another case of stealing

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I got a call from my cousin, Nikki, asking for some help, about a week ago. Apparently, a Multiply user was selling my cousins merchandise… Not the originals, but knock-offs. Nikki, along with a few partners own a local fashion boutique here in Manila. It started out as a sell from home type of thing, until demand for their goods rocketed. You’ve probably heard of Sapato Manila, at one time or another or perhaps passed by their store in Powerplant Mall in Rockwell. But, as most good things go, you usually get a few people that will try to ruin it for you, or take advantage in any way they can. Luckily, we were tech saavy enough to get some proof of this blatant pilfering of intellectual property.

I didn’t write anything at the time, as I didn’t want to preempt any legal steps my cousin and her partners were going to take, and we also wanted to catch the offender off guard. But I spoke to Nikki tonight, and found out they already sent their formal letter and are just deciding what course of action to take. Of course, being the curious web crawler (not the Spider-Man variety) that I am, I decided to take a peek at the offending site. Lo and behold, the albums of the merchandise were gone.

But here’s more proof, anyway (thanks to Mozilla’s Screengrab!).

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Just a little note though (as a disclaimer): not all of the items on sale in these two albums were from Sapato Manila. The others may be licensed… but, I wouldn’t bet on it.

I’ll post updates, when I hear again from my cousin. But for the rest of us, on the web or even in the regular offline retail, this should serve as a warning. There are people out there trying to make a buck out of our creativity and hard work. There are so many stories of plagiarism out there at the moment. Let’s just hope we can remain vigilant and catch the offending parties.