Hey guys, it's Celestia, and in today's video, we're going to be getting into the massive
art theft problem on Etsy that no one seems to be talking about, at least not loudly enough to
make them do something about it. We all know I'm way louder than I have any right to be, so
hopefully I can contribute that obnoxious volume to something productive. Before we do get into all
of that though, I want to take a moment to thank today's sponsor, GAOMON. I've reviewed one of their
tablets before-- the PD1220-- but this month, they've reached out again to offer me the opportunity to
also review the PD1320, which is largely the same, but almost two full inches bigger. Just like before,
I'm not surprised to say that I was impressed. It's a pen display tablet and not just a pen
tablet, which means that you can see your art on the tablet itself as you draw directly on it, and
that is absolutely my favorite kind. It has a matte finish, which prevents glare and lets you see what
you're drawing perfectly clearly, and also allows for a more pen-on-paper feeling, which I love. It
has a headphone jack too, so you can easily and seamlessly listen to the Mom's Spaghetti remix
of Lose Yourself while you draw, it has a nice combined cover and stand so that you can prop
your tablet up and draw without giving yourself scoliosis, and while the tablet itself doesn't
have express keys, which is a tragic loss for me specifically, the pen does, and is also lightweight
and battery-free. Finally, it's easy to install, the screen colors are easily customized and very
vibrant, the drawing process is perfectly smooth and lag-free, which is a deal breaker for me, and
its relatively small size makes it the perfect traveling workstation for your art. Thank you so
much to GAOMON for letting me try it out, and you can find this tablet as well as their information
in the description below. You can also enter for a chance to win this one by commenting "Art school
puts the pain in painting" in the comments below, in addition to your preferred method of contact
if you win, and the winner of the GAOMON PD1320 will be decided on November 1st 2022 by way of
random number generator. The winner will then have 72 hours to respond to my reply to their YouTube
comment or other designated method of contact to claim the tablet, otherwise the winner will
be redrawn. Also, unfortunately, in this case, only those in North America can participate, as the
tablet is rather heavy and I just can't afford international shipping, as this is coming out of
my pocket. All of that out of the way, let's get into something much less fun and good,
Etsy. More specifically, the growing art theft problem on Etsy that Etsy is doing almost
nothing to fix. For context, though, let me tell you a little more about the platform itself and
its history. Back in 2005, Etsy was founded, and it was founded with one very particular goal in mind:
to provide independent artisans creating handmade goods with a place to sell those goods. Its focus
was abundantly clear: it was an e-commerce platform specifically for individual artists and crafters
selling stuff they made, rather than companies selling mass-produced goods. And for a while,
that seemed to be a quality standard that they DID uphold. They did so so well, in fact, that both
their success and their platform grew immensely. And eventually, in 2013, they announced that they
would revise their policies and begin allowing the sale of non-handmade, mass-produced goods. This
decision was widely regarded as the beginning of the end for their platform; not for their success
or profitability, which would be pretty much exclusively positively impacted by the decision,
but for the artists they built it for. Now, I have a lot of mixed feelings about that: on one hand, I
am someone who probably wouldn't be able to use Etsy for my merch if it weren't for this policy
change, because I use Printify to manufacture and ship it, which qualifies it as mass produced and
not handmade, even if I did make the designs for it myself. Etsy's policy change is actually very
helpful and empowering for artists like me, as it allows us more freedom in terms of the ways that
we can sell our creations. But others argue that this decision created unfair competition for the
small artists that had built their businesses on this platform, because now they have to compete
with the lower prices and faster production times of big businesses that are being deceptively
marketed as just as handmade as their own stuff. And I won't lie, I agree. I completely understand
their frustration with that, and I get that this decision did both harm and good to the artists
on the platform, so I can't say one way or the other whether or not it was the right decision
to make. What I can say, though, is that the way they've handled the aftermath of that decision
is... a little dishonest. What I mean is that while they basically said "now we're effectively just a
normal eCommerce platform like any other", they're still marketing themselves as the same handmade,
artisan-focused, small business haven. Their mission statement is "Keep commerce human", in the second
sentence of their about page, they advertise their "specialty for handcrafted pieces", and then go on
to advertise that their priority is maintaining the "human connection in commerce" by promoting
the sale of "goods that were specially made with a human touch" and "special, one-of-a-kind items". All
of this is coded to suggest to potential buyers and potential sellers alike that this is still a
platform specially made for handmade goods, which is a carefully curated marketing ploy designed to
separate them from alternatives like Society6 and Redbubble, and even eBay and Amazon. So people come
to Etsy with trust-- trust that Etsy itself once actually legitimately established-- that their
priority is still the little guy, and with the expectation that the goods sold there are at least
mostly handmade. And for a while, that probably was the case; when they first changed their policies,
