Superbalist accused of ‘large-scale design theft’ [Update]

Update: In an emailed response to Memeburn, Superbalist said it had a “zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism or copyright infringement” of items.

“On immediate inspection, it appears that we may have some issues in this regard. The items in question have been pulled from the site and we will deal with any substantiated claims arising therefrom swiftly and fairly,” it concluded.

Original article: E-commerce website Superbalist has been accused of stealing scores of designs from artists and creative types.

The platform’s actions came to light after Twitter user Karmen Wessels (@spotfishy) accused Superbalist of copying a mug design from British artist Gemma Correll.

The e-commerce platform responded to the tweet, saying the design was “illustrated in-house and inspired by a few sources”.

@spotfishy Hi Karmen, thanks for bringing this to our attention. The mug was illustrated in-house and was inspired by a few sources.

— Superbalist.com (@superbalist) December 21, 2016

Superbalist eventually pulled the mug, claiming it would be taking steps to ensure it didn’t happen again.

However, Wessels spotted more questionable designs on the website, tweeting as she found each one.

Hey @Superbalist, I found another “inspired-by” piece that you stole from DeviantArt illustrator https://t.co/hW5le3dBL1 pic.twitter.com/kt6vF65xy0

— Karmen W (@spotfishy) December 21, 2016

The similarities are just striking is all @superbalist @OldEnglishCo pic.twitter.com/8RRPgTl1DM

— Karmen W (@spotfishy) December 23, 2016

We are here to steal @kalbarteski‘s art, & sell it as our own design! Right, @superbalist? pic.twitter.com/i4lcqSjMe0

— Karmen W (@spotfishy) December 23, 2016

Few more then I’m done (for now). Banner design stolen from @AniekjeB. @superbalist is shameless. pic.twitter.com/83lGVAJ9pe

— Karmen W (@spotfishy) December 23, 2016

Wessels’s tweets were also spotted by actor and comedian Rob van Vuuren, calling Superbalist’s actions “large-scale design theft”.

Wow. Shocking. Follow this thread for the large scale design theft @superbalist has been perpetrating… https://t.co/cXMaoWYu7h

— Rob Van Vuuren (@RobVanVuuren) December 23, 2016

The website has since issued a statement on Twitter, saying it was investigating “any closely referenced designs in our Apartment section”.

It added that it was contacting affected artists to resolve the matter.

In light of the recent discussion surrounding copyright issues, we’d like to address your concerns. pic.twitter.com/zTX6kqhPDy

— Superbalist.com (@superbalist) December 23, 2016

In an email Q&A with Memeburn, Wessels said she was doing last-minute Christmas shopping when she stumbled upon Correll’s mug design, having owned the same t-shirt.

“Then I got curious and wanted to see how many other designs they’d lifted, because I know big companies like Zara have been guilty of stealing quite a lot of work from smaller artists before. I reverse image searched a few, used keywords on others, and with some I literally just typed the phrase in and it came up as the first option in Google Images,” Wessels wrote.

Wessels also criticised Superbalist’s “pretty weak” response to the matter.

“Their designs weren’t ‘inspired by’ or ‘closely referenced’, they were blatantly stolen. In some cases they didn’t even bother to change the colours,” the Twitter user explained, saying that there were still questionable designs on their platform.

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“They say they’re removing the items proactively, but there are a bunch of items still up that I’m looking into, that I’m 100% sure they didn’t design themselves. They’re only reacting. I want to know how they let it get so bad.”

Wessels added that Superbalist was contacting artists not spotted by her, suggesting that the e-commerce website “knew they stole from them right from the start”.

The Twitter user said that another person had drawn attention to the issue last year. The website responded to the tweet at the time, claiming that the design was used as a reference.

@miss_moss This was an oversight on our behalf. The design was used as a reference & the product has since been pulled from the site.

— Superbalist.com (@superbalist) July 14, 2015

Featured image: Karmen Wessels via Twitter