When a large organisation uses an independent artist's copyrighted work on their mass produced products, it becomes a somewhat David and Goliath situation. Paperchase appear to have done just this with the work of Hidden Eloise. In her blog, Hidden Eloise describes how she discovered that some Paperchase products - notebooks (which have apparently sold out), albums and tote bags - seem to feature Hidden Eloise's 'He Says You Can hear the Forest Whisper' character. The resulting artwork is a rather lazy shadow of the original which, in my opinion, only serves to add further insult to injury.

Paperchase may buy in their artwork from external companies, so may or may not have been aware of the origin of elements the design used in the designs mentioned above. Alternatively, they may use their own in-house designers/artworkers. I don't know where the artwork used on the products actually originated. However, somebody somewhere is accountable for this. That person is the one who created the artwork that was subsequently used on the products.

Sadly, this isn't the first instance of this sort of behaviour occuring. Seemingly, the advantage lies with the big boys who benefit from receiving revenue from products sold and feel fairly safe in the knowledge that the artists whose work may have been plagiarised are unlikely to have the financial means to take them on for breach of copyright. What this also results in is treating their customers like idiots, with a 'who cares as long as we get their money?' attitude. So the big boys win and the losers are the artist from whom the work has been plagiarised who loses royalties and recognition, and the customers who are unwittingly duped into buying an often second rate design.

Pete Ashton also noted on Twitter that this isn't a new problem:

The transparency that the internet provides is the sort of thing that PR machines of companies like Paperchase probably dread. But it does give empowerment back to the consumer to make a choice about their purchase decisions based on the background of a product. The problem is that we only get to make this choice after the damage has been done.

The most unlikely outcome is that Hidden Eloise will be compensated for the alleged use of her design. At best, maybe an acknowledgement of the problem and withdrawal of the product line by Paperchase will happen. At worst, they ignore the problem and feel smug that it's unlikely that legal action will be brought against them and that this storm in a teacup will soon be old news. So, when that happens do we all revert to being treated like mugs again and watch instances of this happen with other artists and other companies in the future? Sadly, the answer to this is probably.