop copying them then they are old news. I absolutely agree that if it’s a one off, for personal use then it’s fair game.

What would also be cool though, is if someone took the original concept of their necklace and made a new (and perhaps even better!) version based on it. With credit of course. I love watching inspired work inspiring even better work. Maybe I’ll slap that somewhere on my ever growing “give it try!” list. Ha!
; )

Anyway, I think you did an incredible job on this one. It looks amazing. And the tutorial is awesome. Well done.
: )

@lakshmi – I think the design was not ripped off by A., but that Fort Standard sell them to both A. and Poketo (Poketo clearly state this). The necklaces can be found at Fort Standard’s website for $70.
I wrote this just to be clear about who originally designed and make them, and also, wholesale them.

I do love the design . It really is beautiful….88$ ?! Thats the first thing that caught my eye. The question , I have , like many, is if this design was ripped off by anthro .. if it is , then why would they do that ? I mean indie designers should be given the credit.

Secondly, you demonstrate how to make this beautiful design with how much it actually costs. With all due respect to whoever designed the real necklace, I don’t think it would cost more than 20-30$ (just my guess) .

IF the indie designer were to sell it, I doubt they’d price it at 88$. I think thats just ridiculous. Just one example of how big corps over price and sell …simply because it has the brand name to it.

The necklaces are designed and handmade by Gregory Buntain and Ian Collings from Fort Standard, Brooklyn. You can see more of their work here: http://fortstandard.com
I’m quite sure those at Anthropologie are theirs, because those at Poketo surely are (Poketo introduced them as a new product in March, designed by FS).
The necklaces were also exhibited at the New York International Gift Fair 2011.

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i love the remake! and i totally agree with you on that, brittni. imitating or recreating something from other work purely for personal use/wear is not ripping off or anything similar in that sense. esp when you credit the original idea/work/source of where your inspiration came from. i havent met anyone who hasn’t seen or heard about something and then feel inspired to do the same for their home/personal use. sometimes i’d find greetings card designs i really like and then try to make something like that to give it to friends and family.

oh no! this makes me kind of sad. As much as I despise Anthro, I bet they paid an artist to make these for them (I’m sure Poketo did), so to blatantly rip off their design breaks my heart.