The Disco Lemonade Dilemma

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.

Paris Hilton Titania Fairy Wings Infringement #3!

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

I’m not kidding. There’s another one. AND it’s the same design again.

This is actually infringement #1 technically, since it was posted on Twitter in 2019 it’s the earliest one but I didn’t know about it until now.

3 times in less than 3 years Paris has posted images infringing on my Titania Fairy Wings design and she’s refused to remove the 2nd one so I’m not even going to bother sending notice for this one until I can file a claim in the soon-to-open Copyright Claims Board tribunal.

Another aspect of her infringement is that it could be fueling brand confusion between another wing maker’s work and mine because for the last couple years she’s been making fairy wings in the same style as mine for Paris. In just the last year I’ve had at least 6 different instances of people confusing her work for mine and vice-versa.
This doesn’t happen with other wing makers with this frequency and one of those was on my Instagram post about the infringement! Someone was commenting about how those wings weren’t even mine, they named the other wing maker as the author. The wing maker in question also responded to correct them and tell them they were indeed my design. I asked her if she would kindly bring this up to Paris herself, now that she’s definitely aware of the issue but I never got a response to that. She’s still continued to work with her.

It’s also someone who had spread a rumor about me that I attacked them in a Facebook group, which makes this even more troubling for me. When confronted, she said I posted something about being the original iridescent fairy wings in a post and that it was an attack targeted at her.
The Original Iridescent Fairy Wings is my website tagline because I am literally the 1st person I know of who put iridescent film wings on the market in 2003.
My very first set of iridescent wings I made for myself were made in the 1900’s y’all.
Late 1990’s, but you get the point.
That tagline would show up in the small preview thumbnail of my website link, which I had posted in an ‘introduce yourself’ thread in the fairy group.
I don’t think I’m buying that she genuinely believed I was targeting her, it’s quite a reach.
She knew iridescent fairy wings, especially with cut metal frames, were first brought to market by myself, which is why she asked for my blessing to make cut plastic veined wings in the past, and I gave it.
I don’t know if the brand confusion or infringements are willful but I’ve never had so many repeat infringements by the same large corporate entity. It’s irresponsible at least.
I’ve been documenting all those instances and will provide that as evidence when the hearing happens in case they find it relevant.

You can find the 1st infringement blog post here: https://www.fancyfairy.com/news/2020/9/17/infringement-is-not-hot-paris-hilton

The 2nd one is here: https://www.fancyfairy.com/news/2020/12/12/thats-not-hot-paris-part-2-copyright-hullabaloo

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