A copy of New Zealand artist Giselle Clarkson's Fish Species of New Zealand poster was being sold on Temu this week for $7.44. The item has since been removed from the store. Photo: Giselle Clarkson
New Zealand artists are being told to "keep an eye on Temu" to make sure their work is not being duplicated and sold on the giant online shopping platform.
A copy of New Zealand artist Giselle Clarkson's 'Fish Species of New Zealand' poster was being sold on Temu this week for $7.44.
It is for sale in the endemicworld gallery in Ponsonby for $59.
Owner of endemicworld Elliot Alexander said it was an ongoing problem.
"It's a continuation of something that's always been around, but the speed of that is going to change so rapidly."
People buying art needed to be aware and make sure they were purchasing from legitimate sellers, he said.
"We know New Zealanders love a bargain, and Temu is the most common online shop anyone shops from."
It seemed that copyright was unevenly policed - people in New Zealand copying other work would be quickly pulled up but international players seemed to be able to get away with it, he said.
Ben Cain of law firm James & Wells agreed New Zealand artists having their work copied was not a new problem.
"Perhaps it's a wider scope of opportunity, it seems there's nothing Temu won't sell. Whether there's more of it, I don't know.
"If you're a copyright owner of artwork like this or any work that is subject to copyright rights, keep an eye on Temu."
Temu had a complaints mechanism where people could report a piece of work that was breaching their intellectual property, he said.
"The challenge then is, is the supplier of that current artwork going to list it again under a new listing with the same name or under a different name with the same picture? That's the challenge you've got with sites like this and Alibaba, you can be successful in getting one page taken down only to have it pop up somewhere else under a different name.
"I would encourage the copyright owner in this sense to contact Temu using their IP portal."
People could also file a border protection notice with Customs, he said.
"What Customs will then do is log the information in the system so if someone tried to import the posters on a commercial scale that would then be flagged."
It would be unlikely to stop people importing items for one-off, personal use but could stop people importing them for sale.
Creative NZ and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage referred queries to Copyright Licensing New Zealand.
Chief executive Sam Irvine said artists could send a cease and desist letter, and Copyright Licensing provided a subsidised service to help with this.
There had been a number of cases in New Zealand where artists had been successful that way, he said.
"It's property right and just like stealing other property like a car."
Irvine said art being sold on sites like Temu was not a common occurrence, "but AI has basically stolen everything".
In a statement to RNZ, Temu said: "We take intellectual property concerns seriously. After receiving your inquiry, we promptly investigated and removed the listing in question. We've also added the artist's works to our database for proactive monitoring.
"Rights holders can report IP-related issues through our dedicated IP Protection Portal."
Giselle Clarkson has been approached for comment.
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