Randomness

[Faust]

While I disagree almost wholeheartedly with you, I do so with recommendations to drastically alter the bill.

But it's funny you bring this up. A major clothing trade group, The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), - no relation to Dov Charney - refuses to support the bill until CFDA clears up exactly what they mean by "original design" because they're afraid of a massive influx of lawsuits against them.

That makes sense. I'd like to see their definition to. Well, I know what DvF and her likes would love, "If I did it, it's creative, but if H&M did it, it's not."

[mass]

I HATE overeating. There is just no reason for it.

sometimes there is just too little to save and too much to waste! as far as eating out goes... and i hate wasting food

[Test]

this, I feel, is the reason why copyrights in fashion are very hard to make work. I suppose exact knock-offs like the DVF one are quite a clear case (material, pattern, details all match), but when there are minor or fewer differences its impossible to rule whats a knock-off, whats inspired by and what is coincidentally similar.

This is probably the biggest issue. How exactly to you specify when a variation is an "original design?" Especially when those tiny variations can be the main selling point. And what designs are classic enough to be uncopyrightable? And then there's a copyright issue called derivative works that's totally ignored by the bill...

There's story for this - a Congressman in Committee had a dress and another he claimed was a knock off of it. Unfortunately, the designer testifying that day had to explain why they were totally different. And thus a different angle to the problem: in court cases it will be judges and normal jurors trying to rule on each case. Without attempting to be pretentious, you have to ask if they will be able to properly tell when a design is "original".

[ddohnggo]

i think she's listening to the new agoraphobic nosebleed record.

[maldoror]

this one goes out to rick:

http://hundredpushups.com/

third column, fourth week, and this program has really started kicking my ass.

[ddohnggo]

maldoror's going to get

[Fade to Black]

I've been doing something similar lately but have been holding back, ashamed to share it out of fear of being ridiculed for doing pushups instead of being a man and benching 415 lbs. Surprisingly pushups have helped in the muscle growth/bulking up process for me so far, then again I'm at the earlier stages of that, was always a scrawny lil snot nose. Have gained about 17 lbs in past 2 or so months, am edging towards 170. Don't know how far I want to, or can go given my limited expertise in these areas. Am just eating like a madman and doing my pushups...I always wanted to have a Marlon Brando physique, going back to my childhood days...

[Vanna]

I am not a god damn portrait artist.

[zamb]

That makes sense. I'd like to see their definition to. Well, I know what DvF and her likes would love, "If I did it, it's creative, but if H&M did it, it's not."

Here is some more interesting reading on the subject...............

