pixelspread: Huge Type Gets Ripped

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posted on 01/29/08

I’ve seen it happen before, and I guess it’s expected when you become somewhat successful, but I thought we’d have to get through 10 or 20 designs before it happened to us. That’s right, the day after we won Tee of the Day on Emptees, I found someone trying to rip off our idea on Zazzle. The sad part is, the rip off didn’t have huge or sweet type… and I think they missed the humor of the entire idea.

But when I found that our shirt had been ripped off, I mentioned it on Emptees, and found an army of people willing to help. The product page on Zazzle got flooded with comments and reports of copyright violation. And I’m happy to say, by the end of the day, the shirt had been removed.

For anyone that missed this, here’s a side by side comparison. I’m sure you can figure which one is the rip off.

We’re working on more designs, so until then, go grab the original huge type shirt.

6 shirt

Josh

posted on Jan 29, 10:16 AM

Their version of the shirt is mind boggling because it doesn’t even make sense. Not to mention, for some reason I want to dropkick the lady they have modeling it.

In totally unrelated news: Where did you get your Rescue albums from?

Taylor

posted on Jan 29, 10:53 AM

I’ve heard it said that you shouldn’t worry about when people steal your design ideas – you should worry when they stop.

That said, it’s probably not copyright violation (and, strangely, it’s a federal crime to say it is) if you haven’t registered it with the U.S. patent office and ponied up the ~$70 to copyright it.

Cameron Hunt

posted on Jan 29, 10:58 AM

Taylor, unless I’m wrong, creative works by citizens of the USA are automatically copyrighted since 1989, when the USA adhered to the Berne Convention:

Under the Berne Convention, copyrights for creative works do not have to be asserted or declared, as they are automatically in force at creation: an author need not “register” or “apply for” a copyright in countries adhering to the Berne Convention.