When is it alright to accuse someone of copying your doll/someone else's doll?

I mean.....

Suppose someone did copy your doll.... what is the result you're hoping to get from confronting them about it?

Tell them to sand the mods off? Take the piercings out? Remove the tattoo with battery acid?

I mean really you would write to someone and demand they change the doll that they paid for and own?

I understand completely how it could be *extremely* annoying for your doll to be copied, but there's nothing you can really do about it or that you can make the copier do about it. Creative ideas are not your property unless they are patented or copyrighted... so, while irritating, you don't really have a leg to stand on.

 

The only way that I would accuse somebody of copying my dolls is if I had a business where I made my own dolls from scratch, and they looked a certain way, and another business or individual copied them exactly and tried to compete in the same market as me. Even then, it would be hard to argue if they had changed even one little thing.

As for individuals with their private dolls...I don't think it matters. The way I see it is, I think that dolls are meant for fun. While being copied might be kindof annoying, I think that it's better just to have fun with the dolls and not get so worked up about a little thing like that. How many times does a celebrity wear their hair a certain way and then thousands of people get their hair styled the same way? It happens all the time, and the celebrity doesn't get angry about it, confront their fans and tell them that they're all big copy-cats. That's just silly. Come on, now.

I think it's silly how some people get about things, copyrights and all that. Sure, there are legitimate reasons for copyrights, but sometimes it seems like the word is just an excuse for people to say "Mine, mine, mine", and under most circumstances, the people who cry about that sort of thing the most, are the people with the least actual claim to what they have the "copyright" to.

In other words, I don't think it's alright to accuse somebody of copying your doll, unless you're in a circumstance like the one in my first paragraph here. Because otherwise, it simply doesn't matter.

 

Lolz Starzzz, that would have been an impressive matching feat! That in itself would give the perpetrator a pass I think!

I think I see dolls the same way, I rarely see something that is perfect for me, even if I think it's great I might want to tweak one thing or another.
In answer to your question, why do people take imitation so personally, well I have to figure that they are quite immature, and ridiculous. It's just pure silliness.

 

Such occurrences are frequently found on sites like deviantart as well except in the form of original concepts. The problem though is that sometimes though one may think a concept is original it may truly be not considering that there are a limited base ideas in the world. This can be seen in the repetition of the same old stories like Cinderella.

And here in the BJD society I believe people have even less rights to the idea that one's doll is original. Most all of what one buys for a doll is available to everyone whether or not the supply is limited. Perhaps the only exception maybe if you custom order a part that will be the main focus of your doll and its found again in another doll. Then in such a case it would be as simple as to go to the producer of the item and ask if a reference was given ie: a photo of your doll.

 

Simply put in the art world, it is the gretest compliment of all for number 1, someone to steal your work, but most importantly here, number 2, someone to copy your work. It is the greatest form of admiration. It is why people model themselves from movie stars and why the greatest institutions teach art by making the students practice recreating the art of the "Old Masters".

 

Zomg someone with commons sense. You are amazing.

 

--what you said. I can't imagine why someone would be upset by seeing a copy of her doll, unless the copier denied the source.

 

I agree with some others in this thread who have said that "you're copying me" sounds childish. I wouldn't accuse someone of copying my doll. Even if that person had a faceup custom-painted to be as close to my doll's faceup as possible. Even if I changed my doll's eyes and that person immediately changed their doll's eyes to match. Even if they had the same name, and spent hours trying to re-create pictures I had taken.

I wouldn't accuse because I simply don't care. I don't like my dolls because they're unique and one-of-a-kind and show how awesome and original and creative I am--I like them because they are my dolls. That's the important part to me. No matter what that other person does, my doll is still mine.

 

I'm always amazed by how upset people here get when they think they've been copied...and inevitably, the dolls they think are being copied aren't nearly so unique as they believe them to be. Do you seriously think it's appropriate to call someone out because their Luts boy has the same wig, a similar faceup, the same color eyes and is wearing the same clothing as your Luts boy? Really? I'm sorry, but even if the wig is green with white stripes (or purple with pink polkadots, or yellow with black checks) it's not that unique because anyone could easily come up with that combination. And so he has a similar tatoo to the one that you put together from bits and pieces copied from somewhere online? In reality, you've just pieced together some pretty simplistic bits and pieces that anyone could easily get their hands on or create, so why be so amazed when someone comes up with something that's similar to yours? It's certainly within the realm of possibility. And "they'd better not copy my dolls personality or else?" Oh please, do you seriously think you've come up with a character no one has ever thought of before in the history of mankind (your angsty emo vampire who was raped early in life before finding a kindly blood-sucking father figure? Or your hard-nosed, violent, laser-firing, cross-dressing space cadet?) Not likely, my dear! And even if you had, as long as you're happily sharing your darling with others, you surely must make the logical assumption that someone somewhere might be inspired along the way...even if that person doesn't remember where that little idea in their head originally came from and believe it to be their own. If you can't face that fact, then you'd better lock your boy up in a dark box where no one ever sees or speaks of him but you. After all, you're only working with a pre-existing sculpt that anyone can get their hands on (tons of anyones, as a matter of fact!) You shouldn't be expecting exclusivity, now should you?

