<p align="center"><a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/allie.jpg"><img title="allie" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="240" alt="allie" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/allie_thumb.jpg" width="165" border="0" /></a> <img title="carrie" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="240" alt="carrie" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/carrie_thumb.jpg" width="165" border="0" /><a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/holly.jpg"><img title="holly" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="240" alt="holly" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/holly_thumb.jpg" width="162" border="0" /></a> </p>  <p><font size="2">Do you recognize the </font><a href="http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/06/01/top-10-fictional-fashion-icons-in-film-and-literature/"><font size="2">women</font></a><font size="2"> in the pictures above?&#160; (Alice from <em>The Notebook, </em>Carrie Bradshaw from the <em>Sex in the City</em> movie, and Holly Golightly from the <em>Breakfast at Tiffany’s</em> Movie<em>).</em>&#160; Can you pinpoint their fashion styles, describe the items they buy or would wear, or have you ever tried to copy their style?</font></p>  <p><font size="2">Over at the </font><a href="http://www.fashionapparellawblog.com/"><font size="2">Fashion and Apparel Law Blog</font></a><font size="2">, I spotted this:&#160; </font></p>  <p><em><font size="2"><strong>Lovely ladies </strong></font></em><a href="http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/06/01/top-10-fictional-fashion-icons-in-film-and-literature/"><em><font size="2"><strong>like these</strong></font></em></a><em><font size="2"><strong> are likely protected by copyright due to their distinct personality and fashion flair, and creators should take steps to maintain protection particularly if there is a possibility of sequels, merchandising, and other licensing uses.</strong></font></em></p>  <p align="center"><a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/miranda.jpg"><img title="miranda" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="240" alt="miranda" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/miranda_thumb.jpg" width="155" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/scarlett.jpg"><img title="scarlett" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="240" alt="scarlett" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/scarlett_thumb.jpg" width="159" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/gloria.jpg"><img title="gloria" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="240" alt="gloria" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/gloria_thumb.jpg" width="123" border="0" /></a> </p>  <p><font size="2">Really?&#160; Their distinct personality and fashion flair is likely protected by copyright?&#160; I’m not sure about this.&#160; I’m also not sure that Rumi Neely over at <a href="http://www.fashiontoast.com/">FashionToast</a>, Jane over at <a href="http://www.seaofshoes.typepad.com/">Sea of Shoes</a> or more complicatedly Jessica at What I Wore or Kelly at <a href="http://www.theglamourai.com/">Glamourai</a> are protected by the same copyright argument – that their “looks” or fashion sense can be protected.&#160; </font></p>  <p><font size="2">Let’s talk about these “lovely ladies” first.&#160; I would assume that ANY character from a novel, musical, play or written work is sole property of that author.&#160; The site that features this list of of top ten fashion icons is a mish-mash of movies, books (yes, <em>Breakfast at Tiffany’s</em> was a book before it was a movie), and shows which raises complicated questions about what is and what can be copyrighted.</font></p>  <p><font size="2">The advice I got is to think of the situation as a&#160; continuum; a character in a book, movie, or television show is highly developed and is copyrightable.&#160; You can't take Carrie Bradshaw and start using her without the creator's permission.&#160; This is obvious to us.&#160; An integral part of Carrie Bradshaw's character is her fashion sense.&#160; The key is that you can't appropriate the character--which is a fuzzy test of substantiality--you can't tweak, say, the name and the hair color and keep the rest and get away with it.&#160; Of course, fashion sense is a very diffuse characteristic, that many people can have--even very similar ones--without meaningfully &quot;stealing&quot; the character of Carrie Bradshaw.&#160; So simply taking her outfits, without any other aspects of her character, is unlikely to rise to infringement, though perhaps if you started taking every outfit she wore and passing it off as your own, you could get in trouble - maybe on quantity.</font></p>  <p><font size="2">But this leads to a big question for me – is the distinct personality and fashion flair of a fashion blogger copyrightable?</font></p>  <p><font size="2"></font></p>  <p align="center"><font size="2"></font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2"><font size="2">My instinct is a qualified no.&#160; Jessica at <a href="http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/">What I Wore</a>, Jane at <a href="http://www.seaofshoes.typepad.com/">Sea of Shoes</a>, Rumi at <a href="http://www.fashiontoast.com/">FashionToast</a> or Kelly at Glamourai are not covered under the “continuum argument.”