Copyright Incident That Turned Into a Positive with Bretman Rock

Another day, another comment tag on an Instagram post that used my wing image without permission.
I sighed, made a quick Instagram Story about it asking to get Bret’s attention and went to bed. It already had over 1 million likes by the time I discovered it and I found out quickly a fan had made the edit so he was probably unaware.
I assumed it was probably from PicsArt Stickers, where so much of my IP is distributed illegally by users who don’t care or don’t know better on a site that seems to almost encourage theft.

But this young gender fluid, blue check mark celebrity actually responded to my DMs and - shocker - was completely apologetic and supportive!

He asked what he could do to help, was both humble and more supportive than I EVER would have expected someone of his stature to be to me, an independent non-celebrity artist making fairy wings.
I mean seriously, look at just 2 screenshots of his messages to me below.
This kind of integrity and compassion from anyone considered rich & famous is rare, folks. It just is, at least in my experience, having had enough IP incidents with some of them.

As a follower pointed out, it is a little sad that this kind response is so shocking to us, because why isn’t this kind of decency the standard? I’ve come to expect very little of people because so very many times I ask for credit or removal but I am lashed out at & made out to somehow be the bad guy, I get called ‘rude’ just for asking for my rights and art to be respected. Honestly, I’ve mostly given up even trying anymore unless it’s something really big because the worst of them have left me so drained.

Having someone like this in my corner though, a stranger who could just as easily ignored me like most do, stand up for me and support me in this way has given me some hope.
In this case, I’m actually seeing this as a blessing in disguise. I discovered a rare gem of a genuine person who somehow remains humble even after wealth and fame has carried him up to star stature.
Maybe it’s because he’s not a cis white male but rather an immigrant who was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had to work hard to get where he is. Either way, I’m now glad to know him and am a new fan.
Bretman (da baddest) Rock is a genuine bad-ass

Here we go again with another celebrity infringement of my work

A follower alerted me to my ripped off Kira wings image showing up in Kendall Jenner's Instagram Stories today.

Celebs, please stop sharing edits from anonymous fans & when you're notified it's infringement, REMOVE IT. Doesn't matter if you made it or not, you're accountable.

Yes I sent everyone with an email contact a DMCA including Instagram. Speaking of uber wealthy white celebrities, Paris Hilton is still ignoring my notices btw. Before you say it, no I'm not flattered at all, I don't want to collab with either family for many reasons.

I don't currently or in the future give this family or Paris permission to use or display my work, it needs to come down now. I would appreciate a public correction but I know not to hold my breath for accountability that way.

This harms my market, as I sell legit digital overlays of this same design directly to the public, but even those have a LIMITED license for use - and the number of followers she has would violate those terms, as well as the fact they showed up with zero credit to me.
I have no record of them being purchased by any of the people that posted it.

My full terms are included in the description of my listings as you can see here: https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/products/kira-fairy-wings-transparency-stock-png-files

This was likely pulled from my old Etsy listing here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/165305210/giant-kira-fairy-wings-in-your-custom?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details

If you want to help, please don’t flood her posts with comments because all that seems to do is increase her traffic and they may ignore them.
Instead, please share this blog post. Unfollow people who infringe on artists and their supporters who look the other way.

That's Not Hot Paris Part 2 - Copyright Hullabaloo

*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

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

ParisHiltonInfringementScreenshot.png

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.

Screen Shot 2020-08-03 at 9.38.02 PM.png

“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

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

Let's Talk About Copyright & Proper Credit as Makers

On Thursday Dec. 10 to my dismay, I saw that a woman I’ve known for almost 20 years had entered a photo of herself into a Princesses With Power Tools calendar sold by Reinvented Magazine, wearing my wings, and presented as a wing maker. With no attribution for my wings, even though the photo shows her working on wing panels and initially, the profile described her as someone who ‘makes fairy wings that really flap’. Even without that text, it visually implies she’s the wing maker here.
Below you’ll see a screenshot of the calendar page posted yesterday, and below that one of my old wing listing photos for the wings she is wearing.

