Alva stealing prints?

[March]

Originally Posted by MTmommyof3 I will chime in here, because stolen registered artwork that is copyright protected by U.S. law is a serious issue and affects the entire cloth diaper market. We go to great lengths to provide our customers with unique prints that are designed by our in house graphics team here at GroVia. Yes, Mod Flower, Owls, and Nature all have been stolen and "reproduced" by Alva. There is very little we can do because U.S. copyright laws only protect us for the goods sold here on U.S. soil. What that does mean, is anyone importing these copied prints can be held liable. We take this issue seriously. Yes, DiaperSwappers does host an Alva Coop featuring our copied prints and we have tried contacting them numerous times asking them to remove the diapers with the stolen prints from the Alva Coop, but they will not reply via email or via the PM system here on the board.

Sketchy!

[kaia.aline]

Originally Posted by March But seriously. I'd love to hear someone try to defend this!

I'm not defending it at all since I have not ever bought a china made diaper but i thunk some of the things said could really hurt some people's feelings, esp if all they can afford are the less expensive diapers

[november]

Originally Posted by MTmommyof3 I will chime in here, because stolen registered artwork that is copyright protected by U.S. law is a serious issue and affects the entire cloth diaper market. We go to great lengths to provide our customers with unique prints that are designed by our in house graphics team here at GroVia. Yes, Mod Flower, Owls, and Nature all have been stolen and "reproduced" by Alva. There is very little we can do because U.S. copyright laws only protect us for the goods sold here on U.S. soil. What that does mean, is anyone importing these copied prints can be held liable. We take this issue seriously. Yes, DiaperSwappers does host an Alva Coop featuring our copied prints and we have tried contacting them numerous times asking them to remove the diapers with the stolen prints from the Alva Coop, but they will not reply via email or via the PM system here on the board.

Wow, disappointed to hear this about DS and their lack of cooperation...

Sent from my ADR6400L using DS Forum

[themamageek]

Originally Posted by kaia.aline I'm not defending it at all since I have not ever bought a china made diaper but i thunk some of the things said could really hurt some people's feelings, esp if all they can afford are the less expensive diapers

Prefolds and flats are cheaper than Alvas. Cloth diapers in general are cheaper than disposables. Used diapers are competitive in price to Alvas on FSOT and not much more expensive than Alvas from co-ops (and come in a lot faster, which reduces disposable diaper usage anyway). This is coming from someone who had to scrimp to get cloth diapers together when my son was a baby. I only cloth diapered because of prefolds and the help of other amazing mothers on a CD community.

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but it's still true. Buying Alvas supports this kind of unethical business practice. Buying Alvas cheaply through co-ops for the purpose of reselling for profit (this happens a lot) also supports this kind of unethical business practice.

It's one thing that it might be cheap labor. Clothes and other things made and then sold in the US are made with cheap labor and it's hard to get away from or to know what to look for. Blatant rip off of copyrighted work and intellectual property is something else and it's a huge, huge problem for smaller, artisan-type communities.

[laineypaige]

Well I've bought and have several Alvas and I really like them. I could never have afforded diapers that cost $20 each or even $10 each used. I even bought one of their new prints, that I know now was a copy of someone's design. It's the owl one. But I've never bought or used, or even seen a grovia diaper so I had no way of knowing it was their print. I just thought it was cute so I bought it.

Some of the previous posters were right, ya'll are bashing people like me claiming that by buying Alva diapers we are ruining the cloth diaper industry and all these small businesses. Well I can promise that wasn't my intention. I just wanted to use cloth, but only had a small amount of money to do it with so I went with cheap, and so far, they've worked fine.

I understand the ethical aspect of this, and I won't buy a stolen print again, but I will probably buy Alva diapers again, and I don't think you all should judge me because of that.

I've enjoyed this website since I joined, and all the people I've met through it, but this post is very judgmental, and I know everyone has a right to their opinion and right to voice their opinion, but please don't talk badly about others, because people can get their feelings hurt.

[Rdesonia]

Originally Posted by laineypaige Well I've bought and have several Alvas and I really like them. I could never have afforded diapers that cost $20 each or even $10 each used. I even bought one of their new prints, that I know now was a copy of someone's design. It's the owl one. But I've never bought or used, or even seen a grovia diaper so I had no way of knowing it was their print. I just thought it was cute so I bought it. Some of the previous posters were right, ya'll are bashing people like me claiming that by buying Alva diapers we are ruining the cloth diaper industry and all these small businesses. Well I can promise that wasn't my intention. I just wanted to use cloth, but only had a small amount of money to do it with so I went with cheap, and so far, they've worked fine. I understand the ethical aspect of this, and I won't buy a stolen print again, but I will probably buy Alva diapers again, and I don't think you all should judge me because of that. I've enjoyed this website since I joined, and all the people I've met through it, but this post is very judgmental, and I know everyone has a right to their opinion and right to voice their opinion, but please don't talk badly about others, because people can get their feelings hurt.

