Regarding Recasts

[DollyKim]

What if someone has discovered one of their dolls or part like a head is a recast?

[Kirahfaye]

After hearing about the guy who has stolen DOA members' dolls in trades being in my area (though no one in my local group knows him) and the recent uprising over recasting (which is good), I posted this on my group's Facebook page and, not unexpectedly, received unanimous agreement.

Recasting has been in the doll news recently, with companies like Mint on Card and JPop publicly vowing to not sell to individuals believed to be recasters or recast friendly. With that in mind, these are my own personal thoughts on the subject in relation to this doll group and how I've come to understand where we stand on recasts. I'm only the creator of this page, not the group leader, so please feel free to add to this discussion in the comments.

Recasting is stealing.

While we as a local group wouldn't kick someone out who inadvertently purchased a recast, we do not in any way, shape or form condone recasting or the selling and buying of recast BJDs. It's not like we inspect every doll that is brought to a meeting to make sure they aren't recast - we aren't the BJD gestapo. But we like to think of ourselves as responsible doll collectors. If you suspect a doll you bought might be a recast, we have members who could probably help verify whether that's true or not. Bring it to a meeting and let us check it for you (there are often very obvious signs). If you knowing and intentionally have a recast, leave it at home.

Why? Because recasting is STEALING. Knowingly and intentionally owning a recast doll is ILLEGAL. Just like someone breaking into your house and stealing your laptop is theft and someone else buying that laptop knowing it was stolen is against the law, recasting and buying recast items is, too.

Long ago and far away, in the early days of personal web pages, I actually used to design backgrounds and pages for people. I spent a lot of time creating my designs and even if I usually didn't charge for them, they were still MY property. Years after I stopped, I would periodically come across one of my designs being claimed by someone else as their own. Was I flattered that someone thought my hard work was worth taking as their own? Did I shrug it off as no big deal? What do you think? :<

Don't support recasting. It's not 'okay'. Neither is it 'no big deal'. It's theft and it's wrong and recasters should be prosecuted.

And this is a very well phrased explanation another member made when someone asked about how to deal with a recast doll:

IMHO, if you purchased a recast unknowingly, then you are not at fault, and are a victim of whoever sold it to you as legit. Further, if you love the doll, don't blame the doll for what it is. Love it and enjoy it, and if you are of an ability, strongly consider purchasing a legit version. If you can't... well, you know, just enjoy it. But do know that you won't be able to sell it.

[famedglory]

I'm really thrilled with this general move against recasts.

[Greyhaunt]

As I mentioned in my post, if you are the victim of a recast unknowingly purchased, neither you nor your doll will be "punished" here. My aim is to say we do not condone and will not permit the encouraging of, sale of, or discussion of the methods of recasting. Unfortunately there are other places out there which lack our standards.

[Vetinari]

Theft is theft. In the end everyone in the community suffers because of it.

I've got a few unwitting bootleg vinyls, and a couple more of dubious origin where it's unclear if they're legit or not. (Some people reckon they're pirate some reckon legit and you could successfully argue either way, and they're all old enough that I'll never know for sure) Wouldn't have purchased them if I'd known, but now I have them I enjoy them for what they are, and they'll never be sold on.

I take the same policy with bjds, though so far I haven't really bought anything 2nd hand that's in the risk category.

I agree that information rather than misinformation should be allowable so people know what to look out for. I think if people are going to buy them purposefully there's not much you can do to stop them if they're determined, but we can try to prevent as many accidental purchases as possible.

[cirquemom]

Supposedly, you can sometimes tell if a doll is recast by looking inside the headcap. Because I'm completely senile, I can't remember exactly what it was. I think that a legit doll will always be smooth and finished-looking (YIKES DO NOT LOOK INSIDE MARY'S HEAD).
I have had artwork stolen and used commercially and it pissed me off BIGTIME. I had been doing freelance work for a magazine, the editor left and took my files, then used them as part of a label design for a client who made preserves (this is not doll art). After the fact, he contacted me offering me a "free webpage on his online gallery site!!!" BIG FUCKING DEAL, no, give me the money. Which he did but not until after a LOT of vicious emails had flown back and forth and I threatened him with intellectual property laws (which were new back then- this was a good 15 years ago).

There are facebook groups devoted to people who love recasts. Whatever. There are also online website forums dedicated to telling you how to take prescription drugs for the best buzz (as in, recreational use of prescription drugs). I think people who knowingly buy recasts are scum, and I think people who knowingly sell recasts and represent them as legit are even worse. I have read of people who have saved money, gotten a GREAT deal on a doll- only to discover that it was a recast. Generally these are people who are new to the Hobby, and that is really, really sad.

