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84 Times Artists Caught Companies And Fake Artists Copying Their Work And Selling It As Their Own
Thanks to the internet it's never been easier for people to rip off something that somebody else created and pass it off as their own. It isn't just individuals who do it either, but major well-known companies like New Look, Forever21, and even Disney. We wrote about one such case before, where artist Tuesday Bassen discovered that Spanish retailer Zara had stolen her designs and were using them without crediting her, and now Bored Panda has compiled an extended list of people who have experienced similar unfair treatment at the hands of people too lazy, or too talentless, to create something for themselves. Scroll down to see for yourself, and let us know how you feel in the comments.
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#1
Art By Katie Woodger Stolen By Disney
Charm Valenzuela 7 years ago
The best way for it is to post things like this on facebook, twitter etc... Let's see how disney would quiet down a raging fire
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#2
Thomas Pullin's Original Work (Left) And Neda Rabiei's Nockoff (Right)
Caroline Huot 7 years ago
Crazy!! This should get upvotes... it's not freakin triangles!! It's a blatant copy of a very distinctive artwork. Your work is gorgeous btw!
#3
Woman Steals Artwork From Artist Ryan Conners, Paints Flowers On Top Of It And Sells Products With It As Her Own
#4
Zara Steals Tuesday Bassen's Artwork
Random Panda 7 years ago
This is outrageous! Zara should be so ashamed!!! They got enough money to hire an entire team of designer FFS, do they really need to steal???
#5
First Official Art Thief
Claire Elizia 7 years ago
To be honest that drawing is beyond beautiful I love it so much such a shame someone had to go and steal it!
#6
This "Artist"
#7
Lili Chin's Illustrations “Doggie Language” On Kohl's T-Shirts
#8
Company Stealing Artwork From Artist
#9
Ford Steals Firewatch Artwork For A Promotional Ad
Sophia Bennani 7 years ago
Working in advertising, I have to say that unfortunately, most of the time, the clients don't have any idea where the artwork comes from, it's the ad agency or the graphic designers who stole it or are too lazy to produce real work...
#10
Forever21 Gone Wild
#11
Etsy Shop Owner Using Belandkal Artwork Without Permission On Their Laser Etched Products. The Art Itself Is Pretty Ironic In This Case
#12
Art Thief Whose Been Stealing And Selling Prints On Deviantart Finally Gets Spotted Out On Facebook And Called Out
Lisa Panos Fullerton 7 years ago
Good for this artist! So awesome you were able to bust this thief's balls! Fr
#13
Mark Conlan's Original Work (Left) And Neda Rabiei's Nockoff (Right)
Amaranthim Talon 7 years ago
Notice this art thief is doing it constantly- not the first entry on this page!
#14
Stolen Art
Angela Hernandez 7 years ago
Unfortunately there is very little you can do when a company overseas steals your art.
#15
Art Thief Posting Work All Over The Internet As His Own Is Caught Red-Handed By The Artist And Called Out
Shauday Smith 7 years ago
That's Briana Garcia, she works for Disney. I've been following her work for years and she's fantastic. She started in Disneyland and has worked her way into their artist showcases and character drawing demonstrations. She is very talented. Her sketches and illustrations are 100% her property and do not belong to disney or the public unless she expressly says so. Regardless of the subject. If i draw Disney's cinderella, that is 100% MY work. Credit to Disney for their character but MY illustration. If i take YOUR illustration of disney's cinderella and claim it as my own then i am stealing YOUR work. If i take your illustration and try to sell it, i'm putting myself at legal risk for stealing both IP's because i did not make the drawing and do not have permission to sell it as my own goods and i do not have permission to profit from the selling of a copyrighted disney character.
#16
Fashion Label Brandy Melville Knocked Off The Artist Brain Foetus By Placing Her Embroidered Piece On Their Top
#17
Original And The Copy
Kirsa Rasmussen 7 years ago
"Zara" has some very lazy designers since they only steal other's art work
#18
Samantha Beeston Had Stolen Artist's Lauren Nassef's Drawings (Left) And Used Them In Her Own Pattern Designs (Right)
#19
Stolen Fan Art
#20
Originals Vs Rip-Offs
Robert Herczeg 7 years ago
Even though I can't imagine that too much work went into this one, not cool
#21
Rashidi Barrett's Version (Right) Of Matheus Lopez Castro Work (Left). Barrett Admitted What He'd Done And Apologised On His Website
#22
Frenchman Romain Sarkal Eloy Submits A Photoshopped Picture (Bottom) To A Contest And Wins A New Macbook Pro Laptop All Without A Permission Of Photographer Kevin Collins Who Took The Original Picture (Top)
#23
Taylor Swift Posted A Fan Art Which Later Turned Out To Be Art Thievery From Artist Ally Burguieres
#24
Urban Outfitters Steals Artist's Spires Work And Puts In On A Skirt
#25
Original Illustration And Knock-off Version
#26
Band Rapper Sadat X Released An Album With Artist's Jay Roeder Artwork On It Without His Permission
#27
Art Stolen From Deviantart User Nerkin
Sarah Britt 7 years ago
What does the shirt say??? I can't tell and it's driving me nuts trying to figure it out.