You know, I remember reading awhile back how upset some people were when Dollmore made a pink, black and white girl's outfit that looked similar to a drawing in a manga book. Younger members here were absolutely up in arms about it because they thought the manga had been knocked off. When I saw the photo of what they were complaining about, I had to laugh. The manga drawing of that outfit was a clear knockoff of one of the outfits from the 1960's movie musical "My Fair Lady". When it comes to dolls produced in multiple numbers, It's all just about the inspiration people find to create their own vision...from everything we've ever seen or heard in our lifetimes. How can you not expect coincidences or even close similarities to occur? And if you actually did inspire someone so much that they just had to create something like yours, well just say thank you and get on with your creative life.

 

I think what PoeticSoul said is absolutely perfect! It's all too easy for two people to come up with similar concepts. It happens all the time - people see something they like and more often then not, more than one person will see the same thing, wanting to create the same thing.

As for me, I have one doll that has had a very similar look to another member's doll. Same mold, similar face up, similar wig. My doll was often confused for hers. Did I care? Nope. I knew I had come up with my doll on my own, as I knew she had come up with hers on her own - each independently (and probably simultaneously) from each other. And in the end, that's all that matters - I loved what I did with my boy, so what did I care if someone else had something similar? It wasn't a particularly outrageous look that couldn't have easily been thought up by someone else and I still love my doll just as much, just as she loves hers.

So who cares if someone copied your style? Obviously that means what you made was pretty awesome! Be pleased with that.

 

OMG this!

I don't know if this is the conversation you're talking about, or if it's just the kind of thing that pops up far too frequently. I never wanted to be one of those people who's all like, "you're too young to know better", but I do find myself wondering how old people are when they get up in arms about these things.

In the discussion I linked to, the comparison photos aren't even exact copies, they're just outfits that share some similarities to some outfits in manga....that are probably not that original anyway. That pink dress w/the black & white accents? Probably copied from any number of similar dresses that were popular about 8 years ago... which were likely copied from a similar trend a few hundred years ago or so.

ETA: I have seen several people mention cases in which they think it would be appropriate to call someone out on their copying, but it still begs the question: to what end? Are you going to demand that they wipe they faceup they paid for? Are you going to insist that they re-create a character for their doll, even though they likely feel as attached to & invested in their doll as you do to yours? Really, what do you hope to accomplish if you do this? I'm genuinely curious.

 

i've seen many (3) MNF miyu with pink fur wig on this site...
it does look like a weird coincidence but i'm not gonna accuse any of the owners of copiing whoever had the first pink haired miyu cuz i dont have proofs. and it could really just be a coincidence.
BUT, i have seen a doll that was really just a copy of a ''famous'' doll. really. same faceup (but less good), same hair style & color and same MOLD (girl to boy modd)... ¬.¬ I didnt say anything but it was too obvious...

 

Oh wow, three dolls of the same scuplt with a similar hair colour.
.....that doesn't exactly sound like copying to me.

I really gotta agree with PoeticSoul on this topic; she's said just about everything I could, and much better, too. ^^

 

I haven't gotten through the entire thread so forgive me if it's been mentioned but I'm going to tangent a bit...

You know, this makes me think of something similar, but not involving dolls. There's a published author out there with a New York Times Bestselling novel. No, it's not SMeyer. The book is about angels, and she wrote them having their wings as connecting to their lungs and they use them to breathe.

This struck me as odd, because I was the only other person in the WORLD who has ever written or drawn any creature (usually I draw these flimy wings because the oxygen needs to filter through them) that does this relating to the angelic realm. It struck me as OMG COPYING. I looked it up on the internet and tried to find anyone else who might have used it.

No one. It's not mentioned anywhere. I was the only person who had posted about it, two years before her book was published. On deviant art I have pictures. On various spiritual angelic forums I had talked about it. One has to wonder, DID she copy me?

