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

Well, I've never read Anne Rice's books, but I heard about her case of not allowing fan material.
She's not wrong to want her rights, but there is always a trade-off and she had to embrace all the consequences too. And that included losing a bit of respect of the fans (and losing some fans) and also low the chances of other people getting to know her books.
It was her choice.

 

I don't really think it is ok to accuse people in public but then I also don't think it is ok to exactly copy someone elses doll specially if it has home made custom parts / body modification / painting and clothing. The more customised and unique it has been made, the more important it must be the artist / owner that did it for them to go to all that effort, and thus an attempt to copy that is disrespectful unless you ask first.

I think that ideas that are already out there in the media such as vampires, mermaids, Anime stereotypes etc are going to all look similar and it would be unfair to accuse someone of copying you if your doll fits into one of these.

 

I wanted to post my message, but the connection timed out and now I have to rewrite all from the beginning. ^^'

It's not the basic idea that makes a doll original, but the details. There are so many elves, vampires, magicians and so on. However, the personality of the character and his look can be a discriminant. I wouldn't stop to the apparence, but I'd go beyond.
It's true: we buy clothes, wigs and other accessories from the same companies, such as Dollheart, Volks, Luts, Leeke etc.
The accessories aren't unique. The molds are the same. But the result can change according to the owner's creativity and taste.

I found BJD appealing because they can be totally customizable. Hence, even if someone else has the same mold, the way he/she customized it can result in something completely different.
I won't complain if someone got inspired by my dolls and purchased the same molds. I won't make fuss if a person has seen some wig in my pictures, and the he/she went for it.
But I have the right to feel upset and disapponted if this person purchased the same mold, the same wig, if the dolls wears a similar style and the doll's background is really looking alike.
I don't think "inspiration" (sometimes an euphemism for imitation and copycat, let's say that) is always on the good side. My characters were born on paper. I am no comics artist, I am an occasional writer of original stories. And I chose to be part of this hobby because it was a way to make my characters look "alive", even if they are just dolls.
I purchase wigs and eyes from the company because I can't make ones by myself. I commission face up to the artists who can cope with it, working on my ideas. I also commission clothes if it's needed.

This requires time, money. And a bit of research.
Being inspired is good, being heavily influenced it's not. Even great artists developed their own style from their former colleagues, or pre-existing ideas. So, a really original idea is only a good re-elaboration of reality. You can't create something from the beginning, just to make it seem unique by proper refining.
Some others don't bother to pursue originality, as long as they can purchase the doll they want. Maybe it sounds harsh, but in some way it's the reality. Custom is secondary for someone, but to me is the main incentive in buying a doll. I purchase a mold similar to the character I have in mind. If someone is just plainly imitating my dolls, I can assume he\she appreciates neither the ideas nor the efforts behind that, if I want to feel disappointed.

Once, it happened that the face up of one of my dolls was in some way of inspiration for someone else's work on the same mold. Soon after I decided to go for something different, because it faded and went off in some places. I felt deceived in some way, because that person waited so much time to commission the same face up on the same doll, to a different artist. I purchased that head from another customist, and I paid for that special work!

I think that inspiration is good, as long as it's on the good side. However, we have to respect other people's creativity. It's true, we want to have fun. We would do any effort to make the doll look beautiful. But in this hobby there is money involved: to fulfill a certain idea, we invest money, we spend so much time in research.
So, we have to respect also other owner's efforts, without thinking that just because we see it in a picture it's free, common-shared and served in a silver plate.

 

I don't own a BJD yet so I don't know.
To be honest I don't think I'd mind it though.
So someone has the same doll, in the same clothes, with the same faceup, with the same wig and the same eyes and mods etc...
I am with my doll way over here, they are with their doll way over somewhere else. How does it affect me?
If they start pretending that my doll is theirs, that would annoy me.
If they stole his story, personality and background, that would bother me.
If they stole something customized I made for him/on him (clothes, a tattoo, etc...), that would annoy me if they start selling it off as their own. [If they stole it, gave credit and used it just for themselves, I don't mind. If they stole it, didn't give credit and start making money off it, problem.]

Basically I think it bothers me when it's doll identity theft. People will always copy each others' looks.

