Is it wrong for someone to copy your cake, without your permission?
I recently had someone contact me about a cake they saw on here and thought it was mine.... and it's not.... but a definite rip off of my original design.

It is an honor for someone to like my work and want to have their hand at trying to duplicate it, i have no problems with that... Id offer up advice if need be... but I think a person should ask permission first, and then give credit to the original work.

I don't want to be a mean person, but it hurts my feelings, not to mention is very hard trying to explain to someone wanting one of my original cakes...

What should i do?

Personally you should be flattered that someone chose to attempt to remake your cake. I just looked at your pictures and you do amazing work.

I think people use CC to get ideas for cakes, some may just use part of a cake someone else did, or they may try do the whole cake.... Just be flattered.

Once again you do amazing work...

I would definitely be flattered, wouldn't bother me a bit, it would be nice if they gave credit to me, but its fine if they didn't. Sometimes they don't remember, haven't we all taken ideas from people.

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery--and I personally take it that way, but many others do not.

Many people here feel that the copier should at least credit the "original" designer--rarely an easy feat because many cakes are copies of copies, sometimes without the copiers even knowing that they're copying something.

I look at hundreds of cakes a week. I have a pretty good memory, but I can't always say from whom or where I got my inspiration. I often take bits and pieces of many cakes I've seen to come up with designs. I don't take credit and I generally don't give it.

One clear example is the process currently termed, "billowing", that's been seen on the site. I found it amusing that so much was made of it as something new......it's clearly pictured and explained in one of Nicholas Lodge's books--I believe the 3rd one in the International School of Sugarcraft series.

If having your cakes copied is uncomfortable for you, I suggest that you no longer post photos online.

Rae

Recently I was asked to EXACTLY replicate a cake by Rouvelee Ilagan. I really didn't want to exactly copy the cake but the client insisted. (Plus the fact that I'm no Rouvelee!) I did post the cake on FB but gave complete credit for the design to Rouvelee. I never posted my cake on CC out of respect to the original artist. There are so many photos out here on the www. How do you approach a client who insist an a cake seen somewhere else?

(P.S. CiNoRi; I tried to copy..uh..I am very inspired by your cakes all of the time!)

Honestly, in my opinion, if you don't want someone to use one of your cakes as inspiration, you shouldn't post it.

If I am using an idea from someone else's cakes I will try to state that in the description, but I can't always tell you who the actual designer was, or if that person came up with the idea first or if they saw it from someone else.

I just did a western baby shower cake. My SIL linked me one picture, then when I looked on CC I saw a ton of them done in the same theme. I have no idea who actually did that cake first.

In my opinion, if you post your pics on Cake Central, or anywhere else for that matter, people are going to try to copy it. Almost anytime I do a cake I either look online for inspiration, or someone comes to me with a picture they'd like me to replicate. I do however, think it is wrong to try to claim a cake you recieved inspiration from elsewhere, as your own. But almost all of my cakes, I've gotten an idea from somewhere. I do try to always say who I got the picture from, and if I don't know, I say sorry, not sure who's this is from... but this is what it is, etc, etc.

[quote="CiNoRi"]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TexasSugar



I know we can't keep up with it all there IS a LOT of inspiration out there, no doubt!
Even saying "i was inspired by another cake online" or whatever, is fine too. People just shouldn't say that a given design was their own... when its a verbatim copy That's my only real "beef" lol

If the person posted the picture on here and claimed it was their own idea, and I knew which picture they got it from, depending on my mood, I might call them on it. "Oh, such a pretty cake, I thought so when Caker So & So posted their version of it in May of last year."

If they posted with out saying anything, neither claiming it is theirs or claiming it is theirs, then I'd leave it alone. Even if the idea wasn't theirs originally, (some of us just have trouble coming up with our own ideas) they cake in the pictures is theirs as well as the work.

i always try to ask first when and where possible- if i dont receive comment back i go ahead but always make reference to the original artist and photo used for inspiration. my cakes never turn out like those they were inspired by but- i give credit whenever possible to what and who inspired me.

Wow! Had no idea people felt so strongly about this.... So when I get ideas from here and there I need to do a works cited of sorts?? I have a bazillion pics of cakes saved to my computer, no idea where they all came from. Sometimes cakes are so basic there is only so much room for originality. Other times there are many pics of cakes that look similar...

It wouldn't bother me. I've seen a few cakes I used to keep online ages ago, done by others. One especially, a boys cake, and I considered it flattering that someone liked my work enough to want to make their own version of it.

I tend to think that my idea's, or bit and pieces of ideas, designs, etc, came from someone else anyway.

Be it art work I've admired, book illustrations I've seen loved and remembered, flowers, photographs, cakes in my many decorating books, and since becoming a computer owner, cakes online. All these contribute to helping me with idea's or designs for a cake.

I'd be hard pressed to say a cake I made was my original design, as I'd never know for sure it really was..