Taken from Fashion-Incubator.com



Proposed law to destroy 90% of design businesses

Posted by Kathleen Fasanella on May 14, 2009 at 1:13 pm / Intellectual Property, News and Events / Trackback
I should have posted this two weeks ago; I’ve been in denial. It seems so surreal; between CPSIA, Proposition 65 and now the Design Piracy Probation Act, there seems to be nothing less than a full scale war against the apparel industry. Have you forgotten about the Design Piracy Probation Act? Well, it’s been resurrected and presented to Congress (HR 2196). It’s nothing short of a bold power grab to protect wealthy socialite designers at the expense of independent designers, putting over 90% of them out of business. Consider this scenario of what will happen if this bill is passed:
Your name is getting out there, picking up more doors everyday and your accounts love you. Now that your fabric samples have arrived, you’re inspired and happily sketching your new styles. This is sure to be your best collection ever! So then you reach for the phone to schedule a slot to have your patterns and samples made. But on the other end, the pattern maker or sewing contractor refuses to work with you. Your heart sinks through the floor, why? You’ve got an established relationship, you’re a great customer with regular work and steady pay but still, no one will take your contracts. In fact, they’re shutting down themselves.
Why no one will take your work:
Let’s say we help you produce this line, you sell it and make your pile crumbs. Then -thanks to the influence of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA, membership by invitation only) and Congress- somebody can come out of the woodwork and claim it is their design, they own it and now you owe them. If they registered the design and you didn’t know it, this could be perfectly legal. Of course you didn’t copy them but it won’t matter. The fact that society designers have been copying nameless unknown independent designers for years doesn’t even register. Even Diane Von Furstenberg, the leading champion of this bill recently got caught doing it. Because you don’t have any money, this party will sue everyone in your production and retail chain. That means pattern makers, contractors and the stores who bought your stuff. So in the interests of avoiding law suits, any service provider is going to require you prove you own it. It’s even worse for retail buyers who face potential criminal prosecution for dealing in pirated goods. Everybody who helps you or buys from you is going to require you to prove ownership of your concept before they’ll have anything to do with it. If wealthy society designers like Diane Von Furstenberg have their way, this could become an unfortunate reality. Paradoxically, CFDA is telling Congress they’re protecting you.
You think you (or we) won’t be sued in today’s era of lawsuit happy plaintiffs? Have you ever heard of a patent troll? A patent troll is someone who enforces patents they have no intention of manufacturing, against alleged infringers. It’s somebody who makes a living filing legal papers, they don’t actually make anything. In this climate, you think there won’t be fashion copyright design trolls? Right, and the fashion industry is one big family working happily together amid resounding choruses of Kumbaya. Good grief, there are churches tattletaling on other churches to state health departments over competing bake sales! If the morally superior are ratting each out over cup cakes, you think they won’t over caftans? Folks, this is going to get ugly. The CFDA, living in happy-land as they are, deny this will happen saying similar laws haven’t encouraged law suits in France or Japan yet neither of those two nations have culture as law suit happy as the United States.
It’s been two years since I last wrote of this and I couldn’t imagine it’d go anywhere considering how it so obviously favors the wealthy and famous at the expense of designers barely eking out a living but this thing has grown legs; if H.R. 2196 becomes law, it is certain to kill what’s left of the industry except for wealthy socialite fashion designers with in-house legal departments. In one fell swoop, this law will put over 90% of us out of business. Even me. Fashion-Incubator will become an artifact, who will need it? You all will have to speak out. Congress has been misled, they think they are helping you!
The cost of doing business has just gone up astronomically. You’ll have to hire a lawyer, pay for searches through a design database of all existing design registrations. You thought a trademark or logo search was bad? I have no doubt there’s over 10,000 clothing designs out there for every logo. This will cost a fortune. But, you’ll have to do it if you want to stay in business. And those of us left standing will have to have our own lawyers to check up on you and draw up contracts and buy more insurance, our prices will double if not triple. Somehow I don’t think consumers will be happy. Assuming we could afford to shop at Neiman’s and Nordstrom’s, few society designers cut anything larger than a size 12 and I for one am not thrilled at the prospect of mini-skirts, navel grazing tops, tepid/garish colors of whatever constitutes the fashion trends dictated by elite designers.
Even with proof of registration in hand, you will have to produce your registered design exactly as sketched. No design changes or iterations in process are allowed, otherwise you’ll have to start over and re-register a new design. Forget shortening that sleeve, changing the shape of that neckline or tapering the pant leg of that prototype. So what if it ends up looking lame and you have to start all over? That will be the new cost of doing business. Gee, how long will it take to get a line to market?
You know what the worst part is? A law professor specializing in Intellectual property told me that the standard for determining the innovation of a given design is not based on expert opinion. No no, the legal definition is based on the opinion of a non-expert, what the average Joe thinks looks similar. In other words, someone like your significant other who doesn’t even notice you’ve cut or colored your hair or are wearing a new outfit and yet they’re supposed to be the judge of a sleeve design detail? WHAT?! The average person just doesn’t notice that much* and no contractor will stake the viability of their business of what constitutes a copy if the litmus test is determined by John Q Public. So, every designer would need paper. Good luck finding a contractor otherwise.

[maldoror]

not gonna lie, I had to urban dictionary that shit

[lowrey]

hope your cluthingz are roomy enough for man boobs

[Fade to Black]

not gonna lie, I had to urban dictionary that shit

never seen that spelling of the word though, usually i come across "swole" or "swoll" but not that.

[Faust]

I think I just found my motto, "Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do".... Only to be rebuffed by the same man, "It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating."

Fucking catch 22.

[Spencer]

Got my first sunburn of '09. Ugh. Doesn't go well with my fits at all.

[Faust]

Wow, my comment actually showed up on the New York Times. Did not expect that.