Well here we are. I wasn’t going to speak on this publicly before but recent events made me feel it necessary.

First I want to stress, I want NO HARASSMENT OF ANYONE ON MY BEHALF! You’ll see why I had to stress this.

I want to first share my own experience with the entity owned by Emily Detweiler in the USA, Disco Lemonade Inc and discolemonade.co website.

I had a copyright dispute with Emily when she got and displayed photos of a tattoo on her back that was obviously copied from my Titania Fairy Wings design. This is a design she purchased digital overlays of from me and has used multiple times so I assumed it was intentional.
I commented about the likeness and sent her a DM asking if she could please credit me as the source, as in the comments she was already insisting they aren’t the same design and her followers were attacking me in the comments. Screenshots below are all shown here under copyright Fair Use law section 107, for the purpose of news reporting, public commentary & critique regarding a popular entity and copyright dispute in order to factually verify events.
Keep in mind as well how the design distorts with movement, and that copyright law does not allow for derivative works by third parties unless the original artist gives permission. Yes, drawings / paintings / tattoos that copy a photo, even if not 100% exact, are violating as outlined on the copyright.gov website here: https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html?fbclid=IwAR3Y4hvs9XD9jas_4B-XbXZ_7NcNVNcWWtmHOHjaX1DFdRHg_OZSendavZg
These rules are also outlined in Circular 14 and Circular 21.

My screenshots below where she initially refused to credit me as she was trying to convince me they weren’t the same because they didn’t line up exactly in Photoshop, but that’s not a factor to prove it’s not infringement because it’s still copied from my design obviously. Only the original artist has the right to create derivatives from their work. You can see - and purchase, if you’d like - my Titania wing overlays here but this does not include permission to turn them into a tattoo: https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/products/titania-fairy-wings-transparency-stock-png-files

I’ll almost always say yes when I’m asked if someone can get a tattoo done based on my designs, as long as I’m credited when it’s posted to show it off on social media and as long as the tattoo shop does not make it a part of their collection of available tattoos offered to people.

In the DMs above we are discussing my upset about her liking some of those toxic comments. You can see the comments in question below.
Note that the same day I saw her post showing her tattoo copied from my wings, I had been trying to help her report infringements of her photos by a scam company that was using her photos to sell knockoff product based on her designs and she still currently speaks out about this issue as Shein has now stolen her photos for selling knockoff clothing. That made this situation sting even more.

The response from her tattoo artist, David Enth, after I sent him the C&D letter asking him to stop offering that tattoo and asking for either credit or removal from his account, and my response informing him about the copyright rules he should be following. He sent me the photo he got from Pinterest that he based the design on, which was of course my own from my old website.

I never heard back from David after this. Apparently he did add more to the tattoo, but nothing that changed the vein structure which is the core of my copyright registration for the design. It’s not enough to be transformative or to avoid violating my copyright. The veins should’ve been covered or changed.

Emily / Lem continues to post a lot of photos of her back with her hair pulled forward to show off the design, but that first photo is the only one that she begrudgingly credited. And when people ask where it’s from, she neglects to mention me, so I’m not entirely happy about it and it doesn’t feel fully resolved to me. Especially since she never said anything publicly to clarify the situation or corrected the people insulting me. However, I’d been dealing with too much to continue trying to get her to resolve things further and did not want to deal with her ‘army’ that appears to turn vicious toward people so I stopped following her and tried to let it go.

I also have a very hard time believing that Emily didn’t know that was my Titania design, considering she bought and used those overlays plenty of times. How is someone an artist or designer of any type and not able to recognize the very design they bought a license for and used multiple times? Below are screenshots of her use of my overlays.

The trademark dispute

That’s where my own story ends, or at least the bulk of it.
In February, I learned Emily’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were removed by a company with the same name in another country, who owns a trademark for the name in that region. The owner of the trademark, also posted Story Highlights on her Instagram with screenshots from other women who claimed they had been infringed, mistreated, or harassed by Emily and / or her followers.

She also posted screenshots of bullying and threats from Emily’s followers towards herself and her 13 year old daughter, which is really upsetting. I am not going to share her content here as it’s already public.
Admittedly I felt a little less alone knowing I wasn’t the only one who had a negative experience with her, and I sent Jane (not her real name for privacy purposes) a short summary of my own experience to offer moral support. She then asked if she could share my message, without my name and I told her she could. Since people may figure out I’m fairy #5 though, I felt at this point I needed to be clear about my stance on this.

I am not involved in her GoFundMe in any way and do not endorse her current approach. I disagree with many of the assumptions made regarding Emily’s income, and other details. I was open with her about my concerns but they were blown off.
She also had told me no when I asked her specifically if Emily never responded to her at any point in all of this, but her own screenshots posted in her archives showed conversations between them with Emily offering to change her business name and url, as well as asking how much they could pay to buy the mark. There was also a private phone number displayed which is considered doxxing, but has since been removed, as she’s said that was not intentional.
The dishonesty about contact between them is a deal breaker for me, as it is with anyone.

The short of it is, I’m not really pleased with how Emily dealt with my copyright issue with her, but I’m also not pleased with some of the ways Jane is approaching this issue.

I’ve only spoken with one of the other ‘fairies’ who’ve had bad experiences with Emily, one who says they were to collaborate on a design, only to have Emily post the design later without crediting her and cutting ties. I can’t verify the other women’s stories for you here, I can only show you my own. Perhaps the other women out there who allegedly share this type of experience with Emily will also feel a bit less alone. Maybe they’ll even come forward with their experiences.

As for who deserves to own the trademark? I have no idea honestly. It seems like a grey area and I’m not going to go over all the details of international trademark law here, but I did see public records that Emily applied for trademark registration for the names Fairy Armor and Disco Lemonade in the US, stopped selling in the trademark owner’s country under Disco Lemonade, and made a new website under the Fairy Armor name to sell her products in that country. I’m not as familiar with trademark law as with copyright, so I’m not going to judge whether or not that is enough to make it legal as their urls are indeed very alike and that might be disputable. That’s now between the two of them to figure out.
Publicly telling the ‘fairy army’ to cease harassing Jane and her family would be a good move as well, and I’ve told Emily she should be doing at least that rather than remaining silent.

I wish both women well. My only aim with this entry is to tell the truth of my experience with these entities.
If anyone carries out any harassment or bullying in my name, I will report them myself if possible and block them on social media. No matter which side they’re on, there’s no excuse for threats against someone’s family, attacks on one’s appearance or anything else about their identity. You’re welcome to share my story on your own accounts.