Screenshot of the page from Reinvented Magazine, shown in Fair Use for the purpose of commentary and education

Screenshot of the page from Reinvented Magazine, shown in Fair Use for the purpose of commentary and education

TinkSwirlSide2.jpg

I sent Reinvented an email Dec 10 at 11:59am Pacific, simply asking for credit as I felt, and still do, that the photo could imply that she was wearing the wings she makes herself since she’s also shown making wings. My initial email is below.

Screen Shot 2020-12-11 at 4.54.07 PM.png

I got no response at all from Reinvented until early Friday morning, but they found the time to discuss this with Erin roughly a half hour after my email was sent, and Erin contacted me to assure me it was all fine because it’s ‘just a photo of her in my wings’. No apology or offer to address it in any way, and I got no further response from her since. Obviously it was not fine.

FirePixieBlurredScreen Shot 2020-12-10 at 12.50.04 PM copy.png

I emailed Reinvented again, at 12:48pm Pacific, right after I got that message from Erin, asking for a direct response to me.

I mentioned a copyright issue with a Princesses With Power Tools calendar in my Instagram Stories, at first without naming or tagging anyone. It explained how disappointing it was and briefly described the problem

I did tag their account in an Instagram Story later Thursday night asking for a response, since It’s been my experience that if an organization doesn’t want to address us, they will if the request to respond is made public. Meanwhile they were taking orders for this calendar, so this needed to be brought to attention. A few people said they commented on their calendar post asking to have me credited, but each one was quickly removed, they wanted to blame their lack of response on everyone being busy but they sure had someone working for them to delete inquiring comments no matter how polite, rather than respond with even one sentence to me.

Below are screen shots of those Stories.

Reinvented was silent all through the night, so it seemed I was going to be ignored.

At 7:31 am Friday morning I got an email from Caeley at Reinvented, she let me know that she deleted the text about wing making from the page and calendar, but let me know she did not feel responsible for anything further without a licensing agreement between Erin and I, which is not even necessary nor applicable to this situation at all. She made statements about patents, trademarks & garment exclusions from copyright, none of which have anything to do with my copyright on my wings, which I register with the US Copyright Office. This specific set was not, because I haven’t had issues of infringement with them until now, but it’s irrelevant because I still own the copyright on them. They are my own design and not the movie version.

Copyright ownership is created as soon as the design is, to require legal registrations seems to communicate to me that they are only concerned with whether or not they will be sued for it rather than whether or not it’s wrong - which it was.

Reinvented Blurred Screen Shot 2020-12-11 at 11.02.11 AM copy.png

This statement Caeley made was especially concerning:
”As of right now we are not aware of any license or agreement that would forbid us from using your projects or displaying the results of your wing tutorials in our calendar. We also were unable to find any attribution requirements related to their original purchase. However, if there is a limited use license associated with photos taken by third parties of your wings, please send that to us immediately so we can make the necessary corrections.”
It sounds like they think they can use whatever they want unless they see a license agreement forbidding it, and that’s not necessarily true in every instance.
The use of someone else’s IP to give the impression that you’re responsible for creating it is still plagiarism.
Below is my response to their email.

I did post a screen shot Friday on Twitter that erroneously showed Caeley’s phone number and email, which I did not realize was a private one since it was coming from an organization she’s the CEO of. I didn’t know phone numbers are protected on Twitter like that either, so that screen shot did get reported and removed, I didn’t appeal it because I don’t intend to give out anyone’s private info and I apologize for that oversight. It’s been removed and I can’t access it again for you.
Anything else on Twitter about the issue should still be up.
The screenshot in this one has obscured that info.

Below are the Stories I posted on IG after I got the email from Reinvented, Friday around 11:30 am. The one from Friday night where I asked Reinvented to please respond to my request for credit, I had deleted after they responded to me and I guess it deletes those from the archive too, so that is the only thing that’s missing as far as I can tell.

Now, ultimately, the fault lies with Erin, who I’ve known for almost 20 years and who has lightly stepped on my toes through the years when it comes to copying my wing work, I didn’t say anything when she posted about ‘her’ wing prototypes, which seemed to be made exactly the way I teach in my tutorial, a post in which she said she’s making her own tutorial for flapping fairy wings.
Last year after Maker Faire, when I posted new video of the flapping wings Jordan worked on for me in 2016 she even asked if she could help us with our flapping wing project and I welcomed it.
But she must have changed her mind, and none of these WIP tutorial posts or even her own posts on social media of herself in my wings credited me in any way.
Below are her public posts, and receipts of her request to help with the flapping wings Jordan worked with me on in my post last year after Maker Faire in the SF bay area.

