Copying: A Trendy Bill Now On The Hill

Designer Nicole Miller, Harper's Bazaar Editor Glenda Bailey, and Bazaar Publisher Valerie Salembier spent yesterday lobbying legislators in Washington in support of the Design Piracy Act -- a bill that would give fashion designs similar protections to those that exist in other creative industires like music and books. In previous posts on copying, taking note of the recent copying activities of John Galliano and Kate Moss, I tried to point out what a sticky issue it is with fashion. That designers like Marc Jacobs best beat the copycats by continually turning out designs that are dramatic steps beyond the current trends -- even if still adaptations of the work of designers from years gone by. A research paper done by Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman, legal scholars from UCLA and the University of Virginia, makes the point much more eloquently. They conclude:

That the lack of IP rights for fashion design has not quashed innovation, as the orthodox account would predict, and this has in turn reduced the incentive for designers to seek legal protection for their creations. Not only has the lack of copyright protection for fashion designs not destroyed the incentive to innovate in apparel, it may have actually promoted it (emphasis mine). This claim -- that piracy is paradoxically beneficial for fashion designers -- rests on attributes specific to fashion, in particular the status-conferring, or positional, nature of clothing. . . fashion's cyclical nature is furthered and accelerated by a regime of open appropriation. It may even be . . . that to stop copying altogether would be to kill fashion.

How Far Should We Go To Stop Knock-Offs? An Example from the Paper of Raustiala and Sprigman Agree or disagree, I hope the designers and editors pushing so eagerly for this bill to be passed have taken some time to consider what might happen if their designs weren't knocked off. Wouldn't it be that much harder to stimulate demand for the next season's collection if the last season's -- or even the last year's -- collection was still rare and unique?. □

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