[spark]

Recasting may be stealing, (and that's simplifying something that is actually a complicated issue) but recasting is NOT rape.

I'm sorry, I can't feel comfortable in a place where that kind of hateful, accusatory rhetoric is perpetuated by the people in charge. If you want to ban recasts I respect that. I will support that. I have no argument whatsoever against that. I AM an artist who makes BJDs, so I understand why a place might want to ban them. But when you say that copying art is the same thing as sexual abuse, you are trivializing something that should NEVER be trivialized, and you are also tarring a huge group of people, some of whom are pretty nice people, with one big, nasty brush.

I'll say right here, I own a recast. I own a couple, in fact, because AS an artist I'm interested in modding dolls, but AS an artist I'm flat broke and cannot afford to spend $500 on something I'm going to cut to pieces. So I got the cheap knockoff so that I wouldn't ruin something expensive and awesome in the course of making my art. I guess that makes me the same thing as a rapist now. So since nobody likes rapists, I'll be leaving this forum so you don't have to have evil, horrible, nasty criminals like me around.

[Greyhaunt]

All I can say Spark is that I hope no one ever steals one of your wonderful, original creations and recasts them, because then you will understand why I say what I say, and feel what I feel.

And I would like to point out that the word rape is not exclusively defined as a sexual violation. That is the most common usage, yes, but if you look it up you will find the following definitions:

rape, noun
1. The unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse.
2. Any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.
3. Statutory rape.
4. An act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside.
5. Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by force.

verb (used with object)
6. To force to have sexual intercourse.
7. To plunder (a place); despoil.
8. To seize, take, or carry off by force.

verb (used without object)
9. To commit rape.

Definitions 4, 5, 7, and 8 would apply as used in the case of the theft of intellectual property.

I'd like to thank K2, who is actually the one who provided me with the above definition listing.

You know, I love that you, as an artist, like to mod dolls - but I'm sorry, that is still no excuse to knowingly purchase a knockoff copy of a doll. If you don't want to ruin an expensive doll, buy a cheaper brand to experiment on. Lots of people experiment with modding dolls - they buy Bobobie, Resinsoul, Mirodoll - any of a number of relatively inexpensive dolls to work on or practice with before dropping the money on the truly expensive one they want to do the final work on.

And no - I have never called you a rapist. If you pay attention to what I wrote I refer to recasting - the act of copying a product of someone else's product - as mental rape. By definition that would make the person who MAKES the recast the "rapist", not the person who purchases it knowingly or unknowingly. I, personally, would consider someone who knowingly purchases a recast similar to someone who knowingly purchases any stolen property - helping to perpetuate a crime by supporting it.

You've chosen to put labels on yourself - no one here has put them on you and I certainly have not. I'm sorry you want to leave - you are very creative and I would have loved to one day purchase one of your animal balls and I know many people here will miss having you around.

But lets be clear on one thing - I'm not going to apologize for the fact that I hate the businesses that are out there stealing the hard work of others and recasting it so they can make money and as an artist who HAS had her INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STOLEN I will continue to refer to that kind of theft as mental rape and just as you are within your rights to disagree with me, I am within my rights to feel that way.

[Kirahfaye]

Sparks, what you call hateful, I call outrage. If you are going to pick out one phrase that was said as your reason for not feeling comfortable here because you own recasts, then there's really little more we can do. I won't make apologies for my feelings or comments whether they are in line with GHs or not.

And, as someone who actually has been raped, I didn't find her comment over the top. It's called a metaphor. And it's time people stopped jumping on the use of metaphors by others as a reason to excuse their own issues.

[Evelien]

I was a "victim" last year. I bought a Minifee body on the DoA marketplace that, for some reason, didn't feel right from the start - gut feeling? - but only after a few months I found out it was a recast. I was devastated and I was simply unable to love the doll that was using the body after that. When I contacted the seller she didn't ask anything, like why I thought it was a recast; she immediately offered to buy the body back. That's why I'm pretty sure she knew it was a recast when she sold it to me. But I was happy it was gone - I got my money back and was able to get a legit Minifee body. It took me a while to love my Unoa Sist hybrid, Carly, again though. It took a new wig, new eyes and a new faceup for me to be able to feel good about her again. It may sound silly but it really felt that way to me.

I hate recasts. I don't judge people who own them but I myself am incapable of loving them for what they are. Having one felt really really wrong even though it was not my fault. I think I would have had to throw it away, hadn't she bought it back. I wouldn't have known what to do with it otherwise.