Love Meter Shirt Steals Bright Idea

[vansau]

Love Meter Shirt Steals Bright Idea

A shirt that lights up with hearts when another is nearby sounds like a cute idea. Too bad it was cloned from another design and marketed using another person's photos.

We've all heard stories about how, when a person finds that special someone they're meant to be with, it's love at first sight and both people seem to light up. The Love Meter Shirt, it turns out, takes the hard work out of finding your soul mate, provided that they've got the same fashion sense you do. Unfortunately, the shirt itself is a blatant copy of the 8-Bit Dynami Life Shirt sold at ThinkGeek.

The idea is that this shirt features an image of a battery on its front that normally lights up a portion of the hearts inside the battery. However, when a wearer stands close to another person wearing the same type of shirt, all the hearts become lit. While copying the concept might be forgivable on its own - after all, we've all had moments where inspiration struck and gave us the same idea that someone else already had - whoever manufactures the Love Meter Shirt clearly knew they were stealing someone else's idea.

According to Geek.com, "ThinkGeek, our sister website, has been selling the 8-Bit Dynami Life Shirt which does the same thing, minus the battery graphic, since 2008. In fact, Etronixmart, who is selling the Love Meter T-Shirt is using the same photo used on ThinkGeek to sell their shirt."

EtronixMart has already <a href=http://www.etronixmart.com/love-meter-t-shirt-heart-lights-full-in-5meters-p-737.html>pulled down the shirt's web page, probably because someone contacted the site and used words like "copyright infringement" and "lawyers." It just goes to show that if you steal someone's idea and try to sell it on the Web, there's a good chance it'll come back to bite you.

Source: Geek.com



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[wasalp]

hmm if only he had taken his own picture...instead of photoshopping one that sells(basically) the same product.

 

[Jared]

Well, he should have known. If you are going to try rip someone elses product off...gonna bite you eventually!

 

[GrymZero]

I'm glad to see someone finally doing something about stuff like this. I hate seeing good ideas getting abused like that.

 

[Jake the Snake]

*Facepalm* are people really this scrapped for shirt ideas?

 

[Sean Strife]

Serves the assholes right.

 

[Enigmers]

I thought that was the visibility marker from the Thief games.

 

[laryri]

It isn't even that great a picture!

 

[TheBluesader]

I'm a little surprised that the original shirt was so popular that someone else tried to cash in by ripping it off.

But using the exact same photo - that's almost brilliant in it's laziness.

Or both manufactures assume that people are only buying the shirts because they want to be like the people in the picture. Who appear to be selling the "WASP office drone / biker / part-time indie rocker / ironic hipster about all of it" lifestyle the kids are so into these days.

Damn. The world of novelty tees is far more complex than I would have expected.

 

[Popcicle42]

WOW, blatant... and not even the best photoshop job, either. Bravo, and I hope ThinkGeek nails your ghoulies to the wall, you lazy bastards.

 

[orangecharger]

Copyright Infringement - Epic Fail!

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Here's what I don't get: why would you go through the trouble of photoshopping your shirt onto the original photo, when taking a new picture would not only be faster and easier, but much less obvious that the idea was blatantly stolen.

 

[hyperdrachen]

haha i see this kinda thing in my store alot, there's this one shot of a kid using a water baloon slingshot, he has been shopped onto packages with toy planes and various other toys the exact same photo, just shopped to have him hold a different toy. Kids probably been getting screwed out of royalties for years.

 

[hyperdrachen]

Here's what I don't get: why would you go through the trouble of photoshopping your shirt onto the original photo, when taking a new picture would not only be faster and easier, but much less obvious that the idea was blatantly stolen.

Well when your drunk off how clever you feal for jacking somone elses idea, the damndest things start to look like a good idea.

 

[Avaholic03]

I'm glad to see someone finally doing something about stuff like this. I hate seeing good ideas getting abused like that.

So you're saying that shirt is a good idea? How many pet rocks do you own?

 

[GrymZero]

I'm glad to see someone finally doing something about stuff like this. I hate seeing good ideas getting abused like that.

So you're saying that shirt is a good idea? How many pet rocks do you own?

I'm saying it's a good idea because it's obviously made enough money that someone saw it and wanted to copy it. To me, a good idea is one that makes money, but that's because I've reached that cynical point in my life where I realize that artistic vision is cool and all, but money makes the world go 'round. And I've never owned a pet rock.