Designs stolen or 3rd party sellers ?

[Bailamor]

Hello,

I've noticed some of my designs popping up on other sites. Any idea how I can tell if these sites are selling stolen designs or if they're just third-party sellers?
I've uploaded my designs to Zazzle and Teepublic, and if they're stolen, it's probably from Teepublic (i see a lot of traffic from vietnam, etc.).

However, Zazzle also has third-party sellers, so I'd like to know how to spot them.
The sites claim to be the creator and author of the designs (which they are definitely not). They are for example mercuryshirt.com, Memphis Fashion Shirt, and also Amazon (although the design is now listed as temporarily unavailable).

Any ideas on how to deal with this?

[Barbara · Accepted solution]

A third-party seller links directly to your product on Zazzle where, if that product sells, you get your royalty minus a commission to the third-party. If you hover over the product on another site, you can see the URL (generally in the bottom left of your browser). If it doesn't lead to your product, it's an enormous clue that someone stole your design. If it's on Amazon, it's stolen because the site is where vendors sell their own products. If you see a person claiming your design is theirs, it's stolen.

As for dealing with it, this depends on the site. Most people start out by emailing the infringer with a request to take it down. If they don't, the next step is notify the platform, linking to the infringement and also to your own design here on Zazzle. Amazon is tough to deal with because they don't necessarily take responsibility for harboring crooks. Other sites have a link you can click where you can register your complaint.

But it's definitely easy to separate legitimate referrals from dirt-bag behavior.

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[Andrea]

Maybe there are sellers who buy from Zazzle and resell the printed copies. An example maybe, would be a wedding planner. I recently found a couple of my designs on a site with a huge markup - I'm still trying to work out if it's legit or not. I'm no stranger to filing DMCAs. But this looks and feels different to me.

[Barbara]

That's a strange thing to do. I don't know if it's legal or not, but it sure does sound expensive for a seller to stock up on speculation. And if they don't do it that way, if, instead, they have an image of the product and then order it for the customer, it sounds at least marginally shady. But I don't know the law. I'm just running on opinion.

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[Bailamor]

The designs i mentioned had never been sold... 

[chuamishael]

let's hope it is a 3rd party, because most of my items sold are actually 3rd party referral. we do have 3rd party sellers here in zazzle. 

[Marblewave]

It sounds like a form of dropshipping, @Andrea. I've seen the 'huge markup' thing on eBay too, where someone lists an item on eBay at an inflated price, and if someone buys, they order the item from Amazon and get it sent to the customer. Often such eBay listings are copied word for word from the Amazon Marketplace seller's listing.

[Andrea]

Yes that's right, It's usually Amazon Prime next day delivery listings sold on eBay. 

[Barbara]

---

@Marblewave wrote:

It sounds like a form of dropshipping, @Andrea. I've seen the 'huge markup' thing on eBay too, where someone lists an item on eBay at an inflated price, and if someone buys, they order the item from Amazon and get it sent to the customer. Often such eBay listings are copied word for word from the Amazon Marketplace seller's listing.

---

That's a new twist on the good old American work ethic.

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[RascalSplat345]

How much more money they could make using that energy to create their own designs.  

[Bellissima]

It's not illegal, I've done this kind of work with Printful or other plateforms. I created tshirts on Printful and all my creations was redirected  on Ebay and I've created the same tshirts on "Merch by Amazon", with the same descriptions. 

[Barbara]

But those were your own designs, right? My impression here is that we're talking about people who take designs from others. There's nothing the least unusual for any of us here to be on several platforms, selling the same designs on all of them.

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[Bellissima]

yes that's right. the difficulty today is to know who owns the copyright, by placing oneself on the buyers' side. Even using google Lens to do research. and what about the designs that are sold in large numbers on platforms like Creative Fabrica, we all end up having more or less the same image without it being image theft.

[Barbara]

Why would everyone have "more or less the same image" if everyone is designing their own images from scratch? Sure, those who do, say flowers, can have very similar images because a daisy is a daisy is a daisy, but... I guess I'm not understanding platforms that aren't POD's as I understand them.

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[Bellissima]

No, I specified, people who use for example "creative fabrica", where we buy illustrations

[Barbara]

Oh, OK. I know nothing about Creative Fabrica. So they own the illustrations and you have permission to use them, perhaps combining and arranging? You can't use your own artwork?

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[Bellissima]

Creative Fabrica is a platform that allows illustrators to sell the images they have created (in JPG, PNG, PDF or AI. So some designs are resold hundreds of times to sellers like us who work on Zazzle, Redbubble, anything that is in POD. The majority of the time (80%) I use my own  illustration creations, sometimes I use Creative Fabrica with whom I have a subscription. But I realize that their images that I use are found on other creations made by other creators. I don't know if I'm clear🤔

[Barbara]

It's quite clear to me now. All along, I thought "Fabrica" was referring to actual fabric, to cloth, but apparently not. Sounds like a landmine.

