Here's some thoughts to chew on this weekend. It's been an INTERESTING week, that's for sure!

Apparently, I've ruffled some feathers.

I don't know if it's my involvement in posting this Tweet on Twitter:

"PLS RT: Support indie mineral makeup companies that create unique, artisanal formulations. say NO to straight repackaged mineral makeup!"

... or the fact that I've recently stood up for my Intellectual property rights and called out another mineral makeup company owner for plagiarizing- word for word- the text of describing a specific Aromaleigh product, as well as that product's specific name. After 11 years of defending my website text, photos and copyrighted material (yes, © Aromaleigh Inc. does actually mean something), I don't take kindly to other companies using my website as a "creative commons" and pilfering my hard work. Who would?

Apparently, the seller who plagiarized me word for word in about 50 of her listings is just a little angry with me. But not so angry that she doesn't keep lifting my ideas. I could go into a dissertation detailing the mimicking behavior of the last four weeks and how it's actually getting progressively worse, but I digress....

The worst part of all of this actually has absolutely nothing to do with me. This seller is now actually harassing and threatening to sue one of my customers for calling her out privately on what she's doing.  No seller should be threatening to sue customers over something that they wrote in an email, and especially not over something that the seller actually did wrong... seller adamantly claims that she removed all of the listings on her own "good will" and she told me that she was "the bigger person" and would thus remove them... however, that's not the truth. I faxed about 30 pages of documents, screenshots, printouts and information to Etsy's legal department, and here is the response I received:

Dear Ms. Bell

Thank you for your notification received on or around September 18, 2009 regarding the possible infringement of Aromaleigh's rights by a user of our service. Etsy is a venue and in accordance with Etsy’s Policy, we have removed the active material available for purchase and contacted the user(s) of our service. We appreciate that you contacted us. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Sarah Feingold, Esq.
Counsel, Etsy, Inc.

Rather than taking the warning to heart and discontinuing the behavior over a month ago, this seller has actually started doing it even more. And now, threatening to sue a customer and stating that "I must be stopped" and that she has a group of sellers supporting her.

I must be stopped from doing what, exactly? Standing up for my intellectual property rights? And other sellers are supporting her on what? Making plagiarism, copying and stealing other company's ideas ethical and perfectly acceptable?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(switch gears to a totally different topic..)

OR, is this "I must be stopped" in relation to the fact that I, a group of bloggers and a group of mineral makeup companies that have for many years been creating unique, proprietary products are finally becoming vocal about the hundreds of companies selling straight-up repackaged minerals and cosmetic pigments?

The industry has changed- and I've been along for the ride. About 8-10 years ago, there were a small handful of small mineral makeup companies creating unique, micro-formulated products. Now there are many more doing just that.. but there is a much greater percentage of mineral makeup companies that are selling straight repackaged pigment, reselling private label mineral makeup (so you could order from 5 companies and unknowingly get the same exact product because all of them bought it in bulk from a private labeler).

I did state in my recent post "The Pure Hue Conundrum" that this type of thing runs rampant on Ebay and Etsy, as well as on the internet. However, I named no names... nor did I make any insinuations as to who may or may not be doing this. My post was simply stating my reasons for discontinuing the (always stated as being straight pigments) Pure Hues (why sell them when you already have 400 unique colors and you can quickly and easily replace them with gorgeous Limited Edition colors made permanent?) and describing how vast the change in the industry has been. 

Yes, I have dedicated myself to something of a cause... or perhaps a mutiny against what's going on in the industry. I think that the companies who are creating unique, original products should be praised and recognized for doing so. And the companies repackaging straight pigment or private label product? I think that they should mention that on their websites.

The worst thing is when companies are repackaging and claiming that it is their own creations, toiled over for hours upon hours, and leading the consumer to believe that they are purchasing something totally original, special and unique. How many of you have had this happen to you, only to find that you now have 5 eyeshadows that are exactly the same color? Or foundation samples that are undoubtedly the same exact formulation and exact color? It's become a huge issue in this industry.