#28
Northern Ireland Painter Martin Bradley Produced Almost “Exact Replicas” (Right) Of Works By American Painter Tim Rogerson (Left)
#29
Modern Dog, A Small Seattle Design Shop, Accused Disney And Some Of Their Partners, Including Target, Of Ripping Off One Of Its Dog-Oriented Designs To Create A T-Shirt. They Even Started A Social Media Campaign To Attract More Attention To The Issue
#30
Creative Agency Is Not So Creative Apparently
#31
Forever 21 Accused Of Blatantly Stealing Valfre Designs
#32
Stolen Artwork
#33
Artist's Design Used On A T-Shirt
#34
Snapchat Accused Of Stealing Make-Up Artist's Work For Selfie Filters. They Later Admitted To This Being An Issue After 3 Other Artists Were Copied
#35
Original Work By J.Scott Campbell (Left) And Benjamin Spark's Work (Right)
#36
Someone Out There Is Selling Rip-Offs Of My Designs
#37
Print By Hidden Eloise On A Paperchase Bag Bearing A Similar Design
#38
Zara Stealing Again
#39
Original Beekeepers Album Artwork And Apt. 13 Copy
Jace 7 years ago
This would make an interesting court case. The recreation is not the original artwork, clearly, but the concept is exactly the same, from figures, to clothes, down to the masks (not the coloring) and the body poses. The derivative work is much nicer, but it's a stolen concept.
#40
Original Work By J. Scott Campbell (Left) And Benjamin Spark's Work (Right)
#41
Controversial Artist Richard Prince Exhibits And Sells Screenshots Of Other Photographers’ Instagram Photos Without Permission
#42
Company Stealing Art From Independent Artist
#43
Stolen Art
Chloe Fletcher 2 years ago
Looks like she's screaming and about to eat her hair at the same time
#44
Internet Shop Stealing All Artist's Elapuse Art To Make Money Of It
#46
Women Rise Stole My Design Of Princess Leia
#47
Chinese Version
#49
Stolen Fanart
earringnut 7 years ago
this one makes me want to cry. if art isn't rewarded no one will go through the trouble of being an artist. i fear for a world without art.
#51
Artwork Stolen By Asos
#52
The Original Of Polish Artist Adrian Knopik (Top) And Rashidi Barrett's Version (Bottom)
Master Markus 7 years ago
I don't know if it's supposed to be erotic, but they, especially the third one kind of gross me out.
#53
Company Copying Artist's Design
#54
This Artist Is Getting Angry
#55
Indie Devs Claim Early Drawings From RWBY To Be Concept Art For Their Game
#56
Almost Copy-Paste
Tiia Lehtola 7 years ago
looks like some kid is just learning to draw and don't know better to link back or contact the original artist.
#57
Paintings Plagiarised By Wendy Marani (Right) As Painted By Nancy Farmer (Left)
Caroline Huot 7 years ago
Don't worry, the copies are atrocious!! Looks like they were done by an elementary school kid!
#58
Selling Stolen Art
Sarah Hudock 7 years ago
Go here to report copyright infringements on Facebook. They are pretty quick to take them down, I use it all the time for people stealing my artwork. https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/634636770043106?helpref=faq_content
#59
When Flattery Becomes Forgery
James Blair 7 years ago
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but copying without attribution to the original artist is insincere flatuence.
#60
Stolen Design Copy
#61
Art Thief
#62
Claire's Ripped Off This Clare Louise Owen Design
#63
Artist Shepard Fairey Used A Picture Of B.Obama For His Poster Without A Permission Of Photographer Mannie Garcia Who Took The Picture
Imma Letchofinish 7 years ago
Shepard's career highlights include taking a photo, add in photoshop filter and then make millions. Photographer sees nothing from it.
#64
Stolen Art
Adriana E. Henricy 7 years ago
pissed, bc they are making money out of another persons design, redbubble is full of it
#65
Internet Shop Using Artist's Fanart To Make Keychains
#66
Stolen Artwork
Tiffany Zhu 7 years ago
dang good think I got here before the Jolo Atlantis guy could criticize the grammar again. Yeesh. Btw that bear mask looks so cool. :D
#67
Samantha's R. Original Artwork On Lil Kim's Single Cover
#68
Jakarta’s Jazz Festival Advertising Materials Look Extremely Similar To Ian Austin’s Original Artwork
#70
Stolen Art Being Sold Online
#71
Stolen Art
Sarah Hudock 7 years ago
Teechip is hosted by Amazon Web Services. Send a DMCA letter to copyright@amazon.com - they take For.Ev.Er to respond, but they eventually take it down. The more people serve letters against Teechip, the better. I've filed many now myself.
