Blog Debates

Louis Vuitton Sues Darfur Fundraiser

4.28.2008 | by Vlad | 70 Comments...

Louis Vuitton has proven in the past that they do not take it lightly when their intellectual property rights are violated. Evidence of this is the recent lawsuit in which Louis Vuitton successfully sued Sony BMG and MTV online. Louis Vuitton is now suing Nadia Plenser, a Danish student artist and designer, over her “Simple Living” campaign, a fundraiser that benefits the Divest for Darfur organization.

Plenser drew an image of a young Darfur child holding a Tinkerbell-like dog and sporting a designer bag, made to resemble the famous Louis Vuitton’s Murakami Multicolore canvas pattern. Her goal was to imitate the constant media coverage that celebrities like Paris Hilton were getting and giving it to those who really deserved and needed it. Her image has been selling on t-shirts and posters, raising money for the good cause.

Problem is, LV is not exactly fond of the campaign, despite 100% of Plenser’s profits are being donated straight to Divest for Dafur. Vuitton sent her a C&D letter in February, which was followed by a lawsuit on April 15th:

Louis Vuitton now demands $7,500 (5,000 Euro) for each day she continues to sell Simple Life products, $7,500 for each day their letter is published on the website and $7,500 a day for using the name ‘Louis Vuitton’ on her website. In addition they want her to pay their lawyer costs and $15,000 to cover other expenses they have incurred in protecting their ‘intellectual property’.

How do you feel about this lawsuit? Property rights infringement and defending of LV’s trademark or artist’s freedom of expression and frivolous lawsuit?

Read the full story on TorrentFreak.

Debate: Celeb Designers?

3.18.2008 | by Megs | 26 Comments...

Lauren Conrad at her Runway Debut

Recently an exorbitant amount of ‘celebrities’ have turned into designers. First we had Lauren Condrad for Linea Pelle Handbags, and then we have Lauren Conrad’s debut line, followed by Heidi Montag’s Heidiwood, now we hear of Whitney Port (another girl from The Hills) designing, along with Rachel Bilson and Lindsay Lohan.

While Lindsay Lohan will be sticking to what she knows, leggings, Rachel Bilson will be designing with DKNY jeans. Whitney and Heidi will be debuting small lines of clothing. But what gives? The gals from The Hills are merely ‘reality’ tv stars. Sure Whitney and Lauren interned at Teen Vogue, but would that be enough background to teach them the skills needed to be designers. And Heidi? The blond who is enamored with her boyfriend and seems to have no background in design is debuting a line called ‘Heidiwood’? Have we turned into a society so obsessed with stars that we now allow anyone to design our clothing?

Let’s have a Tuesday debate: Will you look into the lines from these gals, would you ever buy, and what do you think?