Dear Seth,
I can give you a real experience with Etsy. Not some “what if” or “should do”.
I have had an Etsy store (Heritage Jewelry 1901) for approximately five years. I started out with gold and diamond antique style pieces. Never sold one piece there.
I have sold all of the pieces (over a dozen or so) at the art shows I do over the various season I exhibit.
I have a web site selling various martial arts style jewelry. Mostly below $100.00 unless it is custom. I was a black belt thirty or so years ago. Many of my gold rings have been presented at Karate Tournaments in the US.
I have made the rings for the Diamond National Karate Tournament for over thirty years.
In any event I own the Copyright for the ring that was in the movie A Perfect Weapon. If you do an image search you will see it. Someone else was making my exact piece and selling it on Etsy.
This jeweler copied my ring and text indicating he was the maker of this ring.
He is also in Israel out of the USA.
It wasn’t easy nor cheap, but I believe I have stopped the selling of that piece.
Here’s the real deal. Etsy is legally based in Ireland. Off shore and hard to contact. They have legal representation in Washing DC. Just some hired lawyers I believe. Off shore they are also protected by not being in the USA.
If you follow all the instructions they give about protecting your property on Etsy you will eventually find they will do nothing to prevent a copy from being sold there. Unless you file a Federal Law Suit against the infringer.
I don’t believe you can do this without a Copyright in hand. I don’t believe an attorney will handle a case without one (my opinion).
The filing fee alone without an attorney is approximately $400.00.
I hired an attorney. There was an immediate fee of $1,000.00 to do anything. I paid it. Now the attorney gets involved.
He starts to communicate with the lawyers representing Etsy in Washington DC.
They indicate that nothing will happen unless this lawsuit is filed.
In the mean time I find on the FBI site a position the FBI will take on internet fraud when it comes to identity theft.
This was happening to me with my ring being copied. Not just the ring, but this rip off artist claiming to be me.
This FBI information may have finally stopped this theft. Not Copyright but identity theft.
As we were about to file the suit, the ring was pulled off the site by the rip off jeweler, not by Etsy.
As it turns out, if you have an identity theft, it’s not only the person ripping the piece off, but also who helps the online process happen(Etsy).
We think that Etsy may have told the rip off jeweler to stop selling the ring, but there is no confirmation of it.
We were going to go after Etsy as well as the infringer for damages.
I cannot honestly say it was Etsy who stopped the selling of my ring or not.
Etsy has not given us any communication on anything we have done.
In any event, my ring is mine again. I basically lowered the price to underprice the rip off and am selling the ring on Etsy.
I’m still selling there and hope to develop more of my products, and have found three other rip offs of my pieces there,
I don’t have the money to pursue the others, but will make sure my Copyrights are in hand before the next move.
I’m not done yet.
Best regards,
Todd Hawkinson