It's SO easy to start a mineral makeup company that hundreds of new companies are popping up every quarter. Anyone can buy straight pigments or bulk private label product, put it in a jar and pop an ink jet printed sticker on it (its always a bummer when these stickers get wet, isn't it?). Anyone can get a paypal account and paypal shopping cart to provide ecommerce to a template website. On the other hand, anyone can do all of this while having a fantastic, professional website and gorgeous photos and marketing, too...

Which is why I've started a movement against this type of activity in the industry. And it's bigger than just this post. Years ago, small mineral makeup companies revolutionized the industry, making affordable mineral makeup in an amazing range of colors available to consumers. That beautiful thing has been terribly diluted by all of the companies that solely repackage. It's my goal, along with others- to spotlight companies that are true artisans, creatively formulating unique products- and provide education and information for consumers to make them aware of the situation, and know what to look for, what questions to ask, and what the experience of other consumers has been.

In closing, I'm not sure what's ruffling the feathers. Frankly, I don't care. I didn't do anything wrong, and I will protect my company's intellectual property, period. You shouldn't have to be afraid of being threatened with a lawsuit for something you write in a private email, and I shouldn't have to be paranoid about statements such as "She must be stopped".

Because I'm certainly not going to stop protecting my creative rights OR standing up for something I believe in.

I repeat... "Support indie mineral makeup companies that create unique, artisanal formulations. say NO to straight repackaged mineral makeup!"

Join the mineral makeup mutiny!

xo

Miss K

it's a topsy turvy world, isn't it?

Count me in for this fight, Miss K - no more dumbing down of product, or dumbed down product passed off as the real mccoy.

Keep ruffling - I just love feathers!

-b.

I find it humorous that guilty parties are so often indignant.

I agree w/Bridget, keep on doing what you're doing, and don't let the naysayers try and drag you down. At the end of the day, YOU can hold your head up high and take pride in your work.

Well, this seller is full of bullshit because there is no way someone can be sued for saying that in a private email.

Secondly, I don't think this seller would want to start anything legally if she is plagerizing your work.

Have you contacted Etsy again to tell them that this seller is plagerizing your work again? They seemed very responsive in the first email.

Don't let idiots ruffle your feathers. Everyone here on this forum would stand up for you if this became some sort of battle, which I don't think will happen since you are in the right (plagerism is VERY serious.)

I'm curious to know who this faker is, to stay far faaaaar away.

I think I know who it is...I visited her etsy store, and now none of the shadows have color descriptions, from what I can tell. Just a picture of the shadow and then the same generic bit about the colors being beautiful and applying well, etc.

I loved the pure hues I bought at Aromaleigh long ago and I'm glad that they were available here so I didn't have to search for another company to get them. Aromaleigh is one of my favorite online shops.

I seriously doubt that the mad seller has a group of sellers united against Aromaleigh. Sounds like the mad seller is trying to puff up with imaginary numbers and is likely in reality a lone embarassed person unwilling to admit to their actions.

I can't think of any legal cause of action the mad seller can come up with that would work with a private email.

The thing I don't get is how a seller like that can have such an attitude! They're obviously lazy (just copying and pasting somebody else's work - I mean, come ON) and bullheaded. Anybody who tried to pull a scam like that would have to realize they'd be caught sooner or later, right? It makes me wonder if they just planned to drag it out as long as they could from the beginning to maximize their profits or Net fame?

I've had articles I've written blatantly plagiarized on the Internet before and it seems ridiculous. I can never understand the people who have tried to take credit for my work. If they liked what I had to say (or in your case, what you have created) why not just build upon that and create something themselves? But no. Like I said above, they're lazy, and they want all the perks without putting in any of the ingenuity. In my cases however, they've gone away quietly when I've brought attention to the truth.

I sympathize, Miss K. I can tell what a hard working person you are, and to have that threatened by somebody without integrity is just wrong.

LOL
I've actually dealt with people so lazy that are starting businesses that they email me and want to know where they can get pigments, jars, labels, etc, etc...

