09/18/2021
Hi friends! YAY it's the weekend :) Thank you for all of your messages and comments! Your input is very appreciated.
To switch gears back into positivity from the last post:
I made the choice to make this issue public and will continue to bring awareness to the fact that no one can own a certain style, because a surprising amount of people think so. Small businesses that have gained traction on social media will use their clout to accuse smaller businesses or even big corporations of "copying" them and get their followers riled up but there is no legal or moral basis. There is everything from accusations to apology videos.
Another reason why I made this public is that their messages are pretty aggressive and I'm not comfortable being threatened. The more people that know about this the better! It feels pretty bad when the other artist has a lot more followers, does art full time, and is threatening action to me making pots in the garage. Honestly... they are just pots!! I love making ceramics and that's all! I like drawing cute faces! Straight up, I did not copy them. The other artist does not own that style of pottery. They do not own speckled clay and I will not be bullied into taking down posts or censoring myself.
Copyright law protects finished works of art. It does not protect things like procedures, ideas, or an artist's style, no matter how distinct. In Dave Grossman Designs v. Bortin, the court said that:
"The law of copyright is clear that only specific expressions of an idea may be copyrighted, that other parties may copy that idea, but that other parties may not copy that specific expression of the idea or portions thereof. For example, Picasso may be entitled to a copyright on his portrait of three women painted in his Cubist motif. Any artist, however, may paint a picture of any subject in the Cubist motif, including a portrait of three women, and not violate Picasso's copyright so long as the second artist does not substantially copy Picasso's specific expression of his idea." (quoted from blog post of the legal artist here: https://www.thelegalartist.com/blog/you-cant-copyright-style)