 

That's a really good example, but I don't think it quite relates to this hobby. If someone asked to do a portrait of your doll, or write a little fan-story about your doll, that's one thing. That's even quite flattering, to be honest. But copying someone else's doll is just.....ridiculous, and I know it would upset me, personally. There are so many options for customization out there. If someone intended to copy your doll, and did a good job, it just makes your efforts seem kinda cheap. Not only that, but let's say you really enjoy getting feedback on your doll, and you enjoy sharing your doll and it's story with others. ...You might be losing some of that feedback to this other person who basically ripped you off. If you love someone else's doll so much, let them know through comments and praise. That's part of being in the doll community. We all have certain dolls that belong to certain other people that we fangirl/fanboy over. It doesn't mean you have to go and copy the doll for yourself. Sometimes when I'm thinking about a mold I really like, in particular, because I saw the way someone else's doll of that mold looked, I ask myself if I want it because I want that doll, or if I really truly like the bare sculpt and think I could do something with it that suits me.

 

Mancuso> Yeah, the Anne Rice thing is not -that- much related to BJD specially because Anne Rice's case involves also $$ and it's not only her hobby to write, but is also her job. When money is added to the equation, everything gets more complicated and you have to protect yourself more carefully.

But the thing about being in a community also means that you will be able to notice when someone is copying or not. And if you can realize that, then you just won't praise the one that is reproducing someone else concept. Of course there will be people that will not know (or simply don't mind) but takes time to get inserted into a community.

 

I think that sometimes... it'll be hard to tell if someone's copied your doll or if there are weird coincidences. From an RPer's standpoint, there are a lot of sites that use celebrity faces to represent a character. However, just because someone has been rping with the pb you favor and have a similar character type may not be stealing. Some appearances lend themselves to certain types of characters.

Copying, in my opinion, can only occur when the coincidences are just too much. If you have the exact same eyes (we're not talking about color- just a company's eyemold and a certain size) plus the same custom face-ups/wigs/etc, same backstory, similar names... I mean, at a certain point, it stops being similarities and could be copying.

Some dolls are going to have similar backstories, some dolls are going to look alike.. but it's hard to tell when someone is copying unless they have taken something truly unique plus the generic trait. ... I don't know, just my two cents.

 

I wouldn't care if someone copied my doll. I think it's really dumb and a waste of the creativity their doll can embody, but hey, if they really want a doll that looks like it, it doesn't matter to me. We aren't selling them, their images or design, and neither are they, so it seems petty and childish to worry.

 

My only doll is a Resinsoul Mu. He has a factory face-up which I will eventually mod once I trust myself with that. I did look up other Mu dolls online to see what was out there, but with extremely little luck. I have seen maybe five pictures of other Mu dolls and less with any modification done to them. I looked up faun legs to see what other people did to make them look good but didn't find any done like what I want to do to my doll. Considering how hard it's been for me to plot out how to mod him, if I see that someone copied me, I'll ask how they did it. I'm not even 100% sure how I've gotten this far without ruining everything.

 

Ill look at other peoples dolls for inspiration, tho i would never entirely copy a doll.

surely there will be alot of copys out there as you may happen to get the same sculpt and faceup as somone elce, and ive seen a few people on here who have the same dress that i purchased for my doll, it is possible as unlike humans some dolls are the same and dont have unique features, and there will be others with the same taste as you and also happen to think a certain wig colour and style suits the doll.

as for original makes/faceups it IS a work of art and if a person intentionally copys it and makes money from it, that is wrong

 

My Kirill has default makeup, default wig, and the default outfit. Many people could be accused of copying him, and vice versa.

There's only so many combinations, if a person is ordering from the same site. Though each doll is completely unique [mold lines are sort of like beauty marks, and each face up and wig are slightly different, even if you get the "default" because they are handmade], there are easy situations where a person could have a very similar looking doll, just because they have similar interests.


Honestly, I don't think it should matter much, unless a company is copying a mold from another company.

 

Ive always believed that imitation is one of the best forms of flattery. As long as someone doesnt sell or profit from copying in anyway, i think its fine. If they place their copy in a forum or anything, they should definitely give the original designer credit for their inspiration...just my thoughts.

 

I'm very much in the 'what would it accomplish' frame of mind.

