Lithuanian Photographer Outraged After IKEA Bulgaria Rips Off His “Quarantine Portraits” Series
Interview With Artist
While this has certainly been an issue for as long as many of us can remember, plagiarism (in any of its forms or calibers) has been on the rise lately.
If you’ve been following the news lately, you will have heard how China has effectively stolen and flipped a video of the Swiss Alps in hopes of passing it off as their own mountains, or how this one artist applied for an internship at Converse, suggesting some of her own design ideas, only to see them plagiarized in a future shoe design that went public.
Well, there’s another plagiarism story arising, one connected to photographer Adas Vasiliauskas and a project of his that has already been featured on Bored Panda—quarantine portraits using a drone.
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Remember the “Quarantine Portraits” project? Well, with things as huge as this, there’s bound to be copycats, right?
Image credit: Adas Vasiliauskas
So, remember when Bored Panda featured drone footage—portraits, if you may—of people chilling on their balconies in the coolest ways during the start of quarantine? The man behind it, Adas Vasiliauskas, came into huge fame because of this project, eventually becoming the father of the idea, so to say.
Last year, Adas was tagged in this one photographer’s photo post comments by someone from Bulgaria, asking if they’d have the courtesy to tag Adas as part of the pictures. Several clicks later, Adas runs into a familiar sight—drone footage of people on balconies, having the time of their lives.
Well, yeah, there is, and this time it’s IKEA Bulgaria who more or less copied the Quarantine Portraits project for their ad campaign
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
The photos, granted, were not his, but had the same style, choreography, and overall air to them. After further investigation, he found out from this photographer, Aleksandar Kostov, that he got a commercial request from a Bulgarian ad agency called the Smarts, which is working on an ad campaign for IKEA Bulgaria, to do this. He was given Adas’ photo as a reference. That’s all.
“I didn’t talk much with the Bulgarian photographer, just verified with him whether he truly got my picture from the ad agency as a reference on how he should go about with this project,” elaborated Adas in an interview with Bored Panda.
“He didn’t do anything wrong, he’s a commercial photographer, an ad agency approached him with a task, and he did it. I’m a commercial photographer myself, I do loads of ads, so I know how it’s all done and I don’t blame the guy at all.”
Adas, the man behind the original project, was tagged under some photos of another photographer that were clearly inspired by his quarantine project
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas
After some questions, he found out that an ad agency hired this photographer to do the same thing Adas did
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas
And while these aren’t identical, they certainly mimic the style, choreography and other aspects of the original photos
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
Sure enough, Kostov sent Adas a link to IKEA’s page with the pictures of Bulgarian balconies in all of their glory, with some of them bearing great similarities to what Adas did a year back. Well, what followed was one 4-page legal complaint letter to the Bulgarian IKEA regarding the issue.
“I forgot the legal wording—it was something among the lines of infringing upon the directing performance of it. But even though the idea isn’t patented, the resemblance in time is too obvious for it to be written off as just a coincidence and that nobody could have known,” explained Adas in his Facebook post (in Lithuanian).
In our interview, Adas explained that the legal complaint included demands for financial remuneration for the use of the idea. Since he was already talking to several other global agencies regarding the use of this idea, he wasn’t really interested in anything other than that. “I already had enough glory at that point,” joked Adas.
Adas got in touch with IKEA Bulgaria, and after a long wait, they responded with a legal statement, effectively denying everything and saying no to his demands
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
IKEA Bulgaria remained silent. Until several weeks later, when Adas’ team got in touch with the IKEA mothership, after which the Bulgarian branch issued a statement.
To quote Adas’ post, it was “an approx. 5 to 6-page letter of ‘I didn’t do it’: they denied everything, sent us off because the idea isn’t ours, used some legal-eagle speech to disregard our arguments, pointed out everyone has a drone, and even more so—a balcony—so wham bam thank you ma’am, good-bye and please stop pestering us.”
From a legal standpoint, Adas decided to not pursue any further actions—after all, it’s another country with its own laws, the situation overall is rather vague, and getting evidence for it would be a problem, so he just paid for the legal complaint procedures and considered it a learning experience that he shared with the internet.
