Ages ago, I started a group of Flickr to address the issue of photos being used without permission, mainly to create goods for sale on places like eBay, Etsy and Oztion.

This group has proven popular, and has helped shut down many manufacturers who were producing unlicenced Blythe products, using stolen imagery.

Recently, Blythe doll itself has been “cloned” and been released en mass via auction and sale sites around the world.

These low quality counterfeits are also low priced, so very tempting to many people as a cheap fix to their Blythe addiction.

I understand this, I do. I was very tempted myself, but my concience would not allow me to contribute to the theft of a name I love.

I cannot stress enough to anyone thinking about purchasing a counterfeit item how it will eventually ruin the Blythe community.

How will you know if that second hand Blythe is actually a Blythe, and not a clone or replica?

How do you know that custom Blythe wasn’t made with cheap, inferior, replica parts?

How will a small business like Junie Moon (the legal licensee in Japan and Asia) be able to compete against cheaper mass produced counterfeited goods?

If you wouldn’t like your own work being duplicated and sold off, your reputation diminished due to the poor quality items with your name all over them being traded, then hopefully you understand my position.

I recently posted on the Flickr photostream of someone who purchased an entire range of one brand of counterfeit, and said I was disappointed to find someone who is a passionate collector contributing to this black market industry.

The comments were not intended to be personal, only to highlight an issue that can only bring about the demise of Blythe as we know her.