Well, if someone gets intimidated by her, then just let them know what their rights are. She can't be allowed to monopolize something that isn't even hers to begin with.

No worries there. Those of us who know about all this are very voicy about it and let everyone know in no uncertain terms that it's completely and utter BS.

I can't believe the Con's put up with it. Should I be running a con, and it was brought to my attention that a so called "artist" were sending cease and desist orders for work that is not hers I would have her ejected on the spot. Also even if she did own the rights to said work and didn't talk with me being the con organizer or basically someone of authority running the con before she did this, then she would be ejected for that reason as well.

But does anyone take her C&D letters seriously? I mean, man... there sure are alot of things wrong and illegal with this. Also, i'm surprised that some conventions let you get away with selling merchendise of the sort, with the exception of Fan Art.

Zero0079 regarding clothes fashion is another art form. I think hats would fall under this category. For someone who isn't mass producing these things it should fall into the art category, but for this person well...

Well the hat thing IS fan art, unless your copying physically licensed merchandise. ADV has several hats they've decided to make and license of characters. Why? Because they've taken the idea from the artists. This isn't the first case of that either. There's a plushie of Ed from Cowboy Bebop that has a little tiny Ein attached to it. i'm sure you've all seen this. That plushie was actually made by an artist who's online handle is Hatsukoi. Hatsukoi is an amazing artist and she runs ufocatcher.net. The plush was commissioned from her from a second party and the company that produced the "official" plush which you see everywhere stole the design from her. It looks exactly like her's. However, you won't find that picture online anymore since she's gotten her work published thru ToyVault. she's redone he website completely and she no longer has up any of her old commissions. Anyway, it's all a case of theft of intellectual companies. Again, though, she nor anyone else can go after said companies because they physically hold the rights to those characters and can do as they please and we as artists using the images without permission (which is a huge ordeal considering that in Japan "fanart" is seen as a good thing, hence the popularity and production of doujinshi and in america the companies are so concerned about the amount of millions in their wallets that they'll sue the pants off of anyone just for uttering a character's name ><). As far as taking things seriously, several have taken it seriously but now that's it's out in the open with everyone, few are taking it seriously now. Mostly newbies really don't know anything about it get freaked out.

Zero0079 regarding clothes fashion is another art form. I think hats would fall under this category. For someone who isn't mass producing these things it should fall into the art category, but for this person well...Exactly. Cosplay is a form of fanart and it can be sold at artist alley. It actually takes MORE time for textile artists to make their wares and it would be unfair to say that what we do isn't fanart. Trust me, we work a LOT harder. I know i envy my artist friends who draw. They spend a few hours on one picture and then have the ability to print it out as much as they like to sell. Though I'm exagerating, most of my friends spend at least 10 hours on one picture. And since this girl has like 30 people working for her making these hats, she is mass production and therefore not fanart. She probably doesn't even make anything herself anymore. I have me and my room mate working on hats, and the most my room mate does is sews on buttons when I don't have time to do it myself because I'm working on other things. It's also one thing to have a team of 30 people but they are all doing very different things. Like say they make hats, costumes, props, and then several other things, then it wouldn't be such a big deal because it's different groups of people doing different things, they just are all under the same name.

I'm not sure ADV could sue this Hatsukoi person. At least not on the design. If you can show prior art then a patent is generally thrown out. I'm not sure exactly how copyright works though.

About Bandai copying the artist's plushie for Ed from Bebop; there is not much that the artist can do since Bandai owns the licensing rights and itellectual properties for the US (also Japan and probably worldwide). Technically the artist could be sued for producing and selling a copywrited property. If it were Marvel, DC, any of the US movie industry, you can be sure they would have sent a cease and desist order, and threaten to sue. How different it is in Japan and other countries! Personally I see nothing wrong with fan made art. Perhaps the cons should run artist's alley along the lines of a juried art and craft show. Artists must submit photos or samples of their work and it must all be made by them; no mass production. That way people like GenkiGang would be emliminated. Prints from original art would not be sugject to this; maybe if the artists do a numbered production run; like 1/100. Which by the way can be false; I've personally seen a gallery owner change numbers on a limited edition print..... Like I said, Genki did not want to be in our dealer's room, but I'm sure she would have come had she been allowed in artist's alley.

Which of Emily's friends is a hat maker, or did she say? I probably know them. Hell, they might just be in my guild on Gaia for hat makers. It's probably Leloi if I go by anything I know from Gaia from both Emily and Robert. Robert used to hang out with my circle of Gaia friends who are appart of the -intelligent- community and one of the mods on Gaia who was apart of that group is also a hat maker. I'm pretty sure she and Emily know each other. Robert's been too busy though to come on Gaia anymore lately so he and I just bitch at each other on DA now. XD Thank god for AWA though cuz I miss them both so much and I want to see them again, even though I don't know Emily that well. I'll ask Emily when I see her at Anime Mid Atlantic this June! She also had a problem with someone who copied her little icon clips she made first and sold at Nekocon 2004. The other artist tried to say Emily copied them; but she clearly did them first.

