Imagine working hard on an illustration, uploading it to Instagram and then have a huge clothing retailer swoop in and copy your design for absolutely no credit or compensation. Whilst massive corporations churning out cheaply made products for way more than they’re worth to turn a profit isn’t exactly a new story for anyone, using work from already struggling artists is undoubtedly a super shitty business practice that needs to be stopped.

FEATURED IMAGE VIA

You may have seen the story we published about Urban Outfitters unfairly using other people’s work without permission back in June but the high street fashion store isn’t the only one scrounging off the talent of others. Style kingpin, Zara, has been accused of being a corporate copycat whilst Francesca’s have been caught doing similarly dodgy exploits across the pond.

shame on you @francescas – thanks for the alert @boygirlparty !!! #stoparttheft pic.twitter.com/WfMeecccfC

— lisa solomon (@lisa_solomon) 29 August 2016

US based illustrators Tuesday Bassen and Adam J Kurtz were two of the the main victims in the whole Zara ordeal, with up to 16 more creatives being ripped off in a single collection. After taking her case to court, the retailer came forward saying “the lack of distinctiveness of your client’s purported designs makes it very hard to see how a significant part of the population anywhere in the world would associate the signs with Tuesday Bassen” effectively sending the message that she isn’t famous enough to steal from.

When it became obvious that Zara had pretty much typed “#illustration” into Instagram to see which popular pictures could be easily copied, the duped artists came together to create a website dedicated to shaming the companies that were unashamedly robbing from under appreciated indie artists called StopArtTheft.com. One single click will show you the extent of the damage.

As artists speak out, hopefully huge businesses will become more wary of thieving from the underdog. The solidarity between both fans, the media and the creatives themselves has been inspiring but it’s important for those in creative industries that these issues don’t get swept under the carpet.

Don’t let the big bosses win, next they’ll be taking iPads from babies or something equally as evil.