Mirodoll banned on DOA

Just thought I would repost this here. It looks like Den of Angels has banned Mirodoll from their forum after concluding they were copying other doll makers designs, making slight changes, then recasting and selling them as their own.

 

The thread is here, but I think you will need a DOA account to view it.

 

https://denofangels.com/threads/mirodoll-banned-from-doa.775971/

It's viewable for me and I don't have an account.

I see a lot of people questioning the decision. I do not own a Mirodoll not had considered one a few years ago when I was looking for custom colors. I am kinda on the fence about the ban.

Seeing as Mirodoll admitted to the mistake I feel that the mods made the right choice and it is worth pointing out that it isn't ALL their dolls, just those two particular bodies.

 

Either way Mirodoll took down those bodies and is now on course of fixing the problem which means they could potentially be removed from the banned list. That's some good news at least.

I am 100% against recasts of dolls personally.

 

If they are correcting the lapse then that says something, mistakes do happen, but two times is a bit of a pattern and that is concerning. I contrast that against Volks immediately yanking a doll before sales when the issue of the outfits copyright came up.

 

What is heartening is that reputation is important in this community and that the community responds poorly to recasting. That's something important to preserve. It makes it harder for people to get away with it.

I agree with you Wolf. I do not like recasting, it is dishonest and theft. My 'on-the-fence-ness' was because I did not read if it was truly confirmed to be a recast via contacting the companies or comparing the dolls side-by-side in person. The way the Mods wrote the ban notification made it sound like "Yea. . . . we looked at some photos and the dolls look similar so. . . . ban. Oh, and the only way they can be as cheap as they are is if they recast."

If Mirodoll admitted that it was a recast/re-worked doll then this makes much more sense and the bodies deserve to be banned (I did not read anything about Miro admitting it).

 

 

I just agree with one of the people that commented: there are only so many ways to design a doll body in the human shape. There are bound to be overlaps between doll companies and designs, especially if a sculptor likes a particular body construction.

Because I think of banning as very serious, I just prefer that it is confirmed beyond doubt that it is theft/recast; if that is the case, then the ban is good.

I am also seriously against recasting, as a note.

 

I do think the mods could handle it a better way, but I also feel this is probably the only way they are ever going to handle it. They've done this multiple times and some companies denied that it was a recast even though the proof was pretty damning (and I don't think there is as many limitations with heads are there is bodies).

 

Someone else said something that really stuck with me: figuring out the line of "being influenced" is pretty tricky though too. But I also think if you are influenced you really need to make a point to differ your product so people know it isn't a copy. Just a hard line to really figure out.

I am not sure if they had worded their thread differently but this is what I've gathered from their current existing post.

 

Mirodoll is not really being accused for recasting. They are moreso being accused of theft.

 

I agree that bodies can be sculpted in various different ways and if an artist is inspired by another, their influence will of course, trickle into their own work. Which is fine. There are a handful of companies out there that have obviously been inspired by other companies that are still accepted by Den of Angels.

 

However it begins to cross a line when the body shape is eerily similar to something else. From the way the body dips, and bends. (One must keep in mind also that this is not the first time Mirodoll has released a questionably familiar sculpt. The main images on the thread right now are just the tip of the iceberg.) At this point, with recasts being as big a problem as it already is, moderators on DoA are not going to take chances in promoting theft, or even copying. tl;dr so if they cannot confirm it, or the company won't respond, it's safer to just ban it till further notice. That's how DoA has always functioned.

 

Besides, it's not like they're banning Mirodoll in general, just the heads and bodies they find problematic.

 

When DoA say 'their prices are low as a result to recasting' they meant that the base of the body wasn't even theirs to begin with. I hope that clears things up.

I am not against this decision, but I agree with some of the peeps that said that if they're going after Mirodoll for this, they should really look at other companies that were mentioned, such as Doll Leaves. I love Doll Leaves, but I recently saw a photo of their MSD girl body next to a Dollzone one and damn, they looked exactly alike apart from the thigh slit and the boobs. Even their fingers are positioned exactly the same. We also know that Impldoll have copied a bunch of dolls (I remember Flower and Junior Char out of my head), and they never did anything about that...

 

I think the mention to pricing is irrelevant though, Mirodoll sell a lot of bodies during their sales, so it's likely they're able to keep their low prices just due to quantity they sell. Of course it's also possible to keep low prices when no effort or time was put into "creating" new products, but my point is that, even if they did take the time and put in the effort, they could have kept their prices low due to location and quantity of products sold during sales.

I am not against this decision, but I agree with some of the peeps that said that if they're going after Mirodoll for this, they should really look at other companies that were mentioned, such as Doll Leaves. I love Doll Leaves, but I recently saw a photo of their MSD girl body next to a Dollzone one and damn, they looked exactly alike apart from the thigh slit and the boobs. Even their fingers are positioned exactly the same. We also know that Impldoll have copied a bunch of dolls (I remember Flower and Junior Char out of my head), and they never did anything about that...

 

I think the mention to pricing is irrelevant though, Mirodoll sell a lot of bodies during their sales, so it's likely they're able to keep their low prices just due to quantity they sell. Of course it's also possible to keep low prices when no effort or time was put into "creating" new products, but my point is that, even if they did take the time and put in the effort, they could have kept their prices low due to location and quantity of products sold during sales.

 

Well, bans aren't done in the hour, or over night upon discovery of a body. They take weeks, and often times DoA gives a company more than one chance. (They do recommend for things like this being brought up, however. Doll Leaves isn't really that popular at the moment, Mirodoll however has people constantly eyeing up their products. Which might have been why they were banned so quickly.)

 

With Iplehouse being one of the most distinct companies out there, I guess 'copying' their design was what broke the camel's back for them. I mean, really, Mirodoll has had ALOT of these sorta cases that were dismissed in the past aswell.

 

Bringing up the price was a low blow, sure, and sadly, not something that surprises me. In my years on that forum I haven't seen the main mods NOT say anything unnecessary.

The reference to recasting was in this line, and yeah I do agree overall it sounds more like patent infringement.

 

Many years ago, it was strongly believed that Mirodoll had modified and recast a Dollstown 18 years girl body.

 

They have banned all the bodies and heads they currently believe are suspect, and all future bodies and heads released by Mirodoll. They are reviewing all the others, and may ban those in the future if they believe them suspect.

 

With the introduction of new technologies like 3D scanning, and 3D printing the mechanism of recasting is inevitably going to change. How exactly is scanning a body then 3D printing it really different in it's result than the tried and true method of making a mold and pouring resin into it? The bottom line is what another artist created you have created a knockoff of.