She’d been fascinated by our flapping wing project ever since we started, years ago. She’s stated she’s been trying to figure out how to make some for years, but hadn’t been able to yet with all her experience. Meanwhile, Jordan figured out an elegant and economic solution with zero formal training or previous experience, learning how to code in his free time when he wasn’t working as a graphic artist. Below, the first posts of our prototype flapping wings and her share of them.

She did experiment some on her own (below), however with a different type of construction. Although someone knowledgeable in animatronics might figure out that it was a 2 servo construction by the way Jordan was holding onto the motor (above), that wasn’t completely apparent until I posted the video of myself in them at Maker Faire in 2019 and showed the exposed mechanism.

I mentioned my concern to Adafruit after 11pm Thursday night, as I was worried Erin would continue this trend of trying to take credit for my work when she makes her wing tutorial, and she lists herself as working for them. I believe my concern was valid based on her reaction and refusal to address this properly, as this choice of photo and omission of my name now seemed intentional plagiarism rather than accidental.
In order to be completely transparent, here is my email to Adafruit below as well, along with their response to me, which I felt was fair and professional. For the record, because I’ve heard of people getting their screenshots removed for showing even their OWN email that was reported as private, mine are info@fancyfairy.com and faeryangela@gmail.com. I’m sure I’ll get more junk mail but there ya go.

Their new post shows Erin’s new photo with my wings removed and hers added in - a lot more effort than simply adding a credit tagline, but okay. I’m glad for the change.

They’ve now made a post without naming me, but claiming my issue was with her costume, which it isn’t, and stated that I felt that ‘reproduction’ of my past products in commercial print is a violation of my copyright. Well, if someone DID actually reproduce any of my designs, it’s copyright infringement.

They’re now playing victim with no accountability for how they handled this either, accusing me of slander, & doxxing, and this is also inaccurate.
I did make a mistake as I didn’t know that was a private phone number, but slander?
It has to be false to be slander. I have not lied about anything.

I’m being painted as someone who demands credit in any photo where any of my wings are shown at all times, which isn’t true at all.
Reinvented’s IG post is shown below, with the newly edited photo using Erin’s wings, which is honestly how it should have been in the first place if she was so against crediting me.

This particular type of use was clearly inappropriate and misleading. Costume makers don’t pose for publicity photos sitting at a sewing machine wearing someone else’s dress, and if you’re promoting yourself as a wing maker don’t advertise in someone else’s wings without attribution.

Last but not least, this is the last email I sent to Erin Thursday at 4:30pm after she made clear she didn’t care to credit me in any way, and no surprise, I got no response since.

Screen Shot 2020-12-13 at 2.29.09 PM.png

Keep in mind when I say it may not warrant legal action, I mean because I don’t even want to and never implied I would, not that this would never hold up legally as a copyright violation. A court may have seen it as a violation of my copyright, we’ll probably never know, because it’s not worth it.
But making sure you have the truth is worth it, to me. Even if you still think it makes me look bad.

*BTW I don’t mind people commenting their opinion, but I will take down comments that contain misleading misinformation about copyright or lies about this situation.

*Edited at 3:42 Sunday Dec. 13 to make some sections more clear and to add screenshots. I like to be completely transparent about these things if I’m being accused of something as serious as slander or ‘terrorism’.

Additional info

*Edited 12/26 to add that Reinvented Inc. seems to be noncompliant with registering their organization with their state’s regulatory body.
At the suggestion of someone with experience being on voting boards of 501c3 non-profits, I tried to look them up to make sure there wasn’t more than just IP issues they were being opaque about and there is no record in Florida’s check-a-charity.

ReinventedCheckACharityCensoredScreen Shot 2020-12-21 at 11.26.14 AM copy.png

I wasn’t sure what this might mean, so I used the site’s chat function to ask someone.
I was told by the agent that this is a red flag for donors.

Above was my chat with the agent. I’ve blurred out any addresses and phone numbers, even though much of the info is public record as is required for all nonprofit 501c3 corporations. I would never share a private address even if I had a legal right to, if one was used to register with.
Remember, 501c3 nonprofits are required to provide their financial & tax records to whoever asks to see them, so that’s an option if you are nervous about your donations whoever they are going to.

