ATStudio Dolls

Soom had already posted an announcement on their website regarding the problem.

 

Soom will further investigate and exam by involving a 3rd party, according to the announcement.

 

SOOM
Official statement on the controversy over suspected plagiarism of Idealian dolls
Thank you for loving our doll.
First of all, we’re thankful to our fans who concerned over the recent issue.

As a group of artists creating the Soom doll, we are sorry for the controversy over the suspicion of plagiarism. Due to this issue, all of the artists and executives of Soom were greatly disappointed.

Soom’s artists have been striving to create original dolls through various aesthetic explorations for a long time. As a result, Soom’s unique identity has been recognized by customers, and we are striving to keep it.

When artists are creating for a long time with own aesthetic standards, the originality will naturally be revealed, and many artists are working tirelessly to get it recognized by the public.

If someone newly sculpted a specific work as a motif in their own differentiated style from start to finish, it is recognized as another work that reinterprets the original work. On the other hand, if the work itself is imitated as it is, or only partially transformed or added, it will inevitably become similar to the original work, which can lead to suspicion of plagiarism.

“Plagiarism” means not only when two works are similar, but also when they have a similar overall feeling. Also plagiarism does not necessarily have to be intentional, and plagiarism can be regared as negligence even if it is not intentional.
Intentional plagiarism can result in criminal penalties, and although there is no intentional plagiarism, if plagiarism occurs due to negligence, it will be subject to civil liability.

Therefore, when producing a creation, it should be careful because it may be plagiarized someone else’s creation unconsciously. For all artists, the plagiarism controversy in itself is very dishonorable and faced with moral and ethical criticism, so all creators themselves should have strict standards to avoid such unpleasant issues.

In art work, it is very difficult to distinguish and define creation and imitation because the boundaries are ambiguous. As the famous saying, ‘Imitation is the mother of creation’, you may think that some degree of imitation can be admitted in art work.
Moreover, the creation of a doll is a representation of the original human form, so it is easier to think more easily.

Personally there have been many cases of inspired creations or customizing the Soom dolls. Some of them have been controversial as some are selling commercially rather than purely personal work, and it is even illegally copied and sold in earnest. It is only a difference in degree, but it is an act of infringing on the copyright of others and deceived customers in the end.

Plagiarism without intention is also plagiarism, and if coincidences are overlapped, it is likely plagiarism.
If this controversy continues to be repeated and it is judged that it is damaging the original author’s of Soom and Soom’s customers, we will not neglect and request the collected dolls to a specialized agency to objectively verify whether plagiarism is found, and if plagiarism is judged, we will take corresponding actions.

The reason why ball joint dolls have been able to developed so far is the honest hard work of many artists who constantly create original dolls,
and customers who appreciate the workmanship and value of the dolls.
We hope that this issue will serve as an opportunity for not only us but also many artists to work harder to meet the high expectations of the customers.
Also we hope that a creative environment in which all works are respected and protected.
Thank you.

SOOM
Link Official statement on the controversy over suspected plagiarism of Idealian dolls - IDEALIAN
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What do you think about this announcement?
Update from Weibo:
I was a bit surprised by Chinese BJD owners.
I saw there were not much attention to Soom's announcement as accusing report. Some of them told that everybody had their conclusion, the announcement only support to their point.
Another person said that this announcement of SOOM was not enough clearly. They wanted SOOM to confirm directly about the accusation and gave a NAME.
Some oversea dealers try to support ATStudio via weibo comments. Those dealers gave an option that their customers could get a refund. On the other hand, they gave a lot of deal of ATStudio's dolls from second hand market with a low price. They would bought those ATStudio doll for their customers who allowed lower budget doll and didn't care about negative information. As I mention before, many Chinese owners sold their ATStudio doll on second hand market because of plagiarism accusation.
From ATStudio: Artist stated that he would prepare and submit more materials to support himself. New release of ATstudio which was accused plagiarize Illusion Gardon, was SUSPENDED.
Under his post: not much support comment as before.
In my opinion, many Chinese owners got their conclusion, so the official statement from SOOM didn't affect their opinion. I can see ATStudio is being boycotted in some Chinese BJD group. After some research about the past of SOOM, I understand why they can't confirm directly in plagiarism their doll. Hope ATStudio can give more information soon.

 

This whole thing is so sad and confusing. The artist in me has mixed feelings about the idea that this is blatant plagiarism. I appreciate everyone's input and sharing of links. One thought keeps coming to my mind. In art school you have proportions and the golden ratio for a human face beat into your memory and your creative eye. Having the eyes, nose and mouth being placed a specific distance away from each other on a face isn't necessarily proof of plagiarism in my mind. I haven't officially done a golden ratio analysis on the sculpts, but given the company's doll line is named Idealian I bet they are strongly referring to that ratio with their sculpts.

**Update: I did a locked-scaled ratio front-facing image overlay of the golden ratio mask on a blank head picture of Narmer and he almost perfectly fits the golden face ratio. In fact, Narmer's nose and brow that people are saying is the "biggest indicator of plagiarism" is exactly the golden ratio nose and brow from the front. I'm in the process of asking the Flickr user whose picture I used for the comparison for permission to share it. I would suggest that both heads are very closely referencing the golden ratio for their sculpt. Also, google "Angelina Jolie golden ratio" to see an example of the mask on a real person. Surely they're related.

It sounds like Idealian has been one of the only companies selling this style of doll for a while. As someone who is newer to the hobby, I've seen a ton of doll brands that look very similar in the same way this ATStudio head has some resemblance to Narmer. There have been soooo many times where I swear a head surely must be X brand because it looks just like another sculpt, and it's not. Just my thoughts.

I hope there is a more clear determination from official outlets about this topic soon.

 

Recently saw a post in facebook from ATStudio saying the pre-order for Cetus will be probably available soon and wanted to know if anyone is thinking in buying? It seems they also held a pre-order for a "new" Baker in September as well.

 

I'm looking at Cetus with fish parts in the blue! Very unique mermaid boy!!

 

Same here! Although it's a shame he got me just when I'm still paying for two layaways so I must restrain myself I just hope the second hand prices doesn't skyrock to 3k in a short time!

 

Orion and nBaker want Cetus home. And so it happened.

 

Yay, @ErikNiceBerg !! What color Cetus are you bringing home? I'm doing the blue .

 

Normal skin in human version.

 

Congrats to both of you! Cetus is such a gorgeous sculpt, I'm excited to see what any of you do if you get to share!

 

Purchased Cetus. He's a grail of mine and I'm excited to get him.

 

@Seki Yay!! Congrats to you too . What color will he be in? Did you get the fish parts or bust stand too?

 

Thank you. He's in normal skin with the human body.

 

So does the company check out? We have someone selling a ATStudio but we aren't sure if we should allow or not ...if they are legit?

 

What? They're not a recast company.

 

Soom made a statement about copying but didn't name names, so there's no action anyone here can take other than choosing to buy or not.

 

As it stands today, they are not on the DoA banned list. The concern about whether or not AT Studio's original Baker sculpt was plagiarism was never clearly addressed by Soom. Soom just made a vague statement about plagiarism and artistic integrity in general (which you can read above on the post by @DianNguyen.)

I have AT Studio Orion punk and he's amazing. If nothing else, I hope AT Studio is more aware of the importance of making sure their sculpts don't become too similar to other artists.

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Also, does anyone know if ATStudio and ATSdoll are the same? It almost feels like a re-brand or a sister brand based on their FB Page. They have the ATStudio body with the ATSdoll Cetus head. Maybe ATSdoll is a collab with ATStudio's body and Mewoh's head? Just curious if anyone knows.