Diary of an Independent Artist's T-Shirt Design Post-Gilmore Girls
Craftster's design since mid-2005
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reproduced version
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I thought it might be helpful to have another thread started by me where I keep an updated timeline of this situation here.
If you want to see a convenient listing of all the places you can buy legitimate versions this design on shirts and other merch, click below:
http://www.craftster.org/shop
May 2005My husband Dave (an artist for a living) created an original design for me/Craftster which is a skull & knitting needles. You can see it for sale on a t-shirt here in this picture taken at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn on 6/25/05. I've been selling it and still currently still sell on t-shirts and on on other merch. Click below for more info on buying items with this design:
http://www.craftster.org/shop
(click to enlarge)11/21/06I was notified by a Craftster member that in the preview for the upcoming episode of Gilmore Girls, one of the characters was wearing a t-shirt with Craftster's skull & knitting needles design.
11/28/06The episode of Gilmore Girls aired and indeed a character is wearing a shirt with this design. Although I sell shirts with this design on it in a few different places, this shirt was not purchased from any of these places. It was created anew and not by me and not with my permission. The design was enlarged and has the words "knit or go home" added underneath it.
11/29/06knock-off #1 Less than 24 hours later a design based on the shirt on the TV show which is in turn based on Craftster's design, has already been put up for sale in a CafePress shop that is not owned by me.
See this here. I've contacted CafePress via their copyright infringement department and have not heard back yet.
(screen grab of design pre-removal from CafePress - click to enlarge)11/29/06 update!knock-off #1 CafePress replied to my email and has taken down the copyright infringing images that were in
this shop here. Due to browser cache-ing weirdness you might still see them there but you should not be able to click and purchase any items.
11/29/06 knock-off #2
update!knock-off #2 Another design on CafePress was just pointed out to me. It's yet another skull & needles design with the words "Knit or Go Home" under it just like on the TV show. But this time the style of skull is very different than Craftster's design.
You can see this here. As of now I don't plan on contacting CafePress about this one.
11/30/06 update!knock-off #3 Just found another knock-off of the Craftster design on CafePress. Again, it has a very similar type of skull as Craftster's design and has the words "Knit or Go Home" under it as seen on the TV show.
You can see this here. I'm going to report this to CafePress's copyright infringement department.
(screen grab of design pre-removal from CafePress - click to enlarge)11/30/06 update!knock-off #3 CafePress replied to my last email and has taken down the 2nd copyright infringing version that was in
this shop here. Due to browser cache-ing weirdness you might still see them there but you should not be able to click and purchase any items.
11/30/06 update!knock-off #4 Not sure why but yet another knock-off someone reported earlier today has been removed. I didn't report it to CafePress but I was going to. I wonder if CafePress proactively sought it out and removed. It was in
this shop here.
(screen grab of design pre-removal from CafePress - click to enlarge)12/1/06 update!knock-off #5 Another copy in CafePress was just pointed out to me. This time they took the exact same skull as Craftster's design and just put "Knit or Go Home" under it.
You can see it here. An email to CafePress is underway.
12/1/06 update!knock-off #5 CafePress replied to my last email and has taken down this copyright infringing version that was in
this shop here.
(screen grab of design pre-removal from CafePress - click to enlarge)12/4/06 update!knock-off #6 Yet another design popped up
in this shop here that is strikingly similar to Craftster's with the words Knit or Go Home added just like on the TV show. It's in fact listed under Gilmore Girls in this person's shop. I emailed CafePress and they removed it.
(screen grab of design pre-removal from CafePress - click to enlarge)12/8/06 update!On USA Today's Pop Candy, the blog author Whitney Matheson answered a reader's question about where this shirt she saw on Gilmore Girls could be purchased. Whitney wrote that she contacted the CW and they said it was: "a one-of-a-kind creation by the show's fabulous costume designer, Brenda Maben." I emailed Whitney asking her to correct this and she added an addendum to this entry in her blog clarifying the situation.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/2006/12/the_candy_mailb_1.html#more12/8/06 update!The situation with Pop Candy getting false information from the CW spokesperson has been written about at Consumerist.com.
http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/skull-tshirts/gilmore-girls-steals-craftsters-tshirt-design-220599.php12/10/06 update!I officially opened up a
Craftster Spreadshirt shop where you can order shirts with this design and add whatever text you want under the design. This means people can add the words "Knit or Go Home" or whatever other creative phrase they want underneath. Spreadshirt is similar to CafePress in that it's print-on-demand but the print quality at Spreadshirt looks unbelievable bold and crisp. They actually cut the design and letters out this special material that gets heat set onto the shirt.
12/13/06 update!knock-off #6 The skull/knitting needles design
in this shop was taken down by CafePress due to my complaint and then the shop owner drastically changed the way the skull looks and added it again. I don't think I'll pursue it any further since he/she changed the look of the skull to be very different than Craftster's.
(click to enlarge)12/13/06 update!The national commuter newspaper
The Metro has written an article about where to buy some clothing seen on popular TV shows. They showed my skull/needles shirt and gave a link to
my CafePress store for where to buy it. (This story ran on 12/13 here in Boston but it might have run on a different date in other cities.) You can see the article here:
http://metropoint.metro.lu/20061213_Boston.pdf
I'll post more details above as I have them!