*Edited further 2/24 to add the screenshots of our early prototype posts and Erin’s.

Adafruit has assured me that they will be crediting me for inspiration for the wings and linking to my tutorial video, which I very much appreciate since we still feel her tutorial came about through unethical behavior. I’m glad they have the integrity to credit even if she won’t.
Especially since I’ve learned that most of the construction of the new flapping wings for them is done by someone else:
https://twitter.com/ecken/status/1357375971482034176?s=20
It appears Erin made the code (we had code for ours already), the wing panels, which I obviously could have provided and putting a video tutorial together, something we also could have done.

One more thing people might want to look at, is Erin’s very recent cultural appropriation of indigenous facial markings and other elements in her cosplay of a fictional ‘barbarian’ group of white women she and her friends made official accounts for & smells of white feminism.

The FB page was removed within a day after I posted about it, but although the Instagram account is still up, most photos were deleted.
Perhaps someone else removed them, because Erin still has those photos up publicly. Though she switched her profile pic today, just yesterday it was still a photo of her with those facial markings.
With that response, my guess is she cares about cultural appropriation as much as she cares about the rights of fellow artists - zero percent.
Screenshots below of the FB page description for her group ‘The Horde’ before it was removed, the Twitter account, as well as photos that are still up on her Instagram. The photos on her Facebook timeline are still there as well.
Although there’s a common misconception among cosplayers that the chin stripe was a Nordic, Celtic or Viking thing, it is not. It’s used by Indigenous people in the Americas, by the Inuit, and various tribes in Africa and Asia. None of which are her heritage.

Infringement is NOT hot, Paris Hilton.

*Update: As of February 2023, the legal issue between Paris Hilton and myself has been privately resolved

How cheap does someone have to be, to find a listing for digital wing overlays and cut & copy the wings out from the preview image rather than buy them for a measly $6.99??

I got a message yesterday linking to an Instagram post from Paris Hilton, asking "are these your wings?" Yes, yes they are, and what is especially disappointing is it appears my wing image was cut from the listing graphic.

The listing is here: https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/products/titania-fairy-wings-transparency-stock-png-files

That's right - rather than buy the legit files they happened upon, it appears this person instead copied the green wings out of my graphic, infringing on my intellectual property and violating my copyright.
I expect this is what they did because you can still see the edges of the yellow wings that are behind the green ones in my listing graphic and they included the wings in back on each side, which are in exactly the same position as in the graphic.

The files do not come that way.

I've sent a DMCA to Paris' merch store email, I've commented on the post as well as tweet at her and lots of other people have commented on this as well with no response.

Looks like another artist, Indg0 may have also been infringed in this image!

It's their background used here, without permission or payment according to Indg0.

I'm gonna need to see some order receipts if I'm wrong - and credit on the post - because there are no digital wing orders from her or anyone tagged in the post, which can be seen here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7-zZqHIG0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

This is not the first celebrity infringement and I'm sure it sadly won't be the last as long as entitled wealthy celebs assume they can take whatever they want from indie artists due to their privilege and power. Paris Hilton's image is shown here in Fair Use, for the purposes of criticism, public commentary and communicating important news to the public about a public figure. For more of my experiences with copyright infringement, you can see my past blog entries by clicking on the Copyright Issues link on the right.

Oh and also? Just read today that she’s been heaping some praise on Trump, saying:
”He’s a very nice man. I think on TV people like to say things about certain people, but he’s actually a very sweet person. I like him a lot.”
GROSS.
She’s got an awful history of racist behavior as well, but somehow is still famous for being an heiress and the world’s first influencer.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/09/14/paris-hilton-praises-donald-trump-on-cnbc?source=twitter&via=mobile

Clarion Fairy Wing Overlays - My Next Most Stolen Design

I had been planning to create digital overlay files of my Clarion fairy wings for a while now, for various reasons - some of those reasons are unhappy ones, but I am glad I finally did it!

Photo used is ©kharchenkoirina - stock.adobe.com

This is the first time I’ve made digital overlay wings that are light up! And frankly it’s been a while since we made real ones too but that’s another story - we’re working out how to make them with my new attachments.