Or, as she put it when I asked her 'wow, where did you get that idea?' did she come up with it 'off the top of her head randomly because she needed a weak point involving their wings'?

Independant invention, I think is what they call it. People coming up with the same thing that someone halfway around the world came up with. With so many dolls and so many options its only natural that something is going to happen to look exactly alike. Now if they have the same backstory, history, and name, that's a problem.

 

I would be very flattered if someone wanted to style their doll exactly like one of mine. It might be slightly annoying because it could get confusing as to whose pictures are who's, but if someone thought my doll was so perfect he or she wanted to have exactly the same doll, then I would feel complimented. If i made the outfit, styled, the wig, did the faceup, etc etc all myself, then I would feel even more flattered. Unless I am making and selling the product, how am I to fault them for wanting to have something the same or similar? I wouldn't get mad if someone wanted to use my recipe for chocolate chip cookies, why would I get mad at them for using a recipe for a doll with a sculpt someone ELSE created?

 

Well in the end it is their doll, their money, and their time. There's no way that you copyright a doll's certain look. It will happen eventually that this totally original creation of your's won't be so original (like PoeticSoul said). When I was younger I thought I had made a variety of original creatures, characters, and names. I was shocked when catgirls existed before I did, or that there was a FF character named Aeris. It's bound to happen and nobody can help it.

 

Well. Of course there's not really a way of dealing with this, because when things like this happen it could be a very weird case of coincidence or intentionel copycat behaviour. With so many dolls around, I believe there's a chance of someone having a look-alike of your own doll, considering most doll-lovers are very much into the asian culture as well (think of the japanese naming trend). It's like humans really, what's the chance of having a look-alike walking around on this entire planet? Not so big, but there ought to be someone out there who looks just like you and maybe even has the same character traits.
Now limit yourself to the dolls and their look-alikes. There's a certain collection of wigs, molds and clothing out there to define a certain character in your doll (forgetting about the people who do a lot of own sowing and stuff). There's a million of combinations possible, but when you link those combinations to the current hypes and trends (our fashion has it, so why not doll fashion either?), you'll find yourself at a very vast base on which we all work. Sometimes, the clothes dolls wear don't vary that much from others. So we try our hardest to make them more unique (or at least, that's what we think).

However, let's say you find someone who has a doll that's "OMG COMPLETELY LIKE MY HIMIZU OMG". I think there are varying factors that will count in your response to this. If it's your neighbour.. well, I think you'd like to grab onto a hammer and--.. ehem.
What if it's someone on the other side of the world who couldn't have ever seen your doll? That makes things complicated. But then again, it would still be a little unsettling to see a copy of your own doll to be somewhere else. Quite the same feeling if you knew or saw your own look-alike, right?

So. The main problem is.. what decides whether the copying has been done intentional or coincidental..? And I think that that question itself, depends on every unique situation it happens (see what I did there?).

 

well copying is kind of taking away from the originality but i guess you should be kind of honored that someone liked it well enough to copy it although i would be annoyed since i want my characters to be special...

anyway but what if it wasnt on purpose? I mean theres only so many ideas thought of so far in the world and some people arent as creative as others... so they see something and build on it. Isn't that what human civilization has been doing our whole lives \(@-@)/ so confused.

 

when you see a doll that has almost the same wig, face-up, clothes, mold and character and seems to have been bought after your doll then maybe you can say they copied but if there are any doubts then maybe that person has similar taste? i dunno but i know for sure that i wouldnt like it if my doll was copied

 

Hmmm... That's a complicated question... I think copying a doll should not be a serious matter if it's coincidental. I mean, with so many people in the world buying the same sculpts, some of them are bound to end up looking similar, particularly when some of their looks are based off anime charactes.

But when someone clearly plagiarizes a certain doll and doesn't give credit (there are dolls out there that I wouldn't mind kidnapping, so I understand the feeling of wanting to copy ), that's quite serious.

I don't think you can really accuse someone because they got the same wig you did, but if there are other things that are looking similar, like faceup or clothing style, that's enough to make an accusation, in my opinion. I don't take names into account with this, because many of the pre-existing names we use for our dolls are liked by many people. One of my dolls will be name Phobos, after one son of roman god Mars, and I have no doubt that he won't be the only Phobos out there.

Taking my previous experience with plagiarism, though, I'd make the accusation first and then ask the person about their doll. I've had a few ideas stealed from me (not dolls, other things), and having no proof of property over them, I've had to resign myself. This topic is actually pretty sensitive for me because of that.

I'm quite sure I'd get really angry if my doll were to be copied, and I'd be raising hell because of it, so I hope it never happens to me