Saturday, June 13, 2009

Stealing is wrong!

This morning, I stumbled across Chic to Cheek Boutique's blog. Her latest post states how excited she is to announce that she'll be selling cloth diaper cakes in her shop. Fine and dandy, except she is using a photograph of one of MY diaper cakes!


http://babyfatfitness.ca/Blog/?p=164

And the original Polka Dot Princess cake... in MY shop... here:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19689671

Further investigation reveals that she has several of my diaper cake photos posted on her Facebook album.


http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Chic-to-Cheek/64403205521

Again, all the originals can be found in my shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5153692§ion_id=5770788

I am so upset right now. I have spent countless hours designing, making, photographing and promoting my handmade products. I do this to help provide for my three small children. Stealing products and ideas from my business is stealing from my babies. And this mama bear doesn't mess around with such dirty birdies.

I have contacted her (awaiting a response), as well as filed a Notice of Intellectual Property Infringement via Facebook. I will also be adding watermarks to all my photos. If anyone has any additional ideas, I would love to hear them. In the meantime, please spread the word about Chic to Cheek Boutique.

Her 'About Us' page on her blog states "I enjoy ... supporting other work-at-home-moms." Well, she's doing quite the opposite to this WAHM. >:(

19 comments:

Dena said...

April, Although I don't have any suggestions for forcing her to stop her copyright infringement, I will aid in spreading the word. The only effective way to deter people from violating our rights is if we attack them as a team. Kudos to you for fighting back!

Cricketchirp said...

Bravo April! Do not stand by and let someone else lay claim to your hardwork! I have zero tolerance for frauds and theives!

Kristen said...

I wonder how many other WAHM's she has wronged in this. I think a watermark is a very good idea for your photos. Good for you for standing up to her.

Monica said...

Good idea about watermarking your photos. Hope this clears up quickly and smoothly for you.

♥Lisa♥ @ FinalScore:Boys3Girls2 said...

WOW!! well i know who to spotlight on sunday!! >:/

Shan said...

I will be posting this information on my blog. And spreading the word.

Linda @ My Trendy Tykes said...

That is just DIRTY and WRONG. I am so sorry that this has happened. I heard about it on twitter and will spread the word around.

Unknown said...

OH MY GOODNESS! I am so sorry that this has happened! I hope you get some help stopping her.

Janice Martin Pleimann said...

Can you contact the host of her blog? I don't think they would take it kindly that they are supporting this sort of fraud.

GreenPunkMama said...

That sucks contact http://www.tucows.com/ they are the ones who registered her domain, complain to them about it they don't have to keep her Dilbert at Activewebhosting (I register websites with them for work) that they don't have to keep people who violate copyright laws, usually when you use a server they make you agree to terms of service and that is included.

Alexis said...

Just left this comment on her web page:

"It is seriously uncool for you to be stealing photos from another person’s website without their permission. Will be spreading the word via twitter and my own blog not to buy from you if you don’t remove the stolen photos from your site and from your facebook page.

Bad form. Shame on you."

I'm sure she'll never publish it, but at least she'll know she's creating unhappy people who might have been customers.

Also tweeted about it.

Amanda E. Bishop Photography said...

That's sooo wrong...If you need help watermarking your images or making a logo, let me know! It is ridiculous that people can't be creative enough to make their own and take a picture..I'd be mad too! Boycott!! That'll teach her...Word of mouth is the biggest downfall of someone! I will spread the word, because I would know how I would feel if someone did that to me!

Carrie said...

This is so sad! I'm sorry she stole from you - I think the watermark is a good idea for ALL of us to put on our photos, whether of our families or creative works! Hope you get it worked out, and I hope she's embarrassed enough to take those photos down!!!! :(

Stat Mama said...

I'm so sorry. I ran a website for about ten years, and people constantly took my work and passed it off as their own. It was infuriating. I think what you've done is right as far as Facebook and watermarking goes. Add notice to your pages that your images are not to be reproduced in any way and are legally your property. Because they are. What she did was wrong. I hope you're able to get everything worked out quickly, and without any issues.

Queenbuv3 said...

That is messed up. I hope she gets booted. It is definately stealing!

Danika said...

April,

It is Danika, from Chic to Cheek Boutique. It was wrong of me to post those pictures and they have been removed. The items that I list on my site are works created by WAHM's. I was going to be posting diaper cake pictures soon and used yours as an example. I failed to state proper credit and that was wrong; I apologize for that. I have sent a message to my facebook group explaining my error and directing them to your website. It was not my intention to claim your work as my own. I would like to move forward from this a little wiser from my experience.
Anyone wishing to contact me to directly can do so at danika@chictocheek.ca

Sincerely,

Danika

Amy @ Six Flower Mom said...

I am sorry about this ... may I ask how you are watermarking? I would like to watermark my pictures but just have never done it!

Jen (Mama's Magic Studio) said...

oh no! catching up on your blog this afternoon and just heard about this. so glad that she removed them and apologized. but that's terrible that it happened in the first place! watermarks are a good idea; i've been meaning to do them with my pics. something more for the to-do list. if you have tips for how best to do it, i'm all ears.

Anonymous said...

I know there is code out there that makes right-clicking unavailable on pictures so that it is impossible to save images to your computer. The only other option with the aforementioned code would be a screen print, but if your images have low pixel values it would hardly be worth it for her. Unfortunately I don't know the code, and you'd be limiting the value of your own images. I think a watermark is really your best option.

I hope the problem has been resolved seeing that this happened a few months ago. Best of luck darlin!