Please don't flatter me.

Some people say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I say, if that's true, don't flatter me.

A newly opened museum in Germany puts on display something that strikes fear into every artist and designer's heart: blatant rip-off. The museum, Plagiarius, opened on April 1st, 2007. They host about 300 original items and their rip-off twins. Take a look at a slide show of some of the more famous rip-offs shown at the Plagiarius.

Scary! I can't imagine having something like that happen to me. A lot of the time the companies guilty of copying are large corporations with a lot of money and power so it's difficult for the little guys (independent designers) to fight back. We all remember the now infamous (in the right circles) rip-off by Urban Outfitters of Johnny Cupcakes' design of the plane dropping cupcake bombs. There's even a site documenting the never ending rip-offs UO is guilty of committing. Read about them here http://urbncounterfeiters.blogspot.com/ then boycott Urban Outfitters. (Ok, maybe you don't have to boycott them. After all, I buy my colored beaters there. But that's where I draw the line.)

Here's a thread on craftster.org concerning artist rip off.

This topic is widely discussed throughout the nets. A simple search will turn up a lot of distinct stories.

On that note, I am going to pack for my trip.

Ciao!