Now, pursuing legal action would be very tricky without patents or clear evidence, but it would have surely been nice if they’d asked
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
While one could argue from a legal standpoint that people were simply doing as they were told and that this can definitely be interpreted as an inspiration, not plagiarism, it does point out just how far certain lines can be pushed if brands (and ad agencies behind them) are allowed to do so.
“Plagiarism is a serious problem. In my experience, it’s more often the case of my photos and not ideas that are being used without permission,” elaborated Adas. “Some even get shocked at how photographers dare to make such a big deal about it. Perhaps it’s the same with ideas.”
“On the other hand, if they got in touch with me, asked for permissions and whatnot, despite the client not having a budget for it, I think I would have probably let them use the idea. At that moment, I would get upwards of 10 editorial requests per day. Sure, these were editorials and news sites, but a different set of rules applies for commercial use.
Regardless, this raises an issue of how much brands, big or small, will push the line without getting in trouble
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
He admitted that the situation is slippery—there’s no legal security for the idea—but it doesn’t take a lot to understand that this was Adas’ idea. “It was during the pandemic, the project was spreading around the globe like wildfire, and the resemblance is just too uncanny to claim anything other than my photos being an obvious reference.”
This is besides the fact that Adas has won awards for this project, including the Drone Photo Award, for instance, and also took part in the Yixian Photofestival where he showcased his quarantine portraits, and was even covered by a slew of other news media sites, including Insider, the New York Post, and PetaPixel, among many others.
Adas wasn’t the only one unhappy with this, as some people online bashed the ad agency for being so inconsiderate, all the while also making jokes about how fast IKEA was to respond to someone who would start a furniture business “inspired” by IKEA.
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
Image credits: Adas Vasiliauskas / IKEA Bulgaria
There were, however, many who emphasized how not having a patent and “it all being on the internet” often leads to situations like this and nobody can really be angry about it.
What are your thoughts on the matter? If you’re an artist and have had your work plagiarized in the past, share your stories and advice in the comment section below!
And if you want more from Adas, you can check out his various social media here, here, and here.
That isn't plagiarism at all. That's just inspiration by someone else's idea. That photographer is being ridiculous...
Exactly. Also that photographer said "whether he truly got my picture from the ad agency as a reference on how he should go about with this project". He used word reference as well, so where's plagiarism? If that's it then I think we have to sue the whole world, because people get inspired by the art or any other creations made by other human beings, lol.
Load More Replies...
Sorry, but I saw hundreds of photos like these, from all over the world posted all over social media during the height of the pandemic. While there are some similarities, I have a hard time calling this plagiarism. It's not like they took his exact photos. Hell we don't even know if they actually used his for inspiration.
Design theft on line is a huge problem for small designers. But in this case, I don't see it. Photographing people from above during quarantine doesn't seem particularly unique enough to suppose they got the idea from him and the individual comparisons are utterly unconvincing.
Sorry but this is just how the creative industry works. As soon as something goes viral, people (especially brands) are going to want to do something similar. It's annoying, but it's not plagiarism. If the artist didn't want anyone being inspired they shouldn't have shared it on the internet at all.
His was not a unique concept. Our city council did it. People submitted their creative ideas for spending time in lockdown then did an online photo exhibition. Many of the photos were very similar to those of this artist.
Someone here needs a dictionary to understand what plagiarism actually means.
Ok, here's the thing... I'm all for artists but my husband also gave me a haircut out on the balcony, we didn't photograph the occasion because it's a f*****g haircut but my thing is... this artist photo "ideas" are just things people do... especially during a lockdown. We all lounged in our back gardens, we all hung out on balconies... we were all trying to get as much fresh air as possible during a time when we couldn't be out and about. That is the equivalent of calling someone a copycat because they took a picture of themselves with a birthday cake on their birthday... EVERYONE DOES THAT!
Honestly, there's too many differences between the photos. They look nothing alike to me. There's no plagiarism here. Inspiration, maybe, but definitely not plagiarism.
Afraid I DO see copying. They have taken the photographers ideas and exploited them, Ok they are different to an extent but really just stealing pure and simple.