There are 3 other color variations of these in the pack.

Now you may be thinking, gee these look familiar! If you are, I bet I know why - an artist on Renderosity had made 3D mesh wings she’s selling there, and I’m about 99.9999% sure she referenced my own light up Clarion wing photo to make hers since these are not based off any particular butterfly design.

Below is the comparison.

My wings on the left, the Renderosity wings by Fabiana on the right. Image posted in fair use, to comment on a newsworthy situation.

Yes there are some differences, a few veins were removed from the upper panel but the ones that are there are so specifically shaped and curved as mine - and the fact that she made the lights look as though they are fiber optic, like how my real life ones are made, is telling.

I did try to contact her, and never got a response. I wanted to ask more changes to differentiate hers from mine since I had already planned on making my own, and this kinda cuts into my profitability.

I even filed a DMCA with Renderosity, however they denied my takedown notice and made the judgement in her favor.
I guess not surprisingly, as she is a top seller and no doubt they make a nice profit from her content.
Didn’t think the platform was supposed to make a judgement on what constitutes as infringement but they did.
The only other thing I can do, is go ahead and make mine anyway.

And they’re available here: https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/collections/digital-file-products/products/clarion-light-up-fairy-wings-transparency-stock-png-files

Oh but that’s not all! I’ve also made overlay files for the painted versions!
https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/collections/digital-file-products/products/clarion-painted-fairy-wings-transparency-stock-png-files

Photo used is from ©kharchenkoirina - stock.adobe.com

Do these look familiar too?
If you’re thinking they look like Winx wings, I’ve thought the same thing. I created mine in real life in 2011, well before Winx came out with their Dreamix line and Stella appeared with some very similar looking wings.

If you look closely, rather than remove veins as the Renderosity wings, they’ve added more, but I can see some of the same veins in mine in their design.

Perhaps this one can be filed under the ‘inspired by’ category too, and since they’re in Italy I’m just going to keep putting my own design out there and if people have love for Winx, they can now turn themselves into one of their fairies with my overlays.
I haven’t even gone into the infringement hell that was my life the last couple weeks, as Twitter went absolutely nuts with what someone started calling the ‘fairy challenge’, posting pics of people side-by-side next to pics of wings usually with the caption ‘Did it work?’ - and yup you guessed it, the majority of wings they uploaded have been mine, and most often without credit as some of the Tweets and posts gained upward of 500K likes.
I think Stephen Colbert started this whole thing! Or at least that’s the first person I saw who did it.

Of course when I made my own to tweet, it got a fraction of that. Such is life!


I may consider bringing back the real life Clarion wings too. What do you think?

Kylie Jenner & Mother Plucker Feathers: Infringement of My Victoria's Secret Wing Designs

*Update 3/20/2020
The legal dispute between Kylie Jenner and I has been resolved. For clarification, we have never done business together and there are no plans to do so in the future.

*Update 12/26/2019
This dispute has been resolved between Mother Plucker Feathers and I.

It’s Infringement Mother Plucker! They copied my wings for Kylie Jenner's Fairy Halloween Costume!

Left: Eniko Mihalik in my original Kira wings for Victoria’s Secret, which they ordered from me directly and paid full price for (photo by Paul Bayfield / Timesniper Photography)
Right: Kylie Jenner wearing a knock of that same copyright registered design (photo by SPW)

Mother Plucker Feathers Co Inc. is taking credit for providing the fairy wings above (above right) to Kylie Jenner for a Halloween birthday party this last week, just after contacting me a couple weeks ago asking for my materials resources. This is an original design I drew from scratch, NOT a design from nature.

They even came to me last year, with the request to subcontract the same giant Morpho wings that I made for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2015’s Exotic Butterflies segment but in pink, sending my original product photo in the email. They were also for Kylie (I didn't know until after Halloween) but after extensive emails back & forth, apparently with requests from Jill Jacobs, Kylie’s stylist, changing the direction a few times, the whole thing fell through and Mother Plucker made a different set for her themselves without my involvement out of fabric.
I was told this celeb wanted my wings and loves my work last year when they contacted me, so they all seemed to be familiar with my designs.
I also sent them a lot of links to other designs in my web shop for examples of colors and such.
The question of access is no question at all.

