#6 - Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright is an important legal protection afforded to individuals who create unique works of artistic or similar expression that involve a degree of human authorship as well as a vital aspect of creative expression, that has not been copied by in its entirety from a pre-existing copyrighted work. Fair use goes hand in hand with copyright as fair use outlines the specific elements of a copyrighted work that can be utilized by others without permission from the copyright holder.  

Copyright provides a good deal of protection from other individuals stealing and profiting from your work, although the laws around copyright do not catch everything. In recent times, one issue with copyright laws in America has to do with the fashion industry and the lack of ability to copyright certain outfits within the given parameters of copyright law today. 

While there are certainly some elements of an outfit or clothing item that can be claimed under copyright, many key details of outfits today cannot be protected under U.S. copyright.  

As for which details can be protected and copyrighted, designs on the clothing are protected just as designs in other mediums would be.  

The U.S. Supreme court has faced this issue as well when ruling on Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands according to Copyright Alliance.org, with the supreme court declaring that “two-dimensional designs appearing on the surface of [clothing]” including “combinations, positioning, and arrangements.” 

Even though stealing designs on top of fabric is a clear breach of copyright laws, this does not stop enormous clothing companies such as Shein from allegedly stealing designs of both artistic nature and the less protected fashion structure from small independent creators that cannot afford to fight off the oversteps of such a large company. Insider Retail explains the plight of an artist who alleges Shein stole their design. 

Cassey Ho's Design Being Stolen by Shein 

Here is an example of Shein's potential thievery of another design.

Shein can get away with allegedly outright stealing the design of work by taking advantage of lenient laws regarding fashion as designs such as imagery are protected by copyright, the layout and design of the fashion implement itself, is not defended by the lax copyright laws of the United States. These laws are feeble due to the concerns of the time they were created, with fashion design protections not being a large issue regarding the structure of the clothing details The Street.com.

Overall copyright law is intended to provide a series of protections for artistic creation in defense of creators. Fashion is an industry that lacks many of those protections due to the nature of our laws only truly applying to designs atop the fabric of the clothes while the article of clothing can only be protected if it is something completely new, with almost no outside influences at all.  
 
Although Shein may not be able to get away with allegedly, blatantly ripping off other creators' fashion designs in other countries with stricter laws, Shein continually escapes unscathed after blatantly copying other creators designs in clothing repeatedly with little to no recourse. With the lack of strong, definitive legislation in place to provide the necessary protections to smaller creators, when they are stolen from by Shein.

While there are significantly useful laws that help protect the original work of creators, there is a serious lack in such laws regarding fashion and as such merit a reviewal of what needs to be improved about copyright laws in fashion.