Boycott BAYO?
It's true, Bayo, the boutique, has been using the designs of their store displays and their shirts from foreign artists without the permission of these artists.
This is especially true in their "Kids of Bayo" line where even the tag on the shirts has a logo in the shape of a poodle. This poodle is actually a traced outline of an illustration by Emma Mori, a Japanese illustrator, whose other illustrations were also used on other Bayo shirts. Other Japanese artists that have been confirmed as victims of Bayo's apparent plagiarism are Tadahiro Uesugi and Yuka Maeda.
It would seem that Bayo's favorite source getting designs to use is a book entitled mondofragile which features the works of these artists.
The doesn't stop with the Japanese artists though. There have also been reported sightings of designs copied from American stores like Hot Topic.
If you're still shaking your head in disbelief on how a company like Bayo could do such a thing, you might want to check Emma Mori's webpage bulletin board (BBS). This is very real indeed.
Emma Mori has been at the very center of this just because of the mere fact that she can speak a little English, which she is still having a lot of difficulty with, and therefore have been able to talk to Filipinos who emphatize with her. The other artists of course seem totally in the dark because of their inability to speak Filipino or English and of course their being miles away.
Another thing that is almost acting as a hindrance to these Japanese artists is that the Japanese in general are a very polite people. Emma Mori, in her attempt to seek help with the Japanese Patent Office, has actually been told to cease and desist any protests against Bayo since it might compromise her legal options. This is because they do not want to look like they are damaging the reputation of Bayo. This inspite of the fact that there is concrete evidence that Bayo is using her artworks without giving Ms. Mori any notice or compensation. That's the Japanese for you, always wanting to save face..... theirs and Bayo's!
Bayo has actually even used unauthorized illustrations on their webpage. Fuse Inc. (Bayo's web design firm) has voluntarily pulled out some of the illustrations from these artworks from Bayo's website. However, they disown any responsibility for the issue. A person from Fuse Inc. has stated that the artwork and photos for the site were provided to them by Bayo and that the issue is between Bayo and the Japanese artists.
This is also very unfortunate and very embarrasing to us as Filipinos since Bayo is always playing up its image of being a Filipino company. They even have a new clothing line called "Young Talented Filipina". With what they are doing, it would seem that they are somehow telling the world that the Filipino's talent is at stealing other people's work! We have to put a stop to this.
If they truly wanted to feature the talent of Filipinos, why don't they pay Filipino artists to do original artworks for their clothing lines and displays?
Make them that you know that they use other people's intellectual properties without permission. Make them know that you will not stand for that.
They should compensate these artists.
Until then...... boycott Bayo?
posted by ben tumbling @ 11:21 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
i actually have seen this 'poodle logo' on their products but i didn't see it from Bayo first.
when kasheica reinvented itself (the products and the store design)around end of 2004 or early 2005, this 'poodle logo' was on their shirts as well.
these two brands must have gotten the merchandise from the same supplier(from china or somewhere) who probably copied Mori's work, whether knowingly or unkowingly.
i guess retailers should be careful in selecting their merchandise and know where the prints on the shirts come from to avoid this unfortunate incident.
ben tumbling, i think this post is from a forwarded email, am i correct? because i've seen it before. kindly credit lang so we don't get confused and we know where the information is coming from. especially if it's something like this where a company is being accused of something.
This is not a forwarded email. I did this myself.
To clarify: I am not accusing Bayo of stealing. That is a matter that needs to be proven. As to the matter of if they are selling products with stolen intellectual property... that is a matter of fact.
There is no question that Bayo is responsible for whatever it puts out to market. That's implied
corporate responsibility. That's why they are answerable to what they do as a corporation. As a
corporation, are they guilty of selling products with stolen intellectual property? The answer is: YES.
As a corporation, are they guilty of stealing intellectual property?The anser is: MAYBE.
If it is indeed their corporate policy to plagiarize then they are guilty of stealing intellectual property.
If however the plagiarism was done independently by a staffer or a consultant or a supplier or a contracted person... whoever, then they are not guilty of stealing intellectual property.
The person or persons who in fact did the plagiarism are the ones that need to be answerable for that. That still does not change the fact that Bayo, even without
knowledge of the plagiarism, is still guilty of distributing stolen intellectual property.
This is the reason why we should also be careful of what we do or say to Bayo with regard to this situation.
If you would say for example that: Bayo IS SELLING STOLEN intellectual property! You would be right.
You can boycott them for this, demand that they compensate the agrieve artists for this, do anything within legal and moral boundaries for this, etc.
If you however say for example that: Bayo STEALS intellectual property! You may be wrong. You may even be liable for libel.
If you do any actions against them with this premise, you have just aggravated the possible libel charge on you.
Worse still, if you do something foolish like declaring that your actions are done on behalf of the aggrieved artists - which is doubly foolish if you are not in any way their official representative - you've just implicated the artists and screwed their legal chances of a good and easy settlement.
To further clarify: I'm not simply reacting to a piece of forwarded email I received.
I'm part of an art group that is trying to make people aware of this because it was one of our members who exposed this first.
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