*Update: As of February 2023, the legal issue between Paris Hilton and myself has been privately resolved
*Edited Dec. 19 2020
See new developments at the bottom!
Unbelievably, no joke, I woke up this morning to find that I’d been infringed on a SECOND time by Paris Hilton on social media - yeah I know, it’s probably her team bla bla bla Paris Hilton as a company and as a social media influencer is responsible for what happens on her accounts. PERIOD.
It doesn’t matter if you didn’t do the copying with your own hands, if you approve it and you post it, and you’re told it’s infringing but don’t remove it, you are willfully infringing now.
Screenshots from @parishilton shown here for the purpose of information and commentary of a public figure, under Fair Use
This same design from a different pic of mine, taken from the actual display graphic for my legit overlay wings rather than purchased, was used by Paris just this September. That incident is documented here: https://www.fancyfairy.com/news/2020/9/17/infringement-is-not-hot-paris-hilton
The wing photo of mine that’s infringed in the first shot is from my old website that isn’t up anymore, but here’s a screenshot of a FB page post of it.
“But I’ve seen these online before!” you’ll say.
And you’d be right.
They’re still taken from my original photos however, and I own the exclusive copyright, which they have no right to do no matter if it’s been one year or ten since I made it. You might not know this but copyright lasts in the US for at least 75 years after the death of the author and in some cases it’s longer than that if it’s a business registered or estate.
I know there’s an organization out there that’s trying to argue they can do what they want with my work because 10 years have passed and they’re sorely mistaken, but that’s another story.
Yes these particular wings were made notorious, and a nuisance I can’t shake off ever since Maryneim on DeviantArt stole my photo years ago and made them into clip art. I think now she goes by Mary Lau or something else, either way she started a big mess and never cleaned it up so she’s on a permanent ban from every using any of my work for any reason among other people.
Next thing you know, other people are stealing from her and uploading them too, and it has been a vicious cycle ever since.
In fact, because Nikki Lipstick infringed on those same wings a few months ago, I became determined to scrub them from the internet, and I’ve finally found some success. They no longer come up with the search terms she told me she used, and if they do it’s well after you see my own, and hey good luck with whatever virus you’ve just installed on your device if you do decide to use stolen goods once you finally scroll down to those shady free art sites.
So it’s almost 4pm Pacific time now, and although I’d gotten an email from Megan Fargo at Paris Hilton Digital, the content’s all still up even though she knows I want it down, even though I’ve sent a formal DMCA to Megan and the other official Paris email address.
Megan wrote:
“Hope this email finds you well,
This is Megan from Paris Hilton Digital, we have been looking into your posts about Paris's use of your wing designs & would like to address some of your concerns.
Paris does not make any of the edits of herself on her own, they are all fan made edits that she loves & reposts, she always credits the fan who made them & if the fan indicates any other tags she will tag them as well.
I have reached out to the fan who made the edit with the wings & she has confirmed with me that she had gotten the wings off a free PNG site, please find the sources attached below”
She signed off and that was it.
Surprisingly, December 17, Instagram removed Paris Hilton’s post in response to my DMCA notice! This was very unexpected, as past attempts had failed in even the most blatant infringement cases, and I hope this trend continues next time I need to report. Because there is unfortunately always going to be a ‘next time’.
I am curious if this recent Supreme Court case decision had anything to do with it?
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/dr-seuss-enterprises-wins-appeal-in-dispute-over-star-trek-mash-up?fbclid=IwAR3wwUK2Z3B0UJOHcDAg_vmyDQJUAQ8tgGLxuvmfvtdNW_uSqnz6ltXlTcg
Screenshot of the email from Instagram notifying me that the post had been removed.
Now I’m just waiting for a response from Twitter and Facebook, let’s hope they also act.
As for Nikki Lipstick:
Bit of a hypocrite if I must say so myself, since she’s called out DollsKill and others for infringement of her designs in the past that were far less blatant than what she did herself.
She actually admitted she knew of my work already and claimed she ‘checked’ to make sure they weren’t the same before downloading the illegal free copy, and thought somehow that excused her.
I’ve slept on blogging this one because she got her minions to lie about what happened and still has some of those lies on her IG posts, got her friends to insist the wings were never mine, to save face without real apology or accountability. And she still has the FB Dollcult group post up without attribution even though she went back to talk about me as ‘fairy lady’ after I repeatedly asked her to remove everything: https://www.facebook.com/groups/281976223234482/permalink/288330002599104
Screenshot from the Nikkilipstick Instagram account for the purpose of information and commentary, under Fair Use
I don’t believe for a second that she really thought the stolen version were originally by someone else entirely, as she was not honest in her conversations with me even if she does post a stream of empty pseudo-inspirational quotes and kissy lip GIFs.
You don’t have to take my word for it, I kept all the receipts and I mean alllll of them. So I may leave out the less important ones that don’t add any real info or repeat it but I have no problem showing more when I have time.
First we have her comments to people who were asking about their source on her IG posts. Crossing fingers these stayed in the right order.
There was an awful lot of additional BS she pulled, generally misrepresenting what happened to make me look like the bad guy wherever she could and her followers were sent over to harass me to argue that the wings weren’t even mine. I’m not going to give them all the satisfaction of showing their trolling tweets but again, I’ve got ‘em if you need to see them and most are probably still up over there.
I went ahead and sent more DMCA’s to Nikki (aka Nikki Winters) to remove that last one in her FB group but she’s ignored me, and was too busy making vaguebook passive aggressive posts about the situation. She has enough social capital and power to convince people of her status as victim in every story and now, she’s even felt the need to name one of her eye shadows ‘fancy fairy’.
Just to drive the point home how not completely ignorant she is about these issues, just as Paris shouldn’t be, here’s some flashes to the past of Nikki’s own copyright accusations, accusations which hang by slim threads where her ‘designs’ are hardly her unique designs at all. Yet she felt she owned these things and is the same person who tries to deny me my own right to my IP.
I am not familiar with this site or these people, but the links do take you to Nikki & friends’ own posts, where I can see that the copyright claims she is trying to make are on things like a sad face, which is too basic and old a concept for her to own, or pink feather puffs, again stuff that’s not very unique at all:
https://lolcow.farm/snow/res/101821.html