I honestly don't think anyone is bashing someone that didn't know. It think they are simply saying that if you do KNOW and are making the CHOICE to buy a "knock-off" that obviously has a stolen print .... Making the choice to buy something that is basically illegal to save a buck is wrong.

I own an Alva Diaper. (It's a solid color Olive green one) I bought it on Ebay. I also bought many other "made in china" minky pocket diapers. No where did I read on ANY of those listings anything fishy. They were obviously selling to USA and the transaction was in US dollars. I don't feel I as a consumer should be liable for their fraud. I can't scour all the cloth diapers made by every company to make sure the print I buy is not a copyright infringement. KWIM?

I do think that if they were confiscated by customs that the customer would get a refund as they were not delivered. (At least if the person used paypal/Ebay) I would not have had my feelings hurt in the least bit if that were to have happened. If something is illegal to import to the US... It should not be imported. If the item is Illegal... EBay needs to be made aware and pull those listings (black list the seller).

And I think whoever moderates the co-ops need to be made aware of this thread and the issue. (I pm-ed them)

[laineypaige]

Originally Posted by Rdesonia I honestly don't think anyone is bashing someone that didn't know. It think they are simply saying that if you do KNOW and are making the CHOICE to buy a "knock-off" that obviously has a stolen print .... Making the choice to buy something that is basically illegal to save a buck is wrong. I own an Alva Diaper. (It's a solid color Olive green one) I bought it on Ebay. I also bought many other "made in china" minky pocket diapers. No where did I read on ANY of those listings anything fishy. They were obviously selling to USA and the transaction was in US dollars. I don't feel I as a consumer should be liable for their fraud. I can't scour all the cloth diapers made by every company to make sure the print I buy is not a copyright infringement. KWIM? I do think that if they were confiscated by customs that the customer would get a refund as they were not delivered. (At least if the person used paypal/Ebay) I would not have had my feelings hurt in the least bit if that were to have happened. If something is illegal to import to the US... It should not be imported. If the item is Illegal... EBay needs to be made aware and pull those listings (black list the seller). And I think whoever moderates the co-ops need to be made aware of this thread and the issue.

You're exactly right. I probably shouldn't have gotten my feelings hurt, I know that no one was trying to be mean, I guess it just made me feel bad, and like the people commenting on this post thought I had done something wrong. Like you said, it's not my responsibility to make sure the products I buy aren't infringing on someone else's copyrights, but if I know that they are then I shouldn't support those things. This post has definitely got me thinking

[themamageek]

Originally Posted by laineypaige You're exactly right. I probably shouldn't have gotten my feelings hurt, I know that no one was trying to be mean, I guess it just made me feel bad, and like the people commenting on this post thought I had done something wrong. Like you said, it's not my responsibility to make sure the products I buy aren't infringing on someone else's copyrights, but if I know that they are then I shouldn't support those things. This post has definitely got me thinking

Exactly. I know that my post in particular is directed at people who do know, not the ones who didn't.

[momof3boys1girl]

Originally Posted by MTmommyof3 I will chime in here, because stolen registered artwork that is copyright protected by U.S. law is a serious issue and affects the entire cloth diaper market. We go to great lengths to provide our customers with unique prints that are designed by our in house graphics team here at GroVia. Yes, Mod Flower, Owls, and Nature all have been stolen and "reproduced" by Alva. There is very little we can do because U.S. copyright laws only protect us for the goods sold here on U.S. soil. What that does mean, is anyone importing these copied prints can be held liable. We take this issue seriously. Yes, DiaperSwappers does host an Alva Coop featuring our copied prints and we have tried contacting them numerous times asking them to remove the diapers with the stolen prints from the Alva Coop, but they will not reply via email or via the PM system here on the board.

Where are these emails being sent too? Ive been running coops for awhile now along with admin sally and we have seen nothing from you req us to stop running alva. I have heard of emails being sent to other boards but not one to us.

[momof3boys1girl]

Originally Posted by november Wow, disappointed to hear this about DS and their lack of cooperation... Sent from my ADR6400L using DS Forum

She hasnt sent us anything. I nor sally have seen or heard anything of these emails till another host on another board spoke about it today on facebook.