Australian artist Tank accuses online marketplace Temu of stealing design, selling for less than $7

Australian artist Tank accuses online marketplace Temu of stealing design, selling for less than $7Show more

Well-loved Shepparton artist Tank has had his artwork stolen by sellers on marketplace website Temu.

Key points:
Shepparton artist Tank has had his design stolen and sold on Temu
Experts say the practice is not unusual
Temu has told Tank the case will be looked into

Australian artist Tank accuses online marketplace Temu of stealing design, selling for less than $7
ABC Shepparton / By Georgina Carroll and Nic Healey
Posted 15h ago15 hours ago, updated 8h ago8 hours ago
Artist Tank, wearing a black hoodie and dark beanie, stands in front of a wall mural.
Tank's painting The Complexity of Being can be seen on the side of The Aussie Hotel in Shepparton.(Facebook: ABC Goulburn Murray)
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Well-loved Shepparton artist Tank has had his artwork stolen by sellers on marketplace website Temu.

Key points:
Shepparton artist Tank has had his design stolen and sold on Temu
Experts say the practice is not unusual
Temu has told Tank the case will be looked into
The design titled Complexity of Being is sold as a small canvas print on Tank's website for $275.

Two different sellers have the design listed on Temu for less than $7, with one seller having sold more than 500 copies of the stolen design.

Temu is Boston-based and Chinese-owned online marketplace that describes itself as connecting customers with "millions of sellers, manufacturers and brands around the world".

Tank was alerted by a friend on social media and said he had had his designs stolen or copied before, but not on such a large scale.

"It has happened before on smaller scales, you'll get people deciding to do this and calling it their own work," Tank said.

Disappointed but not surprised
Tank said it was disheartening to see his art copied but it was to be expected.

"It is not just art, it is everything in the world these days being part of the rip-off market," he said.

If you have a product out there and it is good it will be reproduced, possibly branded as the same thing and sold online."

Shepparton Art Museum chief executive Melinda Martin said Tank's situation was sadly not unusual and it was one of the greatest challenges the contemporary art world faced.

"It is really challenging because copyright law should protect you," Ms Martin said.

"It has already been infringed, so it is really challenging to then go back and recoup it.

"It means that creativity is not being valued and that is the core, people can't make a living without that creativity. It is a very sad indictment of contemporary culture."

Platforms 'difficult to deal with'
Arts Law Centre of Australia lawyer Katherine Giles said the centre deals with hundreds of copyright infringement cases driven by online platforms each year.

"Generally, they are not taking any responsibility for the content so that means that users can reach massive audiences with very little effort and they are not required to clear copyright," Ms Giles said.

She said the first thing an artist should do if they thought their artwork had been stolen was to get legal advice.

"It is about looking at what platform you're dealing with, some platforms do have processes in place," Ms Giles said.

"Our experience to date is that a lot of them are really difficult to deal with so it is very hard to get your artwork taken down."

Tank has been told by Temu that the case will be followed up, but has not been given a timeline for that process.

Tank is a much-loved artist both locally and around Australia.

His artworks span everything from giant sculptures of native Australian birds to painted little mice scattered around the walls of Shepparton businesses.

The ABC has contacted Temu for comment.
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