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[chuamishael]

yeah, some people are so good at selling items on ebay. they bought $1000 paintings on another site, then sold it for $3000 on ebay.   
I actually wish they do this on zazzle, because many people still believe they are getting the best deal on ebay.

[SnowOwlMoon]

I don't think this is legal, unless 1) you specifically allow resale of your designs (i.e. sell them with a commercial license); 2) get royalties on the sales from the other person.  They might get around it by changing your design to an extent that it is significantly different.

[ColsCreations]

No expert here, but I think it's perfectly legal to buy physical products and re-sell them for whatever price one wants. The designer is getting their royalty on the sale, after that you can't govern what the buyer does with it. If they want to sell it to someone else, that's up to them. They're not selling your art or rights to it, just the physical product. Think of eBay or FB Marketplace or your local flea market or swapshop, second-hand stores and even private garage sales ...

[Bailamor]

Thank you, that helps a lot. 

I sent an email to the contact mail of the sites. But I don't know if they care or even read it.. 

[TAngelone]

May I make a suggestion? If your designs are your own and NOT Ai generated then you might want to include a copyright notice in each of your Zazzle descriptions (i.e. Copyright symbol 2025 Your Brand or Store Name). Also make it clear in your Zazzle store description and on your Zazzle profile that your designs are your own intellectual property and request that your customers only buy through your Zazzle store directly and through your social media pages and website if you have one. State that you know your rights as a designer and that theft of intellectual property will NOT be tolerated and that violators will be pursued accordingly. Also state that buying your designs through Amazon or Ebay means your customers are buying counterfeit copies of your work at an inflated price. This will also deter intellectual property thieves from stealing your work in the first place. A simple succinct and to the point statement posted in your Zazzle store description, Zazzle profile, somewhere on your social media pages and on your website will suffice. If you pin to Pinterest then make a pin that states this very clearly and add that to a brand board. If you post to Instagram, Facebook (Meta), Bluesky or Twitter aka X then post a notice there too. I am doing all of the above to safeguard my brand and product lines as well. Hope this is helpful. Sorry to hear this. It is infuriating that theft of intellectual property is rampant. 

[TAngelone]

Post this notice somewhere on Teepublic as well. Sorry I was unaware that you were selling on Teepublic who I believe is owned by Redbubble if am not mistaken. 

[Barbara]

Perhaps a simpler copyright notice would serve. Taking up that much screen space is akin to those agreements we all see and never read. We cannot teach thieves to not steal, but we can curb our own paranoia.

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[TAngelone]

Barbara - That is a good point. However you misunderstood my post. What I meant is to include a copyright notice in all of the product descriptions on Zazzle i.e. copyright symbol and store or brand name at the very least for attribution purposes. Additionally one might opt to post a notice of some kind that states that the products are NOT being sold on Amazon or Ebay and that customers who are loyal to a brand should buy directly from or through the brand's website and social media pages. It is NOT enough to complain that this is happening and not do anything to address it or prevent it.

Yes it may be a bit time consuming but then again so is having to file DMCAs and sending emails to intellectual property thieves who will disregard said emails or never read them in the first place. At the very least having some form of attribution as artists and designers is better than just complaining and saying someone is stealing our art and designs. This is also good from a legal perspective because it shows that we as creatives have legal recourse because we are the creators of the works. I am not sure what you meant by "curb our own paranoia". What does paranoia have to do with this? 

I merely made a suggestion. I am sorry that my suggestion takes too much time and screen space. I do NOT live and work off of my phone. I am desktop designer and artist. That stated again we should NOT complain about what is happening and not be proactive in trying to change it. Thanks. 

[Bailamor]

I think that's a good idea and will do it soon. At least somehow indicate that i am the author and owner..

But as I said, that page even said Author: mercuryshirt, Owner: mercuryshirt.
So as a buyer you can't really recognize the theft.
I just noticed that on some pages the link to the support email doesn't even work.

[StinkPad]

they could be affiliates, but i believe theyw ould still link you through to your zazzle product. 

i think I've heard of mercury shirt before, which probably means these people did steal your designs.

most sites like this have dmca takedown links, but they're often time consuming, and sometimes  ignored. (though you could potentially have an ai model like chat gpt write them up for you).

I've found the easiest thing to do is file lumen reports through google legal, so the web links, google shopping links, and google images results are taken down. for every design you can do each of those in one clean swoop.

support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905 

[Barbara]

@ColsCreations 

True. Resellers are all over the place on Amazon, though in that case, many seem a bit less honest than we'd like because they're selling discontinued or out-of-date products. Hints of this show up in the one-star ratings.

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