Sydney Gifford claims fellow influencer Alyssa Sheil is copying her aesthetic. Now she is suing.
The oversize beige cable-knit sweater. The centre-parted hair. The right knee pointed out, creating a curve at her left hip.
Gifford had copyrighted several of her social media posts in January after noticing the similarity between Sheil’s posts and her own. Several photos were submitted as evidence in the lawsuit Gifford filed this year in a federal court in Texas accusing Sheil of copyright infringement. But in the carefully curated world of social media, Giffords has levelled a perhaps more severe charge against her: stealing her vibe.
“There really is a sense that you’re both a creator and a borrower,” said Jeanne Fromer, a professor of intellectual property law at New York University. “Fashion is built on that. All the creative industries – painting, music, movies – they’re all built on borrowing in certain ways from the past and also ideally trying to bring your own spin to something. I don’t know that anyone wants to go too far as a result.
Depending on what comes of the lawsuit, it could set an important precedent for influencers and how they present themselves online.The first time Gifford and Sheil met, at a luxury outdoor mall in Austin, Texas, Sheil felt like a third wheel. The three women met again the next month at a parking garage in downtown Austin to shoot photos together to post on their individual accounts. This time, Sheil did not feel welcome, she said.
“They obviously looked at the name on the account and were confused,” Gifford said of her followers, whom she said alerted her to the similarities. “It was very emotional to see that.” “Because the complaint only alleges the creation of similar images – not the reproduction of identical ones,” Sheil’s lawyers contended, “Gifford’s DMCA claim fails as a matter of law.”
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