Okay folks here it is! I for the record want to say I love Paula Deen and her story is quite amazing, but when she signs her name to a product she needs or her people need to do their homework! Take this for example that came to my attention yesterday. The company Kaleen, who produces Paula Deen's rugs has completely ripped off my design along with many other well known artists such as Paul Brent, Carol Eldridge and Jennifer Brinley to name a few, basically they ripped off our client Homefires!
This sort of stuff needs to stop!! I recently exhibited at the Atlanta Gift Mart and had an amazing show, but I did overheard Paul Brent's licensing coordinator tell people that 6 companies had ripped him off at that show! This is sort of thing is outrageous and has got to stop. We spend our life building up our brands and to have these companies try and rip us off with a celebrity name attached is just disgusting! I am sure Paula Deen herself would be saddend to hear me, a mother of two boys also was having her designs ripped off! How would she like people taking her recipes and making a profit from it? I doubt it would go over well.
Just to make my point clear here is the rug in which Kaleen says they cleared the copyrights too.
and here is my Jellybean/Homefires rug that was made back in 2005!
Homefires did these rugs in two colorways, and its obvious to me all they really did was flip two surfboards and change a little pattern in 2 but clearly they look so similar to the average person that copyright infringement has occurred, and lets get technical shall we, copyright laws state that it is infringement if to the average person they can not discern between the two, can you see a big difference? I cannot!
So as this came to my attention, what did I do? I wrote about it on Twitter and what do you think happened after that? I got a phone call from Paula Deen's media people and they basically told me I should watch what I say! I should watch what I say? I said "are you threatening me?" naturally he said no, but doesn't that sound like a threat to you? I mean who do you think you are telling me to be quiet over something that is clearly in the wrong? I will not and therefore tweeted that out as well. If I was so in the wrong then why did Kaleen take all the rugs off their site today? What are they hiding? The truth is what they are hiding, they do not have the rights to use these designs and they know it!
This is why I love Social Media, if not for the fun of it, its for getting the word out to thousands of people all at once! I found out about Michael Jackson's death faster than any news service because of Twitter. I think we are onto to something when a tool like that can make a company change their website and the people of Paul Deen call me only an hour after I tweeted that her name was placed on goods that she did not own!
Yes! Power to the people! In the old days it would takes weeks if not months of letters and such to reach a company to the misuse of products and copyright infringement, today its a matter of seconds. Whenever someone says to me "why do you waste your time on Twitter its a time-suck!" I will say "because it has a power that you cannot comprehend!"
So use your voice people, thats what it's there for and never let anyone try and bully you into thinking you can't!! That is America! get used to it!
I also wanted to thank all my friends who supported me and my friend Carol Eldridge on getting the word out! This ripping off artists has got to stop!!
Ellen