Filipino illustrator accuses store for allegedly copying her artwork of K-pop band BTS member Jungkook without permission

A digital illustrator from the Philippines has accused an online store of purportedly stealing her artwork and marketing it as its own.

The artist Gail Purisima, also known as Pureautumnarts, alleged the store in SM Southmall of stealing her artwork stickers of BTS member, Jungkook.

In a Facebook post, Purisima revealed that one of her fans informed her that a store in the mall was selling her artwork.

She shared images of an L&R sticker form, including a scanned copy of her artwork that her follower had sent in a private message.

When Purisima contacted the store and informed them about the idea theft, they were taken by surprise but claimed that the sticker art was created by their artist.

When she showed them proof of her artwork, they agreed to remove the relevant stickers from their store and social media pages.

In another post, Purisima claimed that several of her other BTS artworks were traced and copied by others. She even shared a screenshot of her illustrations and discouraged followers from purchasing stolen artworks and asked them to “buy directly from the artist.”

It is not just small stores like Happy Trend Collection that copy the artworks of independent artists, even large multinational companies pursue such acts of plagiarism.

Recently, a US-based artist Magdalena Mollman, professionally known as Maggie Stephenson, accused Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein of using her artwork without permission.

She claimed that Shein has been misusing her copyright-protected work from her Instagram account since 2019 and selling derivatives of her art prints at a very low price. She has sued Shein and its distribution company for more than US$100 million in damages.

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