Mother Plucker again came to me again a few weeks ago, asking for 3 sets of iridescent wings 'at a good price' with a tight deadline I couldn't meet.
They emailed later asking where to get the materials I use, so I directed them to my online tutorial, which ironically explicitly explains in the first 2 minutes how important it is to respect copyright (see video below) and not to use others’ existing designs. I was even promised that they would not copy my designs in their email.
That tutorial showed the creation of a very different design, wings from a real butterfly species by the way. So no, there is no implied permission granted to use any of my designs simply because I taught a technique.

Imagine my surprise when my fans and friends sent me links to Kylie Jenner’s photos in a copy of my Kira design - which I have the actual US Copyright certificate of registration for - when I had not been asked nor paid for the use of my design.
In fact, that design was worn by 2 different Victoria’s Secret Angels in their 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show’s ‘Fairytale’ segment. I had 3 other pieces in that show and a handful of them in 2015 as well.
You can see all the pieces I created for them here: https://www.fancyfairy.com/gallery-2-celebrity-fancy-fairies

People were commenting on Mother Plucker’s and Kylie's posts calling them out for copying it before I even found out about Kylie wearing the knock off wings, because they are one of my oldest and known works and many of my fans recognized the design.
Both mine and the knock off have the same basic vein design as my own.

Every vein has been included in the copy, even the little squiggly downward curve at the tip of the antennae.
Photo on left © Paul Bayfield * Photo on right is missing the copyright info.
Images used here for the purposes of fair use, commentary and public interest.

The outer shape is a little more loosely copied, but still follow the same silhouette as mine with minor differences in the length and skinniness of the tip along the top.

The vein design is what I registered with the copyright office.

Jill Jacobs (Kylie’s stylist I mentioned earlier) seems to be credited as the stylist again, Mother Plucker the 'designers' in charge of fabrication.

It’s not yet certain which part of this team is the most liable, but that will be determined more clearly as my IP attorney reviews this case.

In addition to these wings being seen all over the world on two Angels as well as viewed on my site through the years, that design is currently the first item you'll see when you click on the Shop page of my website! See for yourself below and here: https://www.fancyfairy.com/shop
It’s hard to believe this was an accident. Someone in that team had to know they were copying an existing design, no matter who they thought it belonged to.

Although that is a digital overlay item, my terms are crystal clear in the download that it is only meant to be used in photo editing / digital art, never to be redistributed as stand alone wings whether physical or digital, and not for commercial use. Just in case anyone tries that baseless argument.

I first published this design in 2007, as you can see in this screenshot from my old, gaudy website (below left) thanks to the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. It’s also been around in Second Life™ for just as long (below, right), tho thankfully I think my aesthetic has improved since then!

I’ve frequently spoken out about copyright infringement and how much it hurts artists, when it happens to me and when it happens to others.
So much in fact, my friends have nicknamed me “the copyright fairy”.
I’ve been infringed upon by a very large photo editing app company, a child millionaire, craft supply companies, 3D asset marketplaces and more.
Infringements hurt artists, even more so when it involved someone like Kylie Jenner, one of the most visible and wealthy celebrities in the world. Millions of people will see her in my design, but not the quality I usually set my standards to, mistakenly thinking it originated from a different artist.
Please, support independent artists whenever you can. So much of what is churned out by huge companies gets built on the backs of lesser known artists who can’t fight back.
You usually get higher quality pieces, helping us continue to create our art, and you’re helping us pay the bills in a world where the gap between the rich and the low income is bigger than ever and the cost of living grows ever higher.

A lot of people have been asking how to help, one way is to subscribe to my Patreon if you wish to help out monetarily. I only charge when I release content for my Patrons there and it starts at only $1. https://www.patreon.com/faeryangela
You can also purchase my affordable digital wing overlays, clip art and cut files to use in your photos and digital artwork - NOT to make wings out of except for the Piera Clearwing Satyr file because that is a real butterfly design, I hope we’ve all learned that lesson by now to actually read the Terms of Use: https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/collections/all/digital

To sum it up, I’m shocked at this violation of both my IP and my trust.
Infringement sure is a Mother Plucker isn’t it?

*Edited 11/10 to clarify that my Kira Wings design is my original design, not from nature, and to correct some minor grammar for easier reading.



