Can you copy a vibe?
It’s common to hear stories of big companies suing competitors with copyright claims if the former feels if the latter is encroaching on their brand image.
But now, in a first-of-its-kind case, an influencer is suing another influencer for allegedly copying her “sad beige” aesthetic.
Here’s What Happened
24-year-old influencer Sydney Nicole, hailing Texas, USA, has filed a lawsuit against another 21-year-old influencer Alyssa Sheil for federal copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, Digital Millennium Copyright Act violation, trade dress infringement, and misappropriation.
Obtained by PEOPLE, the lawsuit accused Sheil duplicating Gifford’s neutral, beige and cream aesthetics as well as promoting the same (or similar) products that Gifford did. She also claimed that Sheil was infringing on her personal brand, and that several of Sheil’s posts had identical styling, tone, camera angle and/or texts.
Court papers claimed that the two women had met in December 2022 in Austin to support each other’s businesses. However, Sheil blocked Gifford from her social media handles soon after their joint photoshoot in January 2023, and allegedly began duplicating the latter’s content soon after.
While Gifford’s legal team apparently sent several cease and desist letters to Sheil, the lawsuit was eventually submitted in April after Sheil did not stop.
The almost 70-page-long lawsuit contained side-by-side comparisons of Gifford and Sheil’s posts to prove how the latter is copying the former’s content.
Alyssa Sheil Responds
Sheil’s attorneys have asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texasto to dismiss Gifford’s claims, vehemently denying “every allegation.”
As per court documents, Sheil asserted that she “has never infringed on any work of Gifford’s, because Sheil’s work is independently developed, does not use anything belonging to Gifford, and is not based on anything posted by Gifford.”
What do people think?
This is a first-of-its-kind lawsuit for copyright infringement for copying a vibe and aesthetic. Among others, award-winning legal influencer Tanya Appachu Kaul took to social media to share the news, asking her followers to discuss a few key questions:
- Do you think a vibe can be a copyright infringement ?
- Do you think such a case will stand in Court ?
- Do you think this was pure guts and delusion to go to Court ?
- Would the outcome of such a case be helpfuk for a lot of influencers who are being copied ?
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Here’s what the Comments said:
“How would one legally define vibe or aesthetic? Genuinely curious,” a user asked.
“The other girl simply influenced by her. This is the job of an influencer,” another joked.
“I mean that’s what the word influencers literally means right? They influence people and literally give tips on fashion, food, travel etc. So, if someone is sort of “inspired” I guess from an “Influencer” and as I am reading here, the one who sued is an Amazon influencer, the clothes are readily available on Amazon and nothing she made from scratch. People style themselves to look like celebrities even. So, I personally, don’t see a case here when she is herself promoting the clothes and so called influencing people. People who like her, would of course follow her style; some with their own twist and some will try to be her twin,” another mused.
However, some had differing perspectives.
“I have seen direct copy of content just translated to Hindi specially in the fitness genre. Like same to same,” Anupriya Kapur revealed, referring to a different case.
“One or two instances of same dress is normal. Repeatedly having same content after another posts without much change would be a different case. Is the lawsuit on the vibe only?I saw a person filing lawsuit over content of video which was almost same.
This case will undoubtedly mark a milestone in influencer content, setting new precedents for the originality and of content.
