Sizing up the spat over red carpet copycats

Copyright is not a magic bullet, points out University of Virginia's Christopher Sprigman, who studies the process of innovation.

"People don't understand that it would make unlawful anything that is substantially similar to a preceding thing," says the law professor, who testified against the CFDA-backed bill last July. "What copyright would do is blow up the entire fashion industry as we know it," he adds.

Nonetheless, far from being flattered by knockoff imitations, many top designers do a slow burn as they watch their months of effort replicated overnight, with others earning the profit.

"We are one of the only creative industries that has no protection," says New York designer Joanna Mastroianni, who has been clothing celebrities for red-carpet functions such as the Oscars for years.

"Would someone borrow software from Microsoft and say they were just doing it for inspiration, then tinker with it a little bit and then sell it as their own?" asks Ms. Mastroianni. She calls the threat of an industry collapse ridiculous, adding that imitation is the biggest problem she sees in her world. "We need to be encouraging originality, not rewarding imitation," she says.

Three firms that offer couture cheap – ABS, Eletra Casadei and online seamstress Jane Langdon – all declined interview requests. On her website, Langdon defends her work as a service to women who want to be fashionable but cannot afford designer prices. Through a media spokesperson, ABS design director Allen Schwartz points out that his Oscar line is only 2 percent of his business and says ABS wants to be known primarily for its own original designs rather than for its copies.

But fashion suffers from more than the knockoff industry, say some experts, who believe that the discussion of copyright protection reflects a deeper lack of respect for the art and science of design.

"Fashion has long been the stepchild of the design world," says Natalie Weathers, assistant professor at the Fashion Industry Management School of Engineering and Textiles at Philadelphia University. "For the longest time, it was relegated to the home [economics] curriculum and you know how much respect that's gotten from both men and women," she says.

Whether or not this legislation addresses the fashion industry's concerns, the next generation of designers and consumers both have a stake in protecting creativity, contends intellectual property lawyer, Tracy Durkin.

"What about the young designer who puts together a show, which is a lot of time and very costly, only to see it turn up on the Internet within a matter of weeks? The big designers can weather that kind of hit, but the up and coming won't be able to survive."

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