Tales of Infringement and Fake Excuses

How Low Can You Go?

Pretty low, apparently. Gypsy Sport, an edgy designer label owned by Rio Uribe that prides itself on diversity and inclusiveness, tried with all their might to pin their infringement of my Guinevere fairy wings onto an innocent person - an innocent person who happens to be a struggling art student who is basically homeless in Puerto Rico due to the damage from hurricane Maria. 
I found out about the infringement when a follower tagged me in the comments of the image GypsySport posted (above left). I was not credited, nor asked for permission to use this photo.

I asked them via comments to remove the photo, and they commented back that they had found the photo on Tumblr on a Barbie and would credit me if I am the original artist. I replied that I wanted it removed and don't allow my copyright protected images to be used that way, that I sell different digital wing stock for that purpose, and didn't want others to think they could do this too. They eventually messaged me on Instagram, after I asked them to email me and specifically not to message me via IG because nothing can be downloaded from there, with a low resolution screen shot of Tumblr search results, one of which was the photo above in the middle that has my wings poorly edited in. They cropped out any identifying urls, the date, anything else that would prove what they claimed. They refused to email me the original or the screen shot. They told me they received the DMCA notice I emailed them with proof that I owned the copyright, US Copyright registration number and all, but they still would not remove the photo and I was still not being credited. They were also deleting my comments as well as comments from friends asking to remove the image. Thankfully my phone's screen resolution is high enough that I was able to faintly make out the Tumblr account name when I blew it up in Photoshop. I thought it was fake, because it's called ass--farts, haha! It turned out to be a real account with some beautiful illustrations actually, but that badly edited Barbie photo could not be found anywhere in her gallery. I also discovered that the artist, Ivonne, is a student who is struggling to survive in hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico and has been trying to raise funds to help with rebuilding her home. I got in contact with her about this issue and she told me she never posted that image, but she did post her original drawing of the Swan Lake Barbie and it had the SAME CAPTION. Rio of Gypsy Sport (the ethnic slur used in their name is a whole other problem too) appears to have FAKED a screen shot to make it look like Ivonne infringed on my IP first. 
Here is the link to her original post - also shown above on the right: http://ass--farts.tumblr.com/post/161679447989/swan-princess-o 
For some reason I can only see the full caption and hash tags when I open it in the app on my phone, and it's the very same photo. The exact image can be found when you search for #swan lake on Tumblr. He must have done a search for one of the hash tags, took a screen shot and simply replaced Ivonne's illustration in the screen shot with his own image he put together to fabricate a false story that would take the blame off of him.
To say it's infuriating would be an understatement!

What's more, they also implicated yet another person in this narrative! I had emailed the screen shot details to the main company address (before I heard from Ivonne) just in case it was some irresponsible employee I was talking to on IG since whoever it was wouldn't give me a name. Emily Morales emailed me back and told me "We have been granted permission from M. Repicky of Mattel® to use these images, previously found on tumblr." and indicated it was in fact Rio I'd been talking to on IG.
I wasn't given his full name or contact info, but he was easy to find although hard to contact as he doesn't publish his email anywhere. When they refused to give me the info I asked for, I called Mattel naturally, because if they were telling the truth I needed to get that taken care of right away. I couldn't have an image out there that Mattel was telling people they were free to use when they didn't have the right to my wing image! They wouldn't give me a link to the image so maybe Mattel would. They did finally credit me - after blocking me on IG - for the last hour or so that it was up, and then removed it. That didn't solve the problem of where the original came from if they had been honest with me.
Once I let Emily know that I've left a message with Mattel with all the details, I got an immediate response telling me to leave Mattel out of it, and "They did NOT grant permission to use that specific image, we have a great relationship with Barbie and assumed this was a Barbie photo."
So sounds like I was lied to in order to deflect liability. They were willing to soil Mattel's rep AND the reputation of a struggling art student who is homeless at the moment.
Well done Gypsy Sport. Super inclusive of you, how upstanding of people's civil rights to place blame on someone in Puerto Rico recovering from hurricane damage.

