At DragonCon last month, a couple of cosplayers decided to sidestep the usual fare of superheroes and cartoon characters in favor of dressing up as the carpet at the Marriott hotel where the con takes place. Yup, there was carpet-colored camo. That is a real thing that now exists. Naturally, other people wanted to emulate the design, but, alas, this psychedelic carpet army was not to be – because Courtisan Inc., the company that designed the original rug, issued a Cease and Desist soon after the design went up.
Volpin Props, the cosplay designer, posted on their facebook page about the incident and received almost 300 comments, ranging from serious discussion of copyright and intellectual property to expressions of surprise that anyone would admit to having designed such an ugly carpet. Still, Volpin Props has gracefully stated that they are “in complete agreement with [Courtisan’s] decision,” so it looks like anyone looking to blend in with the carpeting in the future will have to make their own costume. Or maybe they should try the wallpaper?
Carpet controversy aside, I think that we all can rest easy knowing that this photo exists:
The moral of the story is A. Cosplayers are will always find new ways to be creative and awesome and B. You can’t sell carpets that don’t belong to you, no matter how ugly they are.
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Published: Sep 20, 2013 02:00 pm