In a TikTok posted earlier this month, Cassey Ho said Begoing swapped her face in a video showing her showing off her own clothes.
Cassey Ho
As the owner of activewear fashion label Popflex, Cassey Ho has needed to cope with counterfeit imitations of her designs prior to now, a widespread scourge of the style industry. But earlier this month, Ho encountered something she had never seen before: a no-name brand on Amazon that not only sold a fake version of her skort, but additionally used her own video showing off the item – together with her face exchanged for another person.
“It feels incredibly hurtful,” she said Forbes“I go through this list and this is my body, but not my face. You feel like you’ve been robbed and taken advantage of.”
Product counterfeiting is an issue almost as old as fashion itself, but some argue that latest advances in artificial intelligence are making the issue worse than ever. Everything from luxury brands to celebrity sports jerseys have been consistently copied for a long time, and only recently has this trend accelerated within the age of mainstream e-commerce and artificial intelligence.
Some claim that Chinese fashion firms rely solely on IP theft; a lawsuit against fast-fashion giant Shein argued that it had develop into “the world’s leading apparel manufacturer through the clever use of artificial intelligence and an algorithm,” leading to the discharge of hundreds of latest products per day. (Shein previously said Forbes that it “takes all claims of infringement seriously.”)
This is the Pirouette Skort from Popflex in lilac.
Popflex
And now, as Ho has experienced firsthand, knockoffs are being sold by counterfeit versions of their designers.
“Counterfeiting has been a hellish game of whack-a-mole for years,” Michael Ryanan analyst at Smarter Ecommerce, wrote Forbes.
However, he added: “There is a big difference between copying the likeness of something and copying the likeness of a person. It’s not just about brand safety, it’s about personal safety.” [Platforms like Amazon] must take this path more seriously.”
After Forbes After alerting Amazon to the counterfeits, the corporate removed listings from the Amazon store that had used Ho’s image to sell its copy of the Popflex skort, in addition to two other stores that sold similar imitations.
Amazon spokesman Tim Gillman said in an emailed statement that the corporate “strictly prohibits counterfeit and intellectual property-infringing products from its store,” adding that it takes “proactive measures” to discover problematic listings.
However, the label that made the fake skort, Begoing, continues to produce other listings on Amazon and Walmart web sites. Begoing didn’t reply to Forbes’ Please leave a comment via the e-mail form. The deepfake was first reported by Fox business.
The fight against counterfeiting has taken up an increasing number of of Ho’s time. In 2023 accused Shein to repeat their “Pirouette Skort” in two different cases. This specific item of clothing went viral last month after Taylor Swift wore it while playing pickleball and appeared to reference it in one in every of her songs. The Popflex skort is currently sold out.
Recently, nevertheless, the fight has expanded not only to the theft of their designs, but additionally to their very own marketing. In a TikTok video In an article posted earlier this month, Ho also said that some models and photos of Popflex customers had been stolen and advertised on Amazon to advertise other “duplicates.”
“None of us gave our consent, none of us are being paid,” she said.
Cassey Ho is CEO and lead designer at Popflex.
Cassey Ho
Popflex’s external legal advisor, Cece Xietold Forbes that coping with IP issues on the earth of fashion law is fairly standardized – monitoring potentially infringing items and sending stop and desist letters. But it’s tedious and dear.
Still, remixing an individual’s video could also be in numerous legal territory, she said, involving claims of “privacy rights” – the concept an individual has control over their very own image.
Juozas Kaziukėnas, CEO of an e-commerce analytics company called Marketplace Pulse, said Forbes in a text message that Ho’s experience could possibly be a harbinger of an AI-powered near future.
“Spammers use the top videos on TikTok as a starting point and alter them or create new videos in the hope of replicating at least some of their popularity,” he wrote. “We will all soon see our friends see ‘us’ promoting goods we had no part in.”
Ho, 37, is actively working on Patenting their designs to make it harder for copycats. It has even considered working with firms like Outtake AI and IPShark, which claim to automate the detection of questionable items, but up to now the high costs have been prohibitive.
“It’s hard to put all your money into fighting when you could be innovating,” she said Forbes.
