Who's Responsible for Intellectual Property Theft?

Is one really better than the other?

I'm tired and frustrated.

In real time. (As in, most of my blog posts are written well in advance. This one wasn't; I've been plugging at it all week long.)

I'm tired of people who can't put in enough effort to change things that they can and I'm frustrated by those who don't think it's necessary.

You can display that on your mantle about a whole lot of issues around the world today, but I'm speaking specifically about my recent discovery of a mountain of sewing supplies websites that purport to "love every passion and interest on Earth because it is a reference to your Imagination" (sic).

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You may recall that the intellectual property stealing site called Dyaneeo.com uses that line on their About Us page. Google returned 231 results when I checked for it this week. The previous time I did this search, I clicked on a random site called Allens.shop and it also turned out to be a sewing supplies shop. I thought it was a coincidence.

When I tried to access it again this past week, it was "currently unavailable". In fact, several of the sites whose About Us blurb replicates that same bit of rainbow love display this "unavailable" image when clicked on. Are they perhaps works in progress? Sites taken down because they've been exposed? (While I hope for the latter, I doubt it.)

An example of how these sites just use one another as templates to breed...

As to how one site can quickly morph into another, the image above demonstrates how an Allens.Shop image shows up for something called Guudluck.com. Website and ecommerce hosts have templates that allow someone to set up an online shopping presence in literal minutes. That may explain how I easily came across ten other sewing supplies shops during this recent search, all of which share some of the same product line as Dyaneeo.

Which leads to the title of this post... when you are in the business of enabling entities to rip off others, might you be just as responsible for that behaviour as those entities themselves?

If you've been following this story on my update page, you will have heard the name Shoplazza.com. Here is part of their About Us page.

image courtesy of Shoplazza.com...

It states up front that the company was "founded in Canada back in 2017". Now, my home country has its share of problems and is far from perfect, but I get why a company like Shoplazza — which has an autoresponder that sends out replies like this —

would rather you believe that it was founded in Canada. But it wasn't, at least not according to Chris from Customer Service, who sent me an email that began with the following...

... when I asked why their autoresponder would respond in Chinese if their company has Canadian roots.

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Do you get the feeling that lies — even when they are out there in full view — are now totally acceptable in every aspect of life?

And I don't want to accuse without proof; who knows, maybe "Chris" was mistaken. But no, a quick check of their WHOIS information makes it crystal clear that in 2017, Shoplazza.com was registered in China. (They did recently set up a corporate office in Markham, Ontario, Canada.)

In any case, for now, Shoplazza has stopped my origami twist box instructions from being distributed by Dyaneeo.com without permission. However, each affected person/designer must make an official complaint in order to get an issue looked at and rectified.

It's why I believe that ecommerce services like Shoplazza — which operate behind a "form" that allows piecemeal reporting of intellectual property theft — are just as responsible for the growing problem of IP theft as entities like Dyaneeo. They let these sites reproduce like rabbits with the exact same product listings and unless you and I — as copyright owners — can to find each one and file a complaint with them each time, scammers and thieves continue to make money.

Even if I were to present a case that over 50% of Dyaneeo's listings involve IP theft (of others'), Shoplazza will likely require that all parties make their own claim.

screenshot from Shoplazza...

I suppose I should be thankful that they seem to be able to achieve results. But the very idea that I have to do this each time I find my stuff out there being used without my permission makes me feel very tired.

Not to mention that it frustrates me that others who are similarly affected seem not interested in doing anything. I reached out to several designers and YouTubers who have had their IP appropriated in even more egregious ways than me and was dismayed at the level of disinterest. Of the few who did respond, I'm not sure that all of them put in their best effort to tackle the problem. (E.g., "I sent an email but did not get a response" or "I'll send a cease and desist order".)

I understand the reality that this happens all the time, but I also know that it happens all the time because we let it happen. The solution to do nothing because we can't stop it is the exact same argument that we often get from those who say we can't do anything about climate change. How about we stop complaining about being unable to reach lofty goals and instead aim at some achievable ones? How about, we can't stop all of this stealing of ideas but we can certainly play a small role in making it less rampant.

For example, maybe we can start hounding the ecommerce service providers to be better corporate citizens and protect more than just their bottom lines.

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If you're wondering why I feel the need to revisit this topic again, it's because the more actual sentences and paragraphs that are written about this problem, the more impact it has. Little tidbits expressed on social media simply do not carry the same weight.

In the meantime, here's another reason: look what I uncovered last weekend at a site called MALLTOONVIP.COM. It's essentially the same listing as was found on Dyaneeo.com. (How did I find it? On one of Dyaneeo's images, I saw the word "malltoon". A few searches later, I ended up on their new site, which was just registered July 11 of this year.)

image taken from Malltoonvip.com...

But yes, I had to submit another complaint to Shoplazza. Because even though it involves no monetary loss for me, it's the right thing to do. (They removed the listing yesterday.)

And even though it's a tiring and frustrating process that seems to have no end for now, it's the least I can do to protect everyone from intellectual property theft.

Because the answer to the question posed in the title of this post is — to some degree — all of us.

'Til next...