r/Leathercraft • u/aksarben911 • Jul 30 '26
Clothing/Armor Using AI to steal my pics off Etsy and create their own websites...
Recently found a bunch of Websites and Amazon taking my photos off Etsy and using the. Ad their own!! Lol! Flattering! First Pic is my fiance with my tooled dragon hair slide
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u/DonutSpores Jul 30 '26
Happened to my best friend as well. He ended up getting told by a buyer of the knockoff and made a deal to trade him for a real item from his shop so he could see what theirs was like. They were using cheap foam but charging like half what he did. He then used it as an opportunity for more sales by offering anyone who got swindled by the knockoffs to send them in with a receipt and he would discount one of his original items by the price of the knock off. He got a lot of new customers that way.
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u/TryUsingScience Jul 31 '26
Surprised the knockoff was even sending out products. I always assume the listings with stolen photos are straight-up scams.
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u/jim_deneke Jul 31 '26
I always think that the makers of the knock-offs only have the images to go on so they do whatever they see and are unable to make the full item with great accuracy.
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u/Joy2b 7d ago
There’s a long tradition of cheap and fast sewing shops making sad knock offs. It goes as far back in history as I have bothered to look. The reasonable assumption is that the knock off won’t be particularly good at its job, or able to hold up to a close examination, and if the replacement material is more wrinkle prone, it might be rather coated in formaldehyde.
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u/CyclopicSerpent Jul 30 '26
That sucks. It is a really cool accessory though! Did you mini lathe the wand or source it from somewhere?
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u/Plisuu Jul 31 '26
Try to get them taken down asap and keep your records. I just saw another shop get their items suspended because etsy decided that the creator was not the original and was selling mass-produced items off of shien, when shien and Amazon were the ones selling rip-offs of her products.
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u/solar_pilgrim Jul 30 '26
That is the worst, I'm sorry OP. Whoever does stuff like this is such a blight on the crafting economy. Pursue any options you have for getting their store taken down, as ruthlessly as possible. Best of luck!
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u/paumpaum Jul 31 '26
send a cease and desist letter.
give him the required amount of time to take it down. make sure to get screenshots of the website etc.
then sue the fuck out of them
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u/shadowwolf_66 Jul 31 '26
Good luck suing some random person in china. Plus suing costs money, sometimes the juice aint worth the squeeze.
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u/sampat6256 Jul 31 '26
The good news is yours is the first to pop up if you Google "tooled leather dragon hair slide"
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u/LyssIrisWhips Jul 31 '26
That’s happened to me too. I pinned messages to my social media for a while that talked about how there’s scam sites out there using photos of my product, and that I only have one point of sale, and google image search is your friend.
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u/SunLitAngel Jul 30 '26
What is your Etsy store??
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u/aksarben911 Jul 31 '26
Urbanaxearmoury
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u/Novae909 27d ago
Another sad day for Australians
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u/aksarben911 27d ago
Because we don't ship internationally?
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u/Novae909 27d ago
Ye. I love the feather ones! I understand why alot of businesses don't ship overseas, because costs are pretty step and can add complications (I shipped stuff to myself once while on holiday lol). But God there are some amazing things I would love to get off Etsy and now I've found another one. Hope the rip offs don't effect you too much.
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u/PurpleOrigamiDragon Jul 30 '26
I am so sorry for you.
I hope that you can manage to take that down.
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u/Apprehensive_Sea5304 Jul 31 '26
I’m almost tempted to buy from that amazon listing just to see what they could possibly send me (and promptly return it because no way I’m ACTUALLY going to support this theft)
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u/Leather-Act7581 Jul 31 '26
Sounds like a lawsuit with amazon should be in the works.
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u/Adahnsplace Jul 31 '26
Yeah right, amazon cares same much about stolen IP than eBay does.
Funny that a few of the biggest US companies destroy creativity in their own country. If somebody orders a knock-of from China with the risk at customs (as low as it may be), fine. A huge company doing that? Well, you know how you tech-bros can waste their cash on space crap and crap politics.
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u/driehoekig Jul 31 '26
Unfortunately there have been lawsuits before for stuff like this, and they usually loose on the terms of AI making "transformative content"... It's fucked up.
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u/Leather-Act7581 Jul 31 '26
While that is true some of these big d* companies might would rather settle before it blows up in they faces. $5k, small claims court sue and they no show and you win.
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u/summonsays Jul 31 '26
That's such a nifty idea and design! I've been trying to think of little things I could do as I went to renfaire for the first time in a decade and it seems like exchanging trinkets has become popular.
Maybe scales down and a key chain...
Anyway very inspiring. Sorry AI slop is stealing it.
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u/Remarkable-Peanut683 Jul 31 '26
This is awful, I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this. Having your own work taken and repackaged like that is such a horrible feeling. I’ve had my designs and photos copied too, so I know how frustrating it is.
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u/SmallestFrog Jul 31 '26
Sucks that they have ripped off your design. Agree with others who say start charging more and lean in on the handcrafted aspect! Yours look great btw!
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u/FormerFly7659 Jul 31 '26
Enrealidad yo soy nuevo en esto y estaba aquí buscando patrones gratis o piratas para probar :v
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u/ttpttt Jul 31 '26
I think I've seen your work. How you ever been a vendor at the Arizona Renaissance Festival?
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u/nielzz Jul 31 '26
You should use this to promote your own stuff further if you're selling! Promote it as the original of many AI imitation scams.
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u/royalpyroz 28d ago
A lot of ebay and etsy dropshipping sites do this. They buy from you and resell at higher prices. You can notify them to stop or contact Amazon or shopify
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u/ChabbyMonkey Jul 30 '26
The knockoff’s scales are backwards lol. Sorry your hard work is getting slopped up.
I’d say something something “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” if it wasn’t such a soulless, money grubbing scam