SCANDAL!

I had no idea when I posted about Tru.Che the other day that she was part of a rather popular internet scandal. She claims that Urban Outfitters copied her idea for a jewelry design and now sell it in their stores. You can read her original post about it here.

And you can read Megan Auman's take on it here.

I just wanted to say a little something on the issue. I have posted about this in the past. And largely my stance is the same but I have had my own run in with plagiarism lately and felt the personal sting.

I still believe that copiers will never have the long term success that innovative, creative people will, but I also believe that you should do everything that is within your right to protect your intellectual property. I was lucky, the people that used my design were fairly small time and had made no money off the design by the time I requested that they remove it from their product offering. I think it is much more egregious to be copied by a major corporation that has the resources to promote, produce and sell the design in a way that the smaller company cannot.

In short, if UO did copy Tru.Che's idea, I think it's just wrong. Megan Auman may have a legal bone to pick about it, but just because something is legal does not make it right.