Billie Eilish, team accused of plagiarizing anime art for merch design
Billie Eilish has been breaking out a lot of new merch pieces as of late, but it looks like one is landing her and her team in hot water.
The singer recently dropped a limited item featuring bikini-clad anime girls which some people noticed resembles fan art from an anime series.
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Multiple people online pointed out her new merch features the character Nozomi Tojo from Love Live!, however, AnimeNewsNetwork.com reports the fan art belongs to artist Makoto Kurokawa.
BILLIE EILISH x SIBERIA HILLS
Available now in limited quantities for a limited time. https://t.co/DfS5chOLZ5 pic.twitter.com/CrwCCvRyDG— billie eilish (@billieeilish) August 7, 2019
Numerous people have been calling her out online as you can see below.
Billie Eilish is selling stolen Nozomi art in her merch what the fuck
This is peak 2019, in a bad way pic.twitter.com/XD1VHa2siO
— Nessie (@nestuur) August 8, 2019
Not how it works. The artist themselves shouldn’t be profiting on account of this being fan art of a licensed character. This is both art theft, which is douchey but not illegal, and copyright infringement, which is illegal… in both Japan and the US. A much, much bigger oopsie.
— Peter (@bun_taicho) August 9, 2019
Also wanted to add that this “brand” Siberia Hills are bootleg merch creators who steal copywritten materials and sell them at exorbitant prices which is illegal under both US and Japanese copyright laws. Billie please dont support these kinds of practices. pic.twitter.com/HBKcemRS6l
— ??Noire?? (@NoiresDusk) August 8, 2019
Bro how’d you fall for Siberia Hills he already did this before. pic.twitter.com/QfuiRliSQn
— GrookeySays Cousin Epep (@GrookeySays) August 8, 2019
Neither Eilish or representatives from her team have commented on the issue as of yet.
What do you think of Billie Eilish’s alleged design plagiarism? Let us know in the comments below.
