What My Mom’s Story Reveals About Art Theft on Temu

My Mother’s Experience

My mother is an independent artist. Like many creators, she poured time, care, and personal meaning into every design she uploaded to RedBubble, a print-on-demand platform that supports independent artists through royalties and direct sales.

So when she discovered several of her original designs being sold on Temu—with no credit, no permission, and no compensation—it wasn’t just upsetting. It was violating.

The designs were identical to the ones she had created and posted on RedBubble. But on Temu, they were being sold for a fraction of the price—often under $5. One product featuring her art was even listed for just $3.71. On top of that, Temu displayed the number of units sold, rubbing salt in the wound: dozens of purchases had already been made.

Some of my mom”s stolen artwork on Temu (below).

When “Affordable” Comes at a Cost

These counterfeit items weren’t just unauthorized—they were cheap. So cheap, in fact, that they made her legitimate RedBubble listings seem overpriced by comparison.

This raised a painful question:

Were people buying these stolen artworks knowingly?

And worse—Did uploading her art to RedBubble actually make it easier for thieves to access and misuse her designs?

It’s unclear exactly how her artwork was obtained, but several possibilities exist. The designs may have been downloaded and altered—with watermarks cropped or edited out using basic image-editing tools. Alternatively, high-resolution files used for legitimate printing may have been mishandled or leaked at some point in the process. We simply don’t know. But either way, the system wasn’t strong enough to prevent it.

RedBubble: A Supportive Platform with Structural Gaps

To be fair, RedBubble is a creator-first platform. It was built to help artists monetize their work on everything from tote bags to phone cases, while retaining full copyright ownership and control over pricing. The platform also provides basic IP protections, such as watermarking options and a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown tool.

However, those safeguards are often reactive rather than preventative. Artists must file takedown requests themselves—and by the time infringement is discovered, the damage may already be done.

There are also practical challenges inherent in the platform’s global print-on-demand model. To fulfill orders efficiently, RedBubble works with third-party production partners around the world. While these partners are contractually obligated to use artist designs solely for order fulfillment, the use of high-resolution files across a distributed production network can introduce potential vulnerabilities. Even with strong policies in place, oversight can vary by region, and once files move through multiple systems, maintaining full control becomes more complex.

The Takeaway

My mom did everything right. She used a legitimate platform. She added watermarks. She trusted the process. And yet, her art still ended up on a mass-market site, stripped of attribution and sold for less than the cost of a coffee.

That shouldn’t be the cost of sharing your work online.

Artists are told to watermark their work as a way to prevent theft. But what happens when that “protection” is easily cropped, blurred, or ignored? In our next post, we explore why watermarks offer peace of mind—but rarely real protection.