How I got my artwork stolen from a billion dollar company, fought them and WON!
It’s a rare occasion that David defeats Goliath. But sometimes it actually happens. This is my story how I, an unknown small-town artist from Sweden recently battled against a Chinese billion dollar company over copyright infringement… and won. I hope it can work as an inspiration for you, to keep trying new things even when it feels like all the odds truly are against you.
As most of you know, I create my own environmental art under the name ”Andy okay”. Some of my recent collaborations includes WWF, PETA, SeaLegacy, United Nations, PangeaSeed, Plastic Bank and many more. I guess one of these collaboration got under the radar from a pretty big company. But not in a good way.
Last Tuesday I discovered that my art was sold on Shein.com , one of the larger fashion retailers in the world with over 40 million followers on social media. The only problem, Shein.com was doing this without asking me first.
Sadly, a situation many artists find themself facing during some point during their career. Since I made it my business of selling art to raise money for charity, it hurt even more. In this particular situation, Shein.com was not only stealing from me personally, every artwork they sold took potential money that otherwise was going to important nonprofits struggling to make this world a better place. Upset, my first action was of course to reach out to the company, making them aware of the situation and kindly asking them to take my artwork down. I know these companies can get their products from suppliers that straight up lies about legit licensing agreements. Maybe this was all just an misunderstanding? At least I rather give them the opportunity to explain their side first.