the marketplace was probably still very artist-driven, with big companies and mass-produced goods
only gradually trickling in. But looking at it now, it's hard to ignore that that's no longer true:
they trickled in a lot, and now what's actually sold on Etsy isn't mostly handmade, it's mostly
mass-produced, and it's marketed to make mass-produced LOOK handmade. Another problem with that
mass-production is that it makes it really really easy to steal art and sell it on merch, especially
given how easy dropshipping companies are to use. It's something that's been a known issue
on Redbubble and Society6 for a very long time, and their reputations of both platforms have suffered
as a result. Etsy's, conversely, benefited from their reputation suffering, despite the fact that while
people weren't talking about it nearly as much comparatively, their own platform was becoming
increasingly overrun by the exact same problem. It's actually interesting to consider that that
might be the reason, like-- maybe a part of the reason people aren't talking about the art
theft on Etsy is because they still work so hard to retain their reputation as handmade
first. You don't naturally associate the ability to steal and sell art with a platform known for
selling handcrafted goods like you would with a platform that allows you to put art on dropshipped,
large-scale, manufactured merch. It's just another way that they're benefiting from their dishonest
and misleading marketing, at least in my opinion, and it's something that I fell
for myself, in all honesty. Subconsciously, I still had that handmade preconception in my head. It's
not that I was unaware of their policy change, obviously, or completely oblivious to the fact
that mass-produced, corporate goods were being sold on the platform, I was just under the naive
impression that most of the people selling anything not handmade were like me: artists
putting their handmade work on non-handmade merch. I had no idea how bad this problem was
until I actually encountered it myself, when my wife showed me this really cute mousepad
Etsy listing, and I immediately recognized the art from my art inspiration board on Pinterest.
As you can see just from looking at the art, it's made with a very distinct and recognizable style,
so it wasn't hard for me to see that and think "I don't remember the exact piece I've seen from this
artist, but I KNOW this artist". So when she sent me the listing and the store was full of other
listings with work that definitely didn't match that style, I went to the aforementioned Pinterest
board where I knew I'd saved some of that artist's work, found that work, and reverse image searched
it to very easily find their Instagram: apricotmayor. And the first things I saw were the pieces
that were stolen and put on mousepads, and an Instagram story saying the following: "Hi everyone,
I never sell mousepads, large table mats, or phone cases at Alibaba, AliExpress, TaoBao, or
Etsy. If you saw one of them, please help me report them, because I couldn't do this without you. Thank
you". And I was furious. I was furious that this was apparently such a common, reoccurring problem
for them that this story was necessary at all, and furious that Etsy, a platform that I really thought
was better than allowing it, was clearly allowing it to happen for them personally so much that they
had to list it with the other platforms. I reported the listings that I recognized as theirs, reported
the store, and DM'd them to let them know. But Etsy quickly told me that since the art wasn't mine and
I didn't represent the artist, they wouldn't do anything, even if I could prove it, and that the
artist had to report it themselves. I couldn't even fill out the IP infringement report form. And the
artist didn't see my DM, so they couldn't know to report it, which meant this highly profitable store
with over 1500 sales and an almost 5 star rating was left to continue selling their work. Etsy was
also promoting these stolen listings heavily off-site because they were so popular, to the
point that my wife saw them many more times on her social media, as did I. I've since made an Instagram
story about it to try to get their attention as well as emailed them, so I'm hoping that they do
see it and report it eventually, but as of writing this, that's not the case. So then I contacted Etsy
directly to ask if there was anything I could do. They took a week just to say no and send me their
IP infringement policies that I'd already read all of, which reflect that only the artist or a third
party representing them can report stolen art. Even if Etsy themselves had undeniable proof that
it was stolen, which I provided them, unless that proof came from the artist, they would acknowledge
that it was stolen and just let it continue to be sold anyway. Even Redbubble has a section of their
policy that says they reserve the right to, without a report from the artist needed, remove any content
that they believe to be infringing upon another person's intellectual rights. But Etsy, the platform
that claims to protect independent artists' rights first and foremost, won't take any such initiative?
After learning that, I contacted Etsy's press team for a media statement, seeking some kind
of explanation for how and why they found this justifiable. I got one email back saying that I had
definitely contacted the right person for media segments, but said literally nothing more than that.
So I replied with the initial message I already sent in in hopes that they would reply. I followed
up three more times over the span of months - never heard anything from them again. And apparently
that's a recurring theme with them, because even when the artists who have their work stolen and
sold on Etsy DO report these listings themselves, Etsy STILL doesn't make it anywhere near as easy
as it should be for them to get them taken down. More often than not, Etsy says "I'm sure you can
resolve this yourself, just contact the thief directly and ask them real nice to stop stealing
please", which is just beyond ridiculous. Like, really? Appeal to the thief's strong moral compass?
