This just makes me sad. I know you've already read about it on practically every Stardoll blog there is, but for whomever hasn't I'll recap. A Stardoll member by the name of Migliukee (try saying that five times fast!) submitted some drawings to Stardoll which impressed them so much that they decided to create a clothing line in Starplaza based on her designs, Migliukee for Stardoll (the first time EVER that a Stardoll user designed their own line for Stardoll). Little did they know that these were not her designs, they were sketches she had stolen from a relatively popular blog, www.paperfashion.wordpress.com, though clearly not popular enough that anyone at the Stardoll offices had ever seen it. Unfortunately for Migliukee many Stardoll users had, and the controversy of the stolen artwork blew up all over the blogs. As of late last night the shop has been removed from Starplaza, and Migliukee (who has since all but deleted her account, or perhaps had everything taken from her by Stardoll) has posted the following on her presentation; you can also see the guestbook comment of an outraged Stardoll member:
LadyVenuz raises an excellent point, why hasn't Stardoll addressed this? Is merely removing the content enough? I think some sort of statement is in order, this is an incredibly embarrassing situation in which they failed to verify ownership of these designs, and not only betrayed the trust of their members with their negligence but also wronged the incredibly talented artist, Katie Rodgers (you can see the drawings that the clothing was based on HERE* on her blog).
What is also sad is that this will certainly discourage Stardoll from ever giving legitimate artists and graphic designers a chance to have their work showcased in Starplaza. If they were too lazy to make sure the designs were legit this time they will probably be too lazy to do so in the future.You can still see the clothing in Migliukee's Styling Studio (and the people that purchased them before the store was removed still have them):
*link provided by Stardoll's Most Wanted
**Picture of the Migliukee for Stardoll shop provided by WTF Stardoll?!
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the recap, ur a really good reporter. I came on stardoll today and went to go shop for some brown boots, and before i clicked on search i noticed the Migliukee shop was gone. so i went to my mail to find out how to spell her name so i could look her up and her suite was practically empty. Her presentation looked sad and then i saw the guest book quote. so i went to her scenery page and her styling studio then found ur blog somewhere, and it helped. I wonder though if Migliukee submitted the sketches or if stardoll stardoll just saw them...
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading and commenting! I'm pretty sure Migliukee submitted them as her own. I still find it so hard to believe that Stardoll would make such a huge mistake. They could have avoided this fiasco with a quick check of the copyright of the sketches, it isn't hard to do. Unless Katie didn't have her drawings copyrighted, and somehow Migliukee obtained a copyright on them, though that is unlikely as she would have needed the original drawings to do that. What a mess!
ReplyDeleteThis is by far the best Migliukee article I have read so far - I congratulate you as the whole situation has been a bit messed up and after reading this it now makes perfect sense to me!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think it's dispicable that Stardoll didn't see if she truly had ownership, but I guess after seeing those gorgeous designs they were just so taken aback they didn't think.
It's a shame really, because, like you said, I doubt they will do any more user-designed shops D:
Thank you for the compliment Hayley, and thanks for following the blog! I'm glad I was able to explain it well enough for people to understand, it's such a mess... I see so many people bullying Migliukee about it on her page, and hardly anyone seems to be upset at Stardoll. I expect way more from a major corporation than I do from a 12 year old girl. Of course what she did was wrong, and she's old enough to know that, but it was Stardoll's responsibility to verify that these sketches were truly drawn by her and it's shameful that they neglected to do so.
ReplyDeletestardoll did a pretty gud job making the clothes come to stardoll.... too bad it was worth NOTHING but a CRIME!!!
ReplyDelete