I write back and say, sorry- you're going to have to actually do some work on your own- I didn't ride in on anyone's coat tails- back then, there were no coat tails for any of us to hitch a ride onto! 10 years ago, companies making MMU were doing it entirely based on lots of research, hard work, creativity and breaking new ground, not to mention entirely new territory. It wasn't until about 5 years into it that 5 gram jars were even available! We have to package our products in the only jars that were available to us- and they were HUGE, with white caps! I hated those jars.

Then the person writes back and usually says something like that I'm a b*tch, or that I should help out a fellow woman in business. Help you? By doing your work for you? By giving you lists of my suppliers and manufacturers? By telling you how to order pigments from the manufacturers?

It's all very laughable.

Seriously, the best way to be taken seriously and develop consumer respect for your product line and company is to do something creative and original. Many of my former customers have gone on to create their own cosmetic lines. Not a SINGLE one of them has ripped me off, stolen from me, repeatedly mimicked me, or done any sort of plagiarism or theft of my intellectual property.

In contrast, every single one of them has gone on to create their own unique company, their own colors, their own names, their own ideas, their own collections.

Last year we did have an issue with a MMU company calling their line of eyeshadows "Drama Queens". Since we've had the Drama Queens out for so long, we thought this was a pretty blatant rip-off, as the name was the same and the colors conceptually, also. Amy contacted that company about it and the owner literally flipped Amy the bird! She actually went on to allude to the email on her forum, made fun of us, and changed the name of the product line to "She's SUCH a Drama Queen". Another example of someone totally guilty just being indignant and rude in return. Amy wrote again, and she actually wrote Amy back and informed her "It's just limited edition, it will be gone soon, why do you care?" sort of email. She has not ripped me off again, but to say that I have little respect for her behavior and how she handled it would be an understatement. Her customers think she is just an absolutely sweetheart with an amazing, generous heart of gold- but when we asked her to cease and desist using our product collection name? Well, we saw the true colors there.

I've yet to rip anyone off on purpose... LOL It has happened to me SO often that I do pretty extensive searches on product names and such before I release a collection! I am very aware of the intellectual property rights of others and if I DID accidentally call something a name or description that I received a letter about as violating someone else's artistic rights, you can bet I would a) look into it (internetarchive.org is VERY helpful for this!), extensively google it- and if I was wrong, I would sincerely apologize, admit it had slipped by me, and IMMEDIATELY change the name or offending material.

Several years ago, I had some clear lipgloss lip pens in stock- I was testing them to see if they would sell, I didn't know what to call them , so I called them "lip glass". I was not aware Mac was making lipglass and to be honest, it was not a product name that I researched thoroughly, obviously.

Did I get a letter from MAC? yes, I did. And here's what I did. I realized I had not done my homework and I called their legal counsel. I spoke with them directly and apologized and explained to them that it was a test product and I had only sold about 20 tubes. I told them that I had 50 some left and that I would immediately change the labels and the info on the website. I followed up that call with a written letter, printouts of the website and sample of the new product labeled.

They actually sent me a thank you note.

Sometimes we make mistakes. I made a mistake, albeit a minor and non-intentional one.

I won't make that mistake again- so I always am extra careful now.

Some of us care, some don't. Some just flip off company owners who write to them. Or accuse them of harassing them for requesting them not to steal.... it's so ridiculous.

And most of the times that my stuff is being stolen, it's a customer who lets me know! That's what happened with this most recent thing.

So I am SO grateful to all of you for having such watchful eyes and being so caring as to let me know you think something might be fishy and I may want to check it out. It's because of all of you that we've found new sites that have copied and pasted entire pages from our help and FAQ pages, taken our swatches (That's why they all have an A on them now!) and used product descriptions.

I am deeply grateful...

xo
K

I'm grateful for all of the hard work you put into Aromaleigh, because it really does make me feel that I can recommend AL and buy from AL with confidence.

This crazy seller will eventually get what she deserves, as will the other fakers and dishonest sellers out there.

I know I will continue to try to inform people with my blog.