#72
Chas Truslow "Killa Bart" Art On Ruvilla T-Shirts That It Marketed And Sold To Its Customers
#73
Art Thief
#74
Stolen Art And Even Costs Nothing
#75
This Guy Totally Ripped Off My Favorite Artist Kshocs. Even The Coloring Is The Same
Agathe May 7 years ago
Well, it s complicated for tatoo. of course the Kshocks s one is gorgeous. But i can imagine that someone can t travel to get this tatoo and ask an other tatoo artist to make it... very common actually. A lot of tatoos are just copy of some design because the customers want it. What we need is a good tatoo artist who can do everything we ask. but asking them to copy some work can just have a very bas result on you at the end, it s a risk sinc everybody as skills in some styles or not... but i dont see the problem. If my tatoo artist dont see any problem to do a copyright caracter or drawing if i ask it... why should we be upset for that one. Should we jail all the tatoo artist who did a mickey on their customers. Wake up people. The customers ask and you just fulfill his wish. It would be some art work from internet, nobody would have say s**t.
#76
Art Thief Seeking Attention
#78
Stolen Design
Kaleigh Bryant 7 years ago
So you're mad that someone liked your artwork so much they got it tattooed? I guess nobody can get any tattoos unless they draw it completely themselves,right?
#79
Apparently My Artwork Is Being Stolen
#80
Troll Thieves
Aahzmandus Pervect 7 years ago
And you know for a fact that Boylands isn't getting any restitution from Primark?
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What do you think ?
Its me 7 years ago
Just fund a funny detail... Post #58 from this thread shows a design from instagram @crimewa.ve. I found the instagram account @crimewave and found a "nike knife" which is also shown at the bored panda thread "Artist Turns Logos Of Famous Brands Into Weapons, And The Result Is Dangerously Awesome" Snap2-59ca...d86837.jpg 
Anna Hämäläinen 7 years ago
This makes me so sad. Specially when the copycats are big companies stealing artwork of new and young artists knowing that the original artists can't do a thing to protect their work. Obviously designers get inspired by the things that they see and might eventually end up creating something similar, but just copying what they see is so low. I have this top which has been fairly popular ever since I made the first prototype in 2013. Over the last year so I've seen it being copied plenty times. The one on the left is my original design. One on the right is IHeartRaves's version titled as "Exclusively designed by the IHeartRaves team". dreamwarri...b1171a.jpg 
Alusair Alustriel 7 years ago
What I want to see are the reactions of the thieves and how those stories unfolded, be it catching red-handed, lawsuits and other actions. I hope the thieves get what they deserve, starting from social exclusion, through embarrasement and undermined "talent" to heavy financial punishment. How can you be so insolent and steal like that?! Have you no shame?
logical fallacy 7 years ago
It's very hard to actually punish them. Those Zara and Berska things are sold all around (saw them at the store only a few months back), and people were buying them like crazy because they're cute indeed. Did these people know the designs were stolen? Probably not. And even if they were, convenience would have probably won anyway. Lawyers cost a lot of money, and usually artists are short on that. The only ones who can easily be taken care of are those small businesses selling stuff online, by spreading the word. But the rest? It's going to be very hard.
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Its me 7 years ago
Just fund a funny detail... Post #58 from this thread shows a design from instagram @crimewa.ve. I found the instagram account @crimewave and found a "nike knife" which is also shown at the bored panda thread "Artist Turns Logos Of Famous Brands Into Weapons, And The Result Is Dangerously Awesome" Snap2-59ca...d86837.jpg
Anna Hämäläinen 7 years ago
This makes me so sad. Specially when the copycats are big companies stealing artwork of new and young artists knowing that the original artists can't do a thing to protect their work. Obviously designers get inspired by the things that they see and might eventually end up creating something similar, but just copying what they see is so low. I have this top which has been fairly popular ever since I made the first prototype in 2013. Over the last year so I've seen it being copied plenty times. The one on the left is my original design. One on the right is IHeartRaves's version titled as "Exclusively designed by the IHeartRaves team". dreamwarri...b1171a.jpg
Alusair Alustriel 7 years ago
What I want to see are the reactions of the thieves and how those stories unfolded, be it catching red-handed, lawsuits and other actions. I hope the thieves get what they deserve, starting from social exclusion, through embarrasement and undermined "talent" to heavy financial punishment. How can you be so insolent and steal like that?! Have you no shame?
logical fallacy 7 years ago
It's very hard to actually punish them. Those Zara and Berska things are sold all around (saw them at the store only a few months back), and people were buying them like crazy because they're cute indeed. Did these people know the designs were stolen? Probably not. And even if they were, convenience would have probably won anyway. Lawyers cost a lot of money, and usually artists are short on that. The only ones who can easily be taken care of are those small businesses selling stuff online, by spreading the word. But the rest? It's going to be very hard.
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