&#160; The writing and photos are all theirs and the only way you can use it is fairly (fair use requires at least a citation to the website) but not all looks on these sites can be copyrighted.&#160; <font size="2"><font size="2">I respect all these bloggers and tons of others out there – but 80-90% of their posts feature ready-to-wear items from companies that we all shop at.&#160; This is not to denigrate them or call them professional consumers because I love seeing how people style clothes together, but my bigger concern is with the fact that as we create larger bodies of work that take our time – can we protect it, and how can we protect it?</font></font></font></font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2"><font size="2">I also question whether even blogger’s fashion advice can be copyrighted – take for example, this post on how to create “<a href="http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/post/656688952/fashion-facts-jorts">jorts</a>” by Jessica.&#160; Do you know how to create jean shorts?&#160; Did you know about using a comb to fray clothes?&#160; What would be copyrightable here apart from the photos and the writing?&#160; On the other hand, one of my favorite blogs, <a href="http://corporette.com/">Corporette</a>, does give unique advice because of her slant:&#160; corporate appropriate fashion.&#160; </font></font></p>  <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/4669108592_0bd167cf80_b.jpg"><img title="4669108592_0bd167cf80_b" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="338" alt="4669108592_0bd167cf80_b" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/4669108592_0bd167cf80_b_thumb.jpg" width="225" border="0" /></a>&#160;&#160; <a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/4662777071_194f7d4501_b.jpg"><img title="4662777071_194f7d4501_b" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="338" alt="4662777071_194f7d4501_b" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/4662777071_194f7d4501_b_thumb.jpg" width="225" border="0" /></a> </font></p>  <p align="center"><font size="2">{Images from Jessica Schroeder’s <a href="http://whatiwore.tumblr.com/">What I Wore</a>}</font></p>  <p align="left">&#160;</p>  <p align="left"><font size="2"><font size="2">Since examples work best, let’s take a look at the two pictures above.&#160; In the first picture, Jessica is wearing a Modcloth dress, shoes from Marshall’s and a Top Shop.&#160; It’s a fetching look but a</font></font><font size="2"><font size="2"> single outfit someone puts together on a blog will likely never</font> get copyright because it's not unique enough, that sort of pairing is too common place to accord it copyright protection, and it would infringe other outfit-creation too much. In the second outfit, we have an actual remade camisole dating back to 1900 (wow!) and uniquely worn with modern shades and a skirt.&#160; We can argue on one hand: </font><font size="2">there's &quot;creation&quot; there.&#160; <em>That you're not creating the clothes doesn't mean that you're not creating something—taking preexisting things and rearranging them in new ways can be real creation.</em></font></p>  <p align="center">&#160;<a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/300.jpg"><img title="300" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="200" alt="300" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/300_thumb.jpg" width="200" border="0" /></a><img title="glamourai_SoCo3w" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="264" alt="glamourai_SoCo3w" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/glamourai_SoCo3w_thumb.jpg" width="200" border="0" /> </p>  <p align="center"><font size="2">{Lapis Lazuli earrings from <a href="http://www.theglamourai.com/">The Glamourai</a>}</font></p>  <p align="left"><font size="2">I think the re-made camisole is copyrightable BUT NOTHING ELSE IS.&#160; In fact, other than facing the boos and hisses of the fashion blogging readership, there is really no need to even attribute back to the look Jessica has created if you can create an almost exact look, even down to recreating your own camisole.&#160; Kelly, pictured above, puts together fantastic patterns but the super-duper protected stuff on her blog is only her jewelry.&#160;&#160;&#160; I do recognize from this <a href="http://www.theglamourai.com/2010/04/in-mix.html">post</a> and these comments that Kelly is great at getting the right stuff together:</font></p>  <p align="left"><em><strong><font size="2">all of a sudden, it seems like </font></strong></em><a href="http://www.theglamourai.com/2010/04/in-mix.html"><em><strong><font size="2">everyone is hopping aboard the mixology bandwagon</font></strong></em></a><em><strong><font size="2">! do you think they've all finally discovered this blog or something? ah, to dare to dream...</font></strong></em></p>  <p align="left"><strong><em><font size="2">much as i may jokingly try to claim credit for this terrific trend, i'm simply just thrilled the movement is going mainstream (whatever the reason)! mastering mixology is the best way to add mileage and whimsy to your wardrobe. i will continue to report from the front lines ;)</font></em></strong></p>  <p><font size="2">Sadly, Kelly’s outfits, her mixing, and her bringing together of disparate outfits shouldn’t and isn’t copyright protected – <em>and it shouldn’t be.</em> The only thing protected it is the photo.