This is hard for me to write, as from the beginning I hoped it could be resolved quickly, but it has been a week now and I don’t see an end to the situation unless I go ahead with long, drawn-out legal action.
I have been made aware that they have accused me of slander, so I will be frank: All of the information in this post, in all posts I have made and may make in future, is to the best of my knowledge, completely factual. Anything I might say about my personal feelings on their practices and behavior is MY personal opinion, but my claims of their misuse of my IP is to my knowledge true and backed up with numerous amount of evidence. I have been made aware of personal views held by Lindsey Davis and her wife and we will never share those views; we will never be friends. I will struggle to forgive such major breaches of my business’s terms of use, but I wish her good health all the same.
I do not normally react with Cease and Desists when I see artists forgetting/not crediting my work. We are all human, I have a couple of times forgotten to mention where I got assets for projects but have always gone back to edit the post when I remembered. I normally start off with a small message asking artists if they’d mind crediting me, however in this case the artist has breached all three terms of use, and has not adequately responded to my requests.
Last Saturday I came across a page called Wonderland Arts by Lin Davis. I noticed that the artist was using embroidery files purchased from me and that they were not crediting my name in their posts.
My terms of use in all my digital files are that I would like to be tagged/credited in posts showing works that have used my files and patterns.
I wasn’t particularly upset until I noticed that my embroidery files had been used/traced on mass-produced factory plush. This is also against my terms of use. At first I thought they had sent the files to the factory. Wonderland Arts denied sharing the actual files and I believe them, but when shown side by side the design is clearly traced or copied, and I have a receipt for their purchase of this eye pack, so this is not a coincidence and is still being taken seriously.
The third thing I found while checking the page for any further instances of factory use was a photo of my Anthro pattern’s pieces shared to their facebook. The post did not credit me as the maker, and the text of the post by omission misled followers to believe that the pattern was created from scratch. This is also a violation of my terms as I do not allow reproduction or redistribution of any of the content within my pattern PDFs.
Wonderland Arts has denied using my patterns for commissions or shop orders. THIS IS NOT THE ISSUE. My patterns are fine to use for commissions, as long as I am credited within public posts, but again, I do not allow sharing of my pattern content. This post is sharing that pattern and not crediting me. Those are my issues that I wish resolved. I have asked multiple times for this post to be deleted and so far it is still active as I write this.
On Saturday I received a facebook message from Lindsey’s wife, however she did not admit who she was in the message, throwing up a fourth red flag. I did not know who she was and I felt uncomfortable, I was suspicious and responded in such a manner. I blocked her and Lindsey on social media and resolved to send them an email instead, as I felt like emails were a more secure option. I sent a Cease and Desist, asking them to remove the photos of my pattern pieces, credit my files, stop using them in a commercial manner and apologize to me for the record-breaking violations of my terms of use. (seriously, nobody has ever broken all three rules before!!)
The only email I have since received from Wonderland Arts was disappointing at best. Their claims have been contradictory to public comments to their followers, and they’ve denied using my IP for the commercial plush (see the photos above for side-by-side comparisons)
I did tell them in my email that I would be contacting the other artists whose files had been used commercially, and if they couldn’t credit/delete the posts I had asked for that I would be writing an artists’ beware post, so that they can’t continue doing it to other artists (there are two others whose files have been used) I have not received any further contact, the posts have not been deleted, so here’s my artists’ beware:
Wonderland Arts by Lindsey Davis (and also of Fruit Buddies) has purchased my files, but then has not followed the terms of service present in the shop listing nor in the manuals that come with the items.
When contacted, they denied using my files for commercial plush, but said they would change the design. The listings with the copied/traced/stolen eyes are still active in their shop. They refused to take down the posts with my pattern pieces in, and have denied using those too. They have not added any credit to any of the many posts using my eye files. They offered to add credit if I sent them links. There are hundreds of posts. I went to their photos tab and took a screenshot any time one photo included my eyes anywhere. There were many collages featuring multiple plush with my eyes, but I only took one per photo. There were 200+ instances where I should have been credited.
Had I been credited in the first place, as they were being posted over the last four years, I would have been ecstatic each time to see my eyes used in such cute colourful ways. I would have been an absolute cheerleader for this page. If I’d been aware of them due to credit I would have sent potential fursona clients their way. As it stands, my experience with them has been forever tarred. I can’t imagine feeling comfortable with them using my work ever again.
I urge any artist who provides digital patterns, embroidery files or other plush-making assets to assess their terms of use and, if they are not comfortable with factory use / artists allowing the files’ creators to be misinterpreted, to block Lin Davis of Wonderland Arts and Fruit Buddies. Anyone who needs her email addresses to block on etsy / shopify etc can contact me for assistance.
I’d like to thank you for posting the artist beware about Wonderland Arts, as I was seriously considering ordering a very large and special plush from them. The potential that such a special order would possibly be made using stolen work disgusts me; I do not wish to support that!
Well, the pattern post is gone. Not sure if you can see their Facebook or not, but they are spinning this as a sudden surprise and calling the “leap” to a C&D childish. Seems like you have pretty concrete evidence though. I had only just discovered them on TikTok myself, got odd vibes, but loved the idea of the shoulder hanging backpack, so I followed them.
The post is only deleted because after asking privately several times over the course of eight days it was still up, so I shared it to my page and said politely but firmly that now I was asking in public. It did not take long after that. This is not a surprise. They knew from Saturday 17th that this was happening and still deny that the photos were of my pattern. They have made several false claims to me that their own customers have debunked in my private DMs.
Having the world see where you’ve screwed up is a heck of a motivator. They’ve lost me as a follower for sure. They’ve been in business too long to blame it on naïveté. I know if I was selling anything, I wouldn’t be using anything derived from someone else’s work, too much of a chance it’ll come back to bite. (Also, they published at least one of your emails that mentions your mental health. -_-)
Can we see a copy of the conversation initiated by you and Wonderland? It helps me to see how things were handles on both ends. It’s incredible they’re using your patterns without credit, I’m sorry you’re going through this
The screenshot of the messenger conversation is the first time they spoke to me. At this time I had not named or posted any screenshots, just asked in a plush group that I’d found someone using my stuff for factory use and could I have some advice. I posted that conversation (with the name redacted) as I felt it best to be honest and say that I responded very tersely as I felt uncomfortable. If you’re asking for the emails I sent – the personal one and the first C+D – I will be happy (if a little embarrassed as I enclosed personal details about my mental state in the personal letter) to post them when I am at my desk where my site’s post editor is installed.