That's a smart move, steal the art work of Emily Dejesus and then claim they were the one who had it stolen. "Dejesus" is like one of the three biggest names in Animerican anime/manga, and easily some of the most recognizable art. I hope they got what was coming to them. As for Hatsukoi, yeah, she couldn't go after Bandai or anyone else for stealing her design. They own a physical right, she does not. They have a right to sue, she does not. So instead of sending her a C&D order, they just took the design and copyrighted it themselves. If she did anything against it, the judge would look at it and see the Hatsukoi was using a licensed character for her own gain anyway and would have just thrown it out. It didn't matter if the design of the plushie, all character stuff aside, was her's, it would still be thrown out. Artists' rights/laws are pretty messed up in American. It all boils down to one little word: money. Who has more of it, who wants more of it, etc. And yes, It is VERY different here compared to the rest of the world. Just look at the media over here when it comes to any "theft" of certain mediums. Not to mention that a lot of what they say in propoganda comercials is pure and simple BS. There's also the fact that I made less than 10k last year yet the RIAA wants me to bend over backwards and spend $20 from an album the I only want one song on just so that band can continue to make at least 8 figures a year. Their main focus is how it takes money away from the original artists and act as though it's a huge significant amount (when it's actually not). But again, who has more money? If they came after me or anyone else, none of us would be able to back ourselves up in court and we loose big time. Note the the theft of music was just used as an example as far as the whole money issue is concerned cuz it's easily the most recognizable to others. Whereas in Japan, fanart and the like is more than welcome. It's encourage, in fact. There's none of this BS about "Rumiko Takahashi is loosing money because you people are drawing all this inuyasha stuff and selling it in stores! DX". Hell, Naoki Takeuishi (Sailormoon's mangaka) probably has the biggest fanart collection that she bought herself. They take it as a compliment! And no, the amount the original artist may loose is insignificant. Now, in the case of bootlegging, that is offensive and they DO take action against it. And there have been one or two anime companies in Japan who have gone to places like Animesuki and asked them to take down certain series. It was done politely though, not threatening like the american companies do. I honestly think this is where a lot of the hostility between artists and American companies comes from. Politeness goes a long way and it leaves a much better lasting impression and it gets better results as well. But the people with money don't care.....because they are the people with money.

I actually know the girl that runs Genkigang Hats. She and I used to be friends, and I had a run-in with her a while back. Back when I first started doing props, I was selling things on her site, but she was getting so much of a finder's fee that I wasn't making much money and I asked her if we could renegotiate our agreement, she got angry at me, told me that I was charging too much for "good, but not great props" removed me from the site completely, and wouldn't even talk to me for over a year. We eventually cleared the air between us but we aren't friends anymore. In an email to me, she made it quite clear that we weren't "friends" and that she is too busy for "friends" and that I was nothing more than an aquaintance. But yeah, back when we WERE friends, she was complaining that people were stealing her idea and making other hats similar to her's and she didn't know what to do about it, and I suggested to her that she make a genkigang logo and have it sewn into each hat that she sells so that it will be officially her's and she said that was too expensive and dismissed it... so....yeah...I don't know...I won't say anything bad about her, but I can understand some people's perspective. Believe it or not, she was in the first Final Fantasy Ball that I ran in Atlanta Georgia 4 years ago.

That's silly to dismiss that idea. :? Several hat makers as well as plushie artists do that. I want to do that, but i'm just lazy. And it's not expensive at all unless you want to do embroidered tags. But even then it's not that much. Hell for what she was charging a year ago, she had more than enough money flowing it that that would have been a very small dent in her profits. So you were the prop maker? I noticed that BOTH the props and accessories have been wiped from her site. I don't remember much about the props but i don't recall them being "good but not great". I do remember the accessories quite well since it was mainly Harry Potter stuff and a couple of EGL things. But it was one of those things that any EGL stuff I would want I'd stick with StubbyChubby and the Harry Potter stuff I made myself and if someone asked for a place to go to buy, I'd direct them to Alivans. I'm really sorry to hear that your friendship went into the toilet. But considering all the experiences I've heard from others who've had dealings with her, I'm really not surprised. Sorry for the bad words spoken here, but it's hard not to say bad things when so many people have such bad experiences with one individual. Several of my hat designs were the first to ever show up that I've seen and since I put them out there are other people doing the same thing. But I'm not mad about. It's something anyone with an uncopyrightable idea has to deal with. I'm friends with a lot of hat makers and plushie artists and we are a really tightly knit group and friends who actually help each other out with things. We are all in business against each other but it doesn't change the fact that we are friends and have a mutual respect for one other as individuals and as artists. And I know that if GenkiGang's attitude continues the way that it's escalating to, she's going to loose more business just due to word of mouth about the the attitude. It's hard as a customer to want to buy something from someone who has a fowl attitude. You may not have exerienced yourself, but the stories are enough to sway you elsewhere.

Chibishinigami guess what? Animazement has GenkiHats listed as a DEALER this year in the dealer's room! Obviously others have complained...I'm convinced now that Otakon's new Artist Alley rules are partly because of her. I refuse to invite her to Nekocon as a dealer; she'll have to contact me (which she probably won't do because of last year). I'll take her money; then wait and see what Funimation and Media Blasters have to say about her being there! He, he, he...... Several of my favorite dealers/people will be there though; although Wizzywig with the JSnacks and Digital Discs will not. Well, maybe HKT will bring the JSnacks......

Chibishinigami guess what? Animazement has GenkiHats listed as a DEALER this year in the dealer's room! Obviously others have complained...I'm convinced now that Otakon's new Artist Alley rules are partly because of her. I refuse to invite her to Nekocon as a dealer; she'll have to contact me (which she probably won't do because of last year). I'll take her money; then wait and see what Funimation and Media Blasters have to say about her being there! He, he, he...... Several of my favorite dealers/people will be there though; although Wizzywig with the JSnacks and Digital Discs will not. Well, maybe HKT will bring the JSnacks......*cackles* YES! I get a chance at not only getting a cease and desist but I also get a chance to have buyers tell me how much better my hats are. XDD I'm already told that constantly as it is. Ah, life is good. Animazement is turning out to be a good convention. Since i'm not really up on what dealers sell what, I don't know any of those names, but as long as there are Jsnacks I'm fine. I want some more daifuku~ I love daifuku and I gave away almost all of mine at AWA shoving it down people's throats to let them enjoy it too.