&#160;&#160; And it is not simply because fashion is not a particularly well-copyrighted area – the LV on Louis Vuitton bag is protected, some patterns are not (Hermès scarves are protected, the polka dot dress isn’t).&#160; </font></p>  <p><font size="2">One L instruction would follow along these lines:&#160; When it comes to patterns, it is too easy to exhaust all possible combinations and this fits our intuitions: while there is some real creation going on in fashion, there's a fundamental problem in according copyright to outfits that likely raises the bar somewhat from, say, a piece of music or writing.&#160; In music and writing, we think there's a pretty fundamental uniqueness to what we do and say.&#160; But you can never copyright facts or ideas, nor can you copyright the language expressing those facts or ideas if it's the only reasonable way to express them (otherwise, giving copyright to the expression would indirectly and impermissibly give ownership to the facts and ideas too).&#160; This ironically even applies to the title “What I Wore” –the blog was started in 2008 but there are two other blogs with the exact same name and even the exact same mission.&#160; No one seems to be preserving copyright to their blog titles – there’s even a number of sites titled “The Happiness Project.”</font></p>  <p><font size="2">I understand the complications that arise when it comes to fictional characters:&#160; would the authors own the copyright over their character’s fashion sense or should film producers who decide on a fashion direction for a character get another kind of copyright?&#160; For example, Daisy Buchanan is described as preferring lace or wearing trendy hats in the novel. In another format, she is shown saying (or filmed saying) that Daisy Buchanan only likes Chanel lace and Lock and Company hats.&#160; Fashion bloggers are a separate issue but often times are discussed as if they aren’t.&#160; 80%-90% of fashion blogs feature collections that people own (including mine) meaning there is very little difference from Jane at <a href="http://www.seaofshoes.typepad.com/">Sea of Shoes</a> or Dominique at the </font><a href="http://corsetgirl.blogspot.com/2009/10/tightlaced-waist-corset-over-white.html"><font size="2">Corset Blog</font></a><font size="2"> (except presentation and quality of photos).&#160;&#160; </font></p>  <p><font size="2">If I have a look hand sewn by my mother (as Jane sometimes does), I could claim to own that design but couldn’t the person who tweaked or sewed it also claim the same?&#160;&#160; Susan <a href="http://counterfeitchic.com/">Scafidi</a> would probably say no:&#160; “no creative client can copyright her idea (as opposed to a specific expression of it).”&#160; Are we confused much?&#160; There's what the law does now, and what the law might do later, AND what the law should do.&#160; All this means to me is that a blogger could set up a site called <em>My Sea of Shoes</em> or <em>River of Shoes</em> or <em>The River Runs through a Shoe, </em>take pictures in similar poses, styles, and items, and pretty much get away with it.&#160; When I write <em>Copyright of Me</em> – my photos are mine and the writing is mine but there is nothing stopping you from starting <em>I Only Love Dresses </em>and do exactly what I am doing.&#160; </font></p>  <p align="center"><a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/IMG_5950.jpg"><img title="IMG_5950" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="375" alt="IMG_5950" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/IMG_5950_thumb.jpg" width="250" border="0" /></a>&#160; </p>  <p align="center">{<a href="http://www.seaofshoes.typepad.com/">Sea of Shoes</a> blogger Jane in a Skirt designed by her mother}</p>  <p><font size="2">This leads to the fundamental problem I am having with the original post from the <a href="http://www.fashionapparellawblog.com/2010/06/articles/miscellaneous/copyright-your-fictional-fashion-icon/">Fashion and Apparel Law Blog</a>: providing easy copyright for outfits of a <strong>fictional character’s</strong> or <strong>fashion blogger’s </strong>&quot;fashion uniqueness” or “fashion sense” should not be allowed as this would too easily give ownership over use of the items themselves, potentially leading to a bunch of vexatious claims.&#160;&#160; Furthermore, we just don't need intellectual property protections to lead to outfit matching.&#160; As more people feel they are putting substantial efforts into creative projects, they understandably want to protect those efforts. (I know I do!)&#160;&#160; What we are protecting is a lot more narrow than we want to admit.&#160; </font></p>  <p>&#160;</p>  <p><a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/daisy.jpg"><img title="daisy" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="240" alt="daisy" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/daisy_thumb.jpg" width="159" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/annie1.jpg"><img title="annie (1)" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="240" alt="annie (1)" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/annie1_thumb.jpg" width="155" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/anna.jpg"><img title="anna" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="240" alt="anna" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/anna_thumb.jpg" width="179" border="0" /></a></p>