Ask them to do the right thing after they built a business on doing the wrong thing? What a goddamn
joke. And if you tell them "no, can you please handle theft on your own platform yourself, Etsy, pretty
please?" you often get an insanely slow, long, dragged out process where they make it abundantly clear
that they don't care, and are just hoping you'll decide it's not worth it. They also force you to
straight-up DMCA the thief, which gives them your full legal name and address, which is not something you
want a thief to have. Sometimes they'll also just reject reports of IP infringement inexplicably,
even if you've provided proof that the art is yours. And from what I've read from the experiences
of others, they don't even tell you why. And yet when I listed my seven dollar Death Note button
set, I got a copyright takedown notice within four hours. Because while Etsy won't help small artists
get listings that steal their art removed, they sure work real fast when Eric Green decides that
my tiny fan-made buttons are stealing business from Viz Media. I can't conclude this video,
though, without acknowledging that this problem is an inevitability on all e-commerce platforms.
People are assholes, and copyright law itself is more to blame than Etsy itself is. copyright law
is what's broken, and it's the reason that Etsy and so many other platforms so frequently have their
hands tied when it comes to policing art theft. More than anything, IT is what needs a drastic,
thorough overhaul. It needs to be easier to report stolen art, but we can't reasonably blame Etsy for
the law's failure to allow that. And I think it's important to give credit where credit's due and
acknowledge that not only are they not responsible for the underlying problem, they are at least
trying to fight it, at least according to them. All of that being said, they should be held responsible
for their failure to fight it harder and fight it right; like I said, even Redbubble's policies
let them take independent action against art theft, even if it is worded in a way that suggests that's
probably not something they do often. That suggests that if they cared to, they probably could rework
their own policies to protect artists rights better, and the longer they go without doing so, the
more stores like KittieAccessories are gonna find success on a platform that's
supposed to be designed for them. Even beyond that, the way they handle the reports they do get from
IP owners themselves is a huge problem: independent artists and small business owners should not have
to wait months on end to have their stolen work removed, while representatives from huge industry
IP owners can enforce their IPs on fanart within hours. Etsy's default first response should not
be "handle it yourself". Etsy is a platform that has the trust of a lot of artists because they used to
earn it, and as a result they have a responsibility to uphold the standards they're preaching for
artist protection and small creator-friendly values much, much better than this. I'm disappointed.
I'm disappointed that after finding this stolen art on Etsy that is still for sale right now, I
found 20 more listings like it when I went looking. I'm disappointed that Etsy is failing the very
people that it once sought out to help and support. I think ThePupArtist on Etsy's forums sums it up
best: "Perhaps I am naive, but I thought Etsy was founded on the concept of promoting the artisans
and craftspeople who and craft their items with originality and pride. I mean, that's the image they
try to sell the public to drive them to their site. I thought they might want to take a lead in this
fight against copyright infringement, something that is just rampant in the art community, but
I guess they're only selling an image, and we're just the suckers playing along". I still think
Etsy can do better; I definitely think they deserve a chance to. But I think more people need to talk
about and bring attention to the fact that based on the virtues they so strongly promote, they are
failing artists much more than sites like Society6 and Redbubble by allowing this problem to be so
pervasive on its platform, and I think that maybe if we do, they'll step up their game when it comes
to stopping it. Unfortunately, there's very little else that we can do in the meantime aside from
just try to protect our own work and look out for the artists whose work we've seen stolen.
Watermarking your art helps, but it's still far from impossible to edit those out with minimal
artistic skill needed. Doing what apricotmayor did and making an Instagram story or other form of
pinned social media post letting people know that your work isn't being sold anywhere but where you
yourself are selling it will also help them help you if they see it being sold illegally. You can
also reverse image search your own work to see if it's been reposted anywhere you didn't post
it, but that's not always effective, especially if they overlay it onto a product mock-up like
those mousepads I showed you earlier. And if you see an Etsy store or other kind of online store
with listings that reflect a million different art styles like KittieAccessories, whose wider
stock I'll show on screen now, question that. Look into it. Try reverse image searching the art
that they're using and see if you can find the original artist or artists that are probably
being stolen from, and let them know so they can report it. We've really only got each other here if
Etsy won't help, so we pretty much have to have each other's backs. Anyway, that's all for now; if
Etsy makes any significant changes to warrant an update, I'll make a follow-up video at that
time, and I hope I do. I hope we see those changes soon, and I hope I can give you guys something
more positive as a conclusion. But right now, we need to press them for those changes and speak
up about how necessary they really are. Thank you guys for watching; special thanks as always
to channel members Cafe Soleil, Joseph Solomon, Unknown Code, Dalth, Lucian is Apa, and Abyss Reborn, as
well as patrons Batman, Kyle Low, blueswanson, thisistotallymyname, Uni Tea, Cora Feere, Jamesha Walker,
ShiromeArtiste, Elenxji, and Soul Crystal for their support, and I'll see you in the next one!