I mean it sucks and all that someone copied your doll and your ideas that you felt belonged to you. But unless you specifically copyright it, pm-ing the person and telling them something that they probably already know isn't going to do anything about it. And if you decide to post about it publicly, well... you're just going to seem very petty for getting upset about a doll.

The best you can do is either ignore it, embrace it or do your best to come up with something so unique that they couldn't copy unless they were extremely gifted and talented.

 

This is only a personal thought here...and by all means doesnt mean its right...but you have heard it said that we, us human beings, are individually only a accumulation of all the people we have met in our lives. That everyone leaves their imprint with you and it becomes a part of you somehow. The same with any art form ( I believe)...you study and admire other peoples work, and pick and choose what you like or dont like, and somehow it creeps in... consciously or un-consciously, in your own work. To me that is not wrong. But out and out identical copy of a doll or anything.......well..its just not nice.

 

I'm doing this on my phone so its gonna be a lot less in depth and short. But I think if someone see's you doll and wants that mold, its okay. if someone wants the same wig, its fine. Same eye color, fine. Same face up, fine. Same hair and eye, fine. But when someone downright looks at your doll and wants one that is an exact replica or even just a bt less than an exact replica like different blushing or something, that's when it turns sour. BJD's are not exactly mass-produced. They are customizable because they are meant to be individualistic (excluding full-sets, those are obviously going to look the same). However when you make a doll's character and customize them with that in mind, (witth the exceptions of dolls that were based on a pre-existing character like an anime character or something), and you copy that it full knowing you are making a copy, its plagiarism. You are stealing someone else's work. Its not that hard to switch it up a bit. Write a creative back story even if it has a widely used plot, switch up hair or eyes or clothes. There are so many amazing different possibilities, it is possible to find one that you love that isn't copying someones work.

 

I think that there are things that are too common to be considered a copy - mainly, illnesses.

I can understand how someone could see someone legitimately copying their doll if their doll was an OC, and had markings specified to that character because it related to some specific tribe, or race, or species other than one on Earth. But when it comes to illnesses, I think it's less likely they copied you, and more likely that there are certain things that just go with certain illnesses.

Take, for example, asthma. Most asthmatic people carry inhalers. I don't think anyone should really get concerned that more than one doll carries an inhaler because the character is asthmatic.

Plus a lot of people do wear medical bracelets or necklaces for a myriad of reasons, too, so I wouldn't find it completely strange that someone else's doll had one. I'd just think that they also thought of what I did. There isn't more than one asthmatic or diabetic in the world, so I wouldn't expect there to be only one asthmatic or diabetic OC doll, either.

Sure, don't get me wrong, it's true that not every sufferer of a disease will suffer the same way, or have the same set of symptoms, and those can be changed to make an OC character more unique from maybe another similar character. But there is a point where they do become similar to one another because there are only so many symptoms, and consequentially symptom combinations. Best bet for dolls with things common like illnesses is to not let it get to you.

The closest I've ever experienced copying (if it was copying at all) was when I noticed that someone's doll had the exact same outfit combination that I'd gotten for my doll, with the exception of a black tutu skirt. I don't even know if they got their stuff before or after me. When I saw it I was kind of surprised, but then I thought that they just thought it was a good color combo (like I had).

And while I understand that a lot of people say that the beauty of this hobby is that these dolls are customizable... customizing them is an option. Technically, if we're going to say that there are no rules in terms of customizing, then following that logic, there are no rules if someone wants to make their doll look like yours. You're still 100% entitled to not like that, though.

 

This is quite interesting for me, because I just started buying dolls, so it's almost like the reverse situation for me.

I'll see a sculpt that I'd really love for a character of mine that I created years ago, but then I'll see someone else who has already created a very similar doll, or that has a similar sort of feel in terms of clothing/hair/etc. And then the question is always "Oh, should I buy that doll and go with my idea when someone clearly has something similar"? There was a post earlier on the first page with factors that you should take into account that was very valid, such as factory face-up/sculpt/same face-up artist. So perhaps, it is difficult nowadays to create a 100% truly original doll, because let's face it, many ideas have been used, and re-used. There's a very similar debate about this regarding original characters as well, where people sometimes mistake others' OCs for anime characters, and it's not always because they copied, but just because the designs are similar by coincidence.