I"m sorry, but this is like saying that anyone who has ever painted a nude, or a still life with fruit, or ocean waves crashing on the rocks *stole* their idea from the very first person who did this. Well, news flash: a huge aspect of art is being inspired by the work of previous artists. Don't we read all the time about the previous directors who influenced our favorite film makers? Well, same thing, etc,
Obviously it goes beyond merely spired by but at the same time a lot of the pictures aren't that similar, just similar concepts
I feel for the first photographer, but I don't think of it as plagiarism. If that were the case, any photo would be plagiarism!
IKEA Bulgaria did similar in 2020. The same agency, The Smarts, working for IKEA Bulgaria, has used a scandal, based on fake news, to promote their own products. It was about the Bulgarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale for contemporary art, and some BG media wrote, the exhibited glasses where IKEA´s Pokal glasses. It was not true! But noone cared, the Bulgarian society sadly prefers to read about scandals, rather then to read what the exhibition really was about. So IKEA just delivered them what they like, no matter it was fake news. My lawyer has sent them several letters, no answer up to date! Screen-Sho...85-png.jpg 
That isn't plagiarism at all. That's just inspiration by someone else's idea. That photographer is being ridiculous...
Exactly. Also that photographer said "whether he truly got my picture from the ad agency as a reference on how he should go about with this project". He used word reference as well, so where's plagiarism? If that's it then I think we have to sue the whole world, because people get inspired by the art or any other creations made by other human beings, lol.
Load More Replies... Sorry, but I saw hundreds of photos like these, from all over the world posted all over social media during the height of the pandemic. While there are some similarities, I have a hard time calling this plagiarism. It's not like they took his exact photos. Hell we don't even know if they actually used his for inspiration.
Design theft on line is a huge problem for small designers. But in this case, I don't see it. Photographing people from above during quarantine doesn't seem particularly unique enough to suppose they got the idea from him and the individual comparisons are utterly unconvincing.
Sorry but this is just how the creative industry works. As soon as something goes viral, people (especially brands) are going to want to do something similar. It's annoying, but it's not plagiarism. If the artist didn't want anyone being inspired they shouldn't have shared it on the internet at all.
His was not a unique concept. Our city council did it. People submitted their creative ideas for spending time in lockdown then did an online photo exhibition. Many of the photos were very similar to those of this artist.
Someone here needs a dictionary to understand what plagiarism actually means.
Ok, here's the thing... I'm all for artists but my husband also gave me a haircut out on the balcony, we didn't photograph the occasion because it's a f*****g haircut but my thing is... this artist photo "ideas" are just things people do... especially during a lockdown. We all lounged in our back gardens, we all hung out on balconies... we were all trying to get as much fresh air as possible during a time when we couldn't be out and about. That is the equivalent of calling someone a copycat because they took a picture of themselves with a birthday cake on their birthday... EVERYONE DOES THAT!
Honestly, there's too many differences between the photos. They look nothing alike to me. There's no plagiarism here. Inspiration, maybe, but definitely not plagiarism.
Afraid I DO see copying. They have taken the photographers ideas and exploited them, Ok they are different to an extent but really just stealing pure and simple.
I"m sorry, but this is like saying that anyone who has ever painted a nude, or a still life with fruit, or ocean waves crashing on the rocks *stole* their idea from the very first person who did this. Well, news flash: a huge aspect of art is being inspired by the work of previous artists. Don't we read all the time about the previous directors who influenced our favorite film makers? Well, same thing, etc,
Obviously it goes beyond merely spired by but at the same time a lot of the pictures aren't that similar, just similar concepts
I feel for the first photographer, but I don't think of it as plagiarism. If that were the case, any photo would be plagiarism!
IKEA Bulgaria did similar in 2020. The same agency, The Smarts, working for IKEA Bulgaria, has used a scandal, based on fake news, to promote their own products. It was about the Bulgarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale for contemporary art, and some BG media wrote, the exhibited glasses where IKEA´s Pokal glasses. It was not true! But noone cared, the Bulgarian society sadly prefers to read about scandals, rather then to read what the exhibition really was about. So IKEA just delivered them what they like, no matter it was fake news. My lawyer has sent them several letters, no answer up to date! Screen-Sho...85-png.jpg
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