Design Piracy Bill Reintroduced

According to the all-knowing WWD, “a bipartisan group of House lawmakers reintroduced a modified version of a bill on Thursday (April 30) that would provide 3 years of copyright protection for fashion designers.”

… obviously unless the terms are very loose and open to interpretation this bill will go nowhere once again. At times like this, where expensive designer brands are either moving to discounted online retailers, having huge sales themselves, or disappearing altogether, the Forever 21, H&M, and Zara’s of the world are the only ones who are seeming to do well. And we all know (especially F21 who got sued over 50 times in the past 3 yrs for infringement) that they’d pretty much be nowhere without constantly knocking off designs. It’s so frustrating for designers to be ripped off, but I have to admit some my purchases probably do support this fashion-pirating. Its pretty sucky that the only thing protected under copyright laws are signature patterns (they’re considered art) and trademarked logos, but what can you really do?
xx, L.

May 2, 2009. Tags: design piracy, forever 21, women's wear daily. Uncategorized. Leave a comment.