However, I do think it's very easy to tell when someone's doll has /clearly/ been influenced by another artist's style/doll/face-up style, but I don't think there's ever been a case of outright copying. I don't think you can really accuse someone of copying unless it's very obvious, like same clothes, same hair, same eyes, same sculpt, same face-up artist (I'm not going to lie, I saw a doll which I swear the owner was wayyyy too inspired by someone else, and they had the same face-up artist, they bought the exact same sculpts that the other owner had, and they even edited their photos in similar lighting). But that seemed more like they wanted to be like the owner, not actually copying the owner's doll.

I think it's natural for people to be "inspired" though, and often we'll try to follow in the footsteps of people we admire, though I do think it's very important to develop your own doll's character/look, rather than just solely imitate someone else's doll because you really like the doll/the owner themselves in terms of their ideas, etc.

However, I do think in our doll community, we take great strides to make our dolls as "original" as possible, so naturally, I haven't seen much "OMG THAT DOLL LOOKS LIKE MINE, YOUUUU-- /rage" stuff ever, nor have I seen dolls that look similar (except for that one I talked about earlier in my post). And, since so many people have the same sculpts, it's really hard NOT to have someone own a "similar"-looking doll as you. And if someone really is "copying" you or is being too inspired, heck, take it as a compliment in a way, because you'll know your doll was always first!

 

I;m a little paranoid about stuff like this, mostly because I own a popular doll with a popular name, so I would never want someone to accuse me of copying something just because I was accidentally really unoriginal. I also agree with other posters about unique dolls. If you have something super distinctive, or it's something you've worked on modding, people shouldn't be copying your art. That would be pretty infuriating.

 

"Art is either plagiarism or revolution." --Gaugin

I have noticed a lot of controversy involving the Zombuki dolls. It is fairly easy to make a doll with a faceup with geometric shapes. For that reason a lot of people who do custom faceups do that style. Zombukis are typically Blythes, Pullips or Dals. A while ago, I recently saw someone make this awesome custom with Mihmi. It was similar to a Zombuki. Ten minutes later she had removed the photos from her flickr account because a bunch of people flamed her.

Honestly, I thought it was ridiculous. The girl in question didn't do anything wrong. It was an experimental thing. She meant no harm by doing it. It was done on a different doll. A lot of artists styles are similar. For instance you are not going to accuse one artist's style who looks like another artist's style of stealing, unless it is a trace. I don't think it is that big of a deal.

In the future, I would like to attempt to do a faceup similar to Pipsodoll's Charlotte, with the roses on the side of the face. I loved the faceup so much that I want to attempt it for myself. I do not think this is that bad of a thing. I wouldn't sell it because it isn't my design to sell.

If she was going to sell it and it was a copy of someone elses' design, I would be against it. However if it's for her own recreational activities, I would not be bothered. Everyone copies someone else. The dolls are all copies of someone without trying to be. Regardless if you change colors or something there will still be another doll that is similar. It's not that big of a deal. People who make it into a big deal are ridiculous.

 

Like most people have said, you can't copyright a doll, their style, or whatnot. And I myself have looked at dolls and been like, "wow! I like that idea!" However, I've never out right COPIED that doll. I mean, there are so many dolls on doa that there are bound to be coincidental look-a-likes. What I have a problem with and I feel that it is going to far and is a copy, is when you not only have your doll appearance copied, along with their background story. If one person has had an idea for a doll that they made public to others, say for example, a doll they wanted to make a werewolf, created a background story for it, had the eyes and wig and faceup picked out, then suddenly that exact same doll with background shows up, that is the only time I think it's okay.because that's just outright taking someone's character along with the doll.

now, if it's just similar, like someone saw it and was like, "oh cool!" but they made changes here and there and made her older or younger, or changed the sculpt, or added new things, then it's not the same thing. At least to me. I wouldn't like it if someone did it to me, but I can't hold it against them. But then, unless they do the face-up themselves, not many artists on doa are willing to out right copy someone elses work, or even reproduce their own.

so, unless it's totally blatant they took everything, not just the appearance, then It's most likely they just admired the doll a bit too much and decided they wanted to use the appearance. I don't think anyone should be accused of stealing for that.