Cody Foster & Co are a big Christmas decoration manufacturing company based in the US who make their money out of the theft of other people's ideas. They take the designs of hard working, honest craftspeople, designers and illustrators and have them mass produced to a ridiculous degree in China, then selling them on as their own designs.
There is no mention of the artist the design has come from, no request to purchase the design, no commissioning of designs for a fee, no royalties offered, just theft, unknown to the makers/creators until someone who is able to access their closed site or be on their registered mailing list to receive a catalogue, recognises the work of the original artist and makes it known to them.
Yesterday I discovered this had happened to me. The design stolen from me was an owl decoration I made in 2010, laser cut from wood to my own illustration. They might have purchased a decoration from me through my Etsy shop or Big Cartel, but never contacted me to ask to buy the design to reproduce it. It is absolutely shameful theft.
My owl to the left, their glittery number to the right, much the same?!?!
This years Cody Foster catalogue also features the work of talented designers/makers: Lisa Congdon, Mimi Kirchner and Cassandra Smith... there may be others (artist's original to the right, Cody Foster to the left):
The kind lady who recognised my work has compiled these Flickr pages, showing the original works of various artists and the rip offs manufactured by Cody Foster over several years, unbeknownst to them:
Cody Foster have a private website so no designs can be seen. Their Twitter page is private so no tweets can be linked to them and seen on their feed, and they are not answering emails.
People such as myself work hard at our craft, we put our life and soul into what we produce and we do it with honesty and integrity. Of course we are all inspired by what is around us and we can arrive at similar conclusions to others, but Cody Foster have undeniably stolen these designs from these people and shouldn't be allowed to continue making money from it.
For now all I can do is to raise awareness of their game and ask for support in sharing the story and possibly emailing them at: info@codyfosterandco.com to voice your own anger at how they operate.
I'll keep you posted on any progress. Thank you x
Cody Foster & Co
PO Box 247
Valentine, NE 69201
402 376 3369 - Tel
402 376 2835 - Fax
info@codyfosterandco.com
PO Box 247
Valentine, NE 69201
402 376 3369 - Tel
402 376 2835 - Fax
info@codyfosterandco.com
