Billie Eilish’s merch pulled off website after admitting to using stolen anime art

Authored by dailydot.com and submitted by thinkB4WeSpeak

It’s easy for people to pass others’ artwork as their own, especially in the anime fan art world.

Billie Eilish, along with European streetwear fashion brand Siberia Hills, was accused of doing just that. Eilish and the brand dropped their new merchandise collaboration, called Love Live! Eilish shared a link to purchase the merch and people quickly took notice that the character in the art was Nozomi Tojo, and the art itself looked like it was made by popular artist Makoto Kurokawa.

On Saturday, Siberia Hills released a statement on Instagram apologizing for using the art.

“To the talented artist Mr. M_Qurokawa, we apologize for taking from your artwork for our merchandise collaboration with Billie Eilish,” the company wrote. “Billie and her team were not aware we used your art, they just believed in the product.”

The clothing company went on to explain that everyone who made a purchase would be refunded.

The use of the stolen art was first pointed out by Twitter user @nestuur.

“Billie Eilish is selling stolen Nozomi art in her merch what the fuck. This is peak 2019, in a bad way,” @nestuur wrote in a tweet that has since amassed thousands of retweets.

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

The collab featured two hoodies and a T-shirt, all with a graphic of anime girls in four different poses. “Billie” is written in the language Katakana.

i'm just looking at the billie eilish x siberia hills hoodie with the stolen art of nozomi and wondering what else of theirs is stolen too pic.twitter.com/E2b8ejKf6B — rekka 🌻 (@rekka236) August 8, 2019

I sure as fuck hope the original artist is properly compensated for this theft, and it swept under the rug with a “oopsie sorry we removed it from the store uwu” https://t.co/A3riElI3Fs — 🌸tenleid but sfw🌸 (@yyyazy) August 8, 2019

Many were quick to point out that Siberia Hills has allegedly stolen art before.

“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,” Twitter user @NoiresDusk wrote.

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

Eilish hasn’t yet publicly commented on the matter, but her original tweet promoting the merch is now gone, and all the merch has been taken off the website.

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stewmberto on August 11st, 2019 at 18:02 UTC »

So the collection is called "Love Live!" and it uses fanart of a character from the anime of the same name? How is this even Billie Eilish merch at this point- isn't it just Love Live merch for weebs??

SnuggleLobster on August 11st, 2019 at 17:47 UTC »

Billie Eilish is obviously not the one making the t-shirts though, the merch is made by Siberia Hills, they sell simple t-shirts for 155$ and hoodies for 285$, you'd think they could afford to pay for the artists they steal from.

doctor-5000 on August 11st, 2019 at 17:20 UTC »

I'm on mobile and I died trying to read this article