Copyright law’s grip on film, music and software barely touches the fashion industry … and fashion benefits in both innovation and sales, says Johanna Blakley. At TEDxUSC 2010, she talks about what all creative industries can learn from fashion’s free culture. (Recorded at TEDxUSC 2010, April 2010 in Los Angeles, CA. Duration: 15:36)
Watch Johanna Blakley’s talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of TEDTalks.
Pingback: Midnight Rant 08: Freebies, Quality and the DMCA | TGIB podcast
Pingback: Midnight Rant 08: Freebies, Quality and the DMCA | thousand guiles I banned
Pingback: marching along…
Pingback: fashion copyright; ted talks johanna blakley | red bird suite
Pingback: America Fuc- oh, yeah? Really? I Had No Idea: Fact, Fallacy and Fun Misconceptions about the US. « Res Ipsa Etc.
Pingback: OMG! Someone Make This! - Page 2 - SLUniverse Forums
Emily McManus commented on Jun 5 2011
Adnan, watch the talk. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised: Blakley believes that the lack of patent protection has benefited the fashion industry, both creatively and financially. The talk is full of data that shows this. Curious what you’ll think after you watch.
Adnan Boz commented on Jun 5 2011
Very good point of view if you only shop Prada! I believe patents on fashion industry would just stop improvement and make some corporations richer. We will end up with patent trolls and will left with the choice either dress outdated or pay the licensing fee. Can you imagine somebody holding the patent to some sort of T-shirt and it is only available for $500?
Sharing ideas and extending one idea with another fuels innovation: If somebody locks down an idea, maybe not just because they thought it first but they were able to run first to the patent office to pay the fee, we will be left with the outdated alternatives.
I think this TED talk should be removed, because it does not share any idea to make this world a better place. In opposite, it advocates the interest of high end fashion industry.
I just feel lucky that there was no patent office when the tire was invented, today most of us would drive on affordable square tires!
Pingback: Lessons from fashion’s free culture: Johanna Blakley on TED.com | eaves.ca
Pingback: Lady Gaga, copyfighter? | Academicalism
James Salsman commented on Nov 8 2010
Jeffrey, I think you may be mistaken. Excerpts from http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=131070709 follow:
Unlike many other industries – like music, entertainment, pharmaceuticals -copying in fashion is perfectly legal.
BLUMBERG: We could copy The Gap, Banana Republic. We could even forget the T-shirts idea and decide to sell a stitch-for-stitch knockoff Chelsea Clinton’s wedding dress. Of course, we would be late to that idea.
Mr. ALAIN COBLENCE (Attorney, Council of Fashion Designers of America): Just the next day after the wedding, on television, you have somebody whos peddling knockoffs of the exact same dress for a couple of hundred dollars.
BLUMBERG: This is Alain Coblence, who is hoping to put an end to rampant copying in the fashion industry. Coblence is an attorney for the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
JOFFE-WALT: A lot of big names in fashions are members: Calvin Klein, Oscar De La Renta, Diane Von Furstenberg. And the CFDA has proposed legislation that would, for the first time in history, allow designers to take legal action against copycats.
BLUMBERG: This bill has actually been submitted to Congress by Charles Schumer, senator from New York, and seems to have a good chance of passing.
JOFFE-WALT: Which makes Kal Raustiala, the law professor, nervous. He and his colleague, Christopher Sprigman, wrote a paper called the piracy paradox.
BLUMBERG: That paradox, some industries, the argument goes, you need to legally protect new idea to foster innovation and creativity.
Professor CHRISTOPHER SPRIGMAN (University of Chicago Law School): But in the fashion context, what was interesting to us is that copying didn’t actually hurt creativity very much. In fact, it may help it.
JOFFE-WALT: Copying, the argument goes, spreads ideas around and they evolve.
Jeffrey Kesselman commented on Oct 28 2010
The entire opening thesis of this talk is misinformation and incorrect.
“The fashion industry has no copyright protection…”
A brief web search says otherwise…
[quote]
The cloth diaper pattern fits the baby perfectly. The outfit you sewed for your daughter’s doll is her favorite. Everyone asks where you bought your dress. If your designs are etched into a pattern on paper, congratulations; your work now rightfully belongs to you
Read more: How to Copyright a Pattern |eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5906934_copyright-pattern.html#ixzz13gwLrVBY
[/quote]
and
[quote]
A pattern, such as a template used to manufacture a dress, can be copyrighted in the United States.
Read more: How to Find Out If a Pattern Is in Public Domain? |eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_7303582_out-pattern-public-domain_.html#ixzz13gwaM5dq
[/quote]
Here are actual law suits over both patterns and the prints on them:
http://www.apparelsearch.com/News/Articles/Fashion/2009/March/3.21.09_Fashion_Copyright_Infringement_Suit_Forever_21.htm
http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/intellectual-property-copyright/850527-1.html
This talk should be removed as containing major misinformation.
Really, I expect better of TED.
Pingback: Lessons from fashion’s free culture « Brosamen
Pingback: “Lessons from fashion’s free culture” « The Tiny Ouroboros