Hey Gypsy Sport, we ALL deserve an apology. Not a faux apology filled with more lies, but a sincere apology and compensation. Ivonne has a link on her Deviant Art site with info about her situation and how to support her, so why don't you show us that you actually walk your talk by donating some cash so she can fix her house? Here's her link: https://ko-fi.com/A2201D5B

Infringement is against the law, and infringement of work that has been registered with the US Copyright Office like mine has carries statutory damages up to $150,000 for each work, regardless of whether or not any profit was made directly. What's more, my Copyright Management Info was removed from my photo. That's the copyright statement I have written along the bottom panel of the wings in that photo (below), which anyone with half a brain should know means it's not free for anyone to use when it says 'All Rights Reserved'. The removal of Copyright Management Information, or CMI, is a violation of the DMCA Section 1202, and carries an additional penalty on top of the ordinary statutory damages for infringing on registered work of between $2,500 and $25,000.

SideGuinevereGrnGold_973.png

Below are more screen shots from my phone of the back & forth between me and Gypsy Sport, if you need any more evidence that their whole story smells like a heap of BS. I didn't realize the images weren't opening up when clicked, I fixed that as of May 14 at 11:04. You may need to turn off popup blockers for this page, as they will open in a new window.

Oh right, but what about her emails? Screen shots of that convo below.

Oh but there's just a little more. They aren't the first ones to have done this, to put blame on an innocent third party (fourth and fifth too) for their infringement.
Ellie Paisly, who now goes by @ellie.paisly on Instagram and used to go by hazypaisley, was the first to do this to me. She used a few of my wing photos in a bunch of her selfies she posted on Instagram and was telling everyone that she drew them. How anyone could believe that she really drew them is beyond me, but for quite a while she was taking full credit for my work. She also had done a promotional photo or two for clothing companies using my content, and meanwhile she's racking up social media followers and exposure for her art business while doing so.
When I found out due to a follower tagging me in her post, I politely asked if she would remove it, and even let her know that I do sell legit digital wings for this purpose. But she blocked me, and I saw that she was taking credit for the wings on other posts and was leaving some up, so she got dragged. She came over to my post to whine about it, and then, she told me that she got the images as public domain from her art school's image bank. 

Just in case she was telling the truth - I should have known that liars continue to lie but just to be sure - I emailed her school, Moore College of Art & Design. They then put me in touch with the only two image banks they use, Artstor and Art Museum Image Gallery, and I contacted them about the issue. Eventually they both responded to inform me that they never had my content in their banks, that they only use content from verified sources for educational purposes only. Even if she did get my content from them, she did not have the right to post them on her Instagram account anyway.
She lied about it, putting her school and the 2 image banks in the legal line of fire just because she didn't want to own up to her mistake. That is not okay. It's completely unprofessional, especially for someone trying to sell themselves as a pro artist. She also has an outer facade of being a loving fairy spirit that sympathizes with the underdog just like Gypsy Sport, but she completely disrespected another woman artist, her school and two other companies without seeming to care in the slightest. She's never paid me the invoices I sent her for the penalty rate for unauthorized use and yet I've seen public evidence of her commissioning things costing thousands of dollars. Many of the portraits she paints also look like they were traced from well known photos online, whether she had permission from those photographers I don't know, but I wouldn't bet any money that she has.
Below is a mound of screen shots of the whole mess, and my original Instagram post about it is still up. It still shows up in the top results of Instagram search for the #elliepaisley hashtag. Click on the photos for links to my original wing images or to see an explanation about what's going on in it. Most are self explanatory, and she obviously had always been telling people that she drew the wings, or 'art'd' them. Maybe she didn't learn anything in art school about what drawing is? Or maybe it's lies? Yeah, it was lies.

That's all for now folks. Remember, just because you didn't sell your infringements it's still against the law and you can still get sued for it if whoever owns the copyright can afford to do so, which reminds me to tell you all to ask your government reps to support the CASE act that would allow artists to fight infringement in small claims court.
Feel free to share this. I think it's really important that social media influencers and large designer labels are honest with the public, and when they aren't I think we all need to know so we can make the decision whether or not to support them and their businesses.
Obviously, my vote would be not to. Support honest artists that don't steal other people's work to further their careers. We really don't need anymore corrupt people in any kind of power.


#gypsysport #stopiptheft #arttheft #copyrightinfringement #arttheives #elliepaisley #hazypaisley #elliemiller #copyright #artistrights #fairywings