K-pop Stars BTS Release First Live Album ‘Permission To Dance On Stage – Live' (Exclusive Photo)
The nearly hour-and-20-minute-long album features 22 songs from the supergroup's 2021 tour, which consisted of 12 shows across Seoul, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The group originally launched the tour as an online concert, due to COVID-19 restrictions, before expanding into an in-person experience as restrictions lifted. The tour, according to a release, amassed 4 million attendees across in-person, live-viewing (real-time broadcasts of the show held at nearby venues; YouTube Theater in L.A. and the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas) and online livestreaming.
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Permission To Dance On Stage — Live features BTS mainstays like 'DNA,' 'Idol,' 'Fake Love' and 'Boy With Luv (feat. Halsey),' along with fan favorites like 'Black Swan,' 'Spring Day,' 'Airplane pt. 2' and 'Silver Spoon.' The album, of course, features the trio of English songs the group has released — 'Dynamite,' 'Butter' and 'Permission to Dance.' Fans who purchase the album also receive a digital code for a live recording of the group's Seoul concert.
Earlier this month, the seven-member group, in their first group broadcast in nearly three years, took to the Hybe-owned Weverse fan platform for a livestream, where they laid out the plan for their post-military enlistment future. BTS told fans that they're all heading to the U.S. to begin working on new music that is currently slated for a spring 2026 release. During the broadcast, the supergroup also announced plans for a world tour next year, their first since Permission to Dance on Stage.
'We'll be releasing a new BTS album in the spring of next year. Starting in July, all seven of us will begin working closely together on new music. Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member's thoughts and ideas,' the group said in a statement. 'We're approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.'
Until 2026, BTS members are seemingly continuing previously planned solo work, including eldest member Jin, whose solo tour just kicked off two nights at Anaheim's Honda Center Thursday (July 17). J-Hope, who recently wrapped his own solo tour, headlined Lollapalooza Berlin last weekend (July 13).
All members of BTS reunited for the first time since 2022 last month at J-Hope's solo concert finale in Goyang, South Korea. The reunion marked the end of a busy week for the group as members RM, V, Jimin and Jung Kook were discharged from their mandatory military service earlier that week, joining teh already released J-Hope and Jin. Suga completed his mandatory military service as social work personnel that following week, signaling the official return-to-active status for the group.
BTS fans have long awaited their return, although each member of the group found success with their solo work released throughout the two-year enlistment period. BTS' recent livestream, their first since September 2022, bagged over 7.3 million real-time total views, according to a release.
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Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The backstory behind the best sports photo of the week
Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning. 🚨 Headlines 🏀 CP3 returns to Clippers: Chris Paul has signed a one-year, $3.6 million deal with the Clippers ahead of his 21st (and likely final) NBA season, returning to the franchise he called home from 2011-17. Is this the best Clippers teams he's ever been on? 🏈 Jerry takes jabs: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones opened training camp by taking passive aggressive digs at Micah Parsons, Dak Prescott and other Dallas players. His comments, unsurprisingly, did not seem to go over very well. 🎾 Venus returns: Venus Williams teamed with Hailey Baptiste to win their doubles opener at the DC Open — her first time competing at a tournament in more than a year. "I just love this game," said Williams, 45, who hopes her sister Serena, 43, makes a comeback of her own. 🎓 AAC rebrands: The American Athletic Conference has changed its name to The American Conference, or simply The American, as part of a rebranding effort. The conference also announced its new mascot, "Soar," the eagle. 🏀 Liberty add Meesseman: Former Mystics star Emma Meesseman is joining the Liberty midseason as New York looks to defend its title. Meesseman is a three-time defending Euroleague MVP and earned WNBA Finals MVP honors back in 2019. 📸 Behind the lens When I came across this photo yesterday, I was immediately floored. But I could not, for the life of me, figure out what was happening in the frame. How was the image being reflected like that? To find out, I went straight to the source: the man behind the camera. His answer blew me away. Sean Gardner, Getty Images Stringer: Dover is a bit special to me — it was one of the first races I ever covered when I started shooting NASCAR for Getty Images 14 years ago. And even now, no matter how many times we return to a track, each weekend is a chance to see something new. The morning of the Xfinity Series race brought several rain showers, which led to the cancelation of Cup practice and qualifying. I'd already shot some rain features earlier and noticed some interesting reflections in another part of the track. So, the idea was already planted in my mind: time to look for something a little more dynamic. After I shot the race start and some pre-race frames, I went out exploring. I walked between Turns 3 and 4 and immediately noticed a large puddle. I wasn't sure if the image I had in my head was going to work, but as I walked closer, it all started to come together. So, there I was, lying flat on my belly in the middle of Turn 3, giggling a little — along with the safety crews, who were clearly entertained watching me commit to this puddle-shot adventure. I only stayed there for about two laps, but I got lucky — the cars bunched up perfectly during a restart, and I captured the frame I was hoping for. That was it. I stood up with a wet shirt, a soaked camera strap, and a grin. Then it was off to find the next unique moment. There's a good feeling that comes from making a frame that works — even if it's fleeting. So here's to today. And whatever comes tomorrow. ⚾️ Wild ending in Philly The Phillies held onto their slim lead atop the NL East with one of the wildest, strangest and most unique endings you'll ever see on Monday, beating the Red Sox on — of all things — a walk-off catcher's interference. A series of unfortunate events: The bottom of the 10th, as all extra innings do, started with a zombie runner on second base. From there, Boston did just about everything in its power to give this game away, and Philly gladly obliged. The first batter drew a four-pitch walk, putting men on first and second, followed by a wild pitch to the second batter, which moved each runner up. With first base open, the Sox opted for an intentional walk in hopes of setting up a double play. The third batter, 2B Edmundo Sosa, quickly got to two strikes, but when he checked his swing on the fifth pitch, his bat caught the tip of Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez's glove. Upon review, the umpires called it a catcher's interference, giving Sosa first base and bringing in the game-winning run. Rare occurrence: There have been 242,212 games in MLB history, and this was just the second to end on a walk-off catcher's interference. The first? Dodgers 5, Reds 4 on Aug. 1, 1971. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles… The rare feats on Monday weren't limited to the City of Brotherly Love. Shohei Ohtani, in his sixth pitching start of the season, became the first pitcher to both hit and allow a home run in the first inning of the same game since 1979. ⚽️ Le Azzurre: A nation on the rise Italy faces England today for a spot in the Women's Euro final — a monumental achievement for a team of women who only earned the right to turn pro in their own country three years ago. What they're saying: "It's a great joy to be among the top four in Europe," said captain Cristiana Girelli, who led Le Azzurre to their first semifinal since 1997. "Obviously we do this for our glory but there is a much deeper meaning … which is that in Italy, women can play soccer too." A long time coming: Italy's Serie A Femminile was founded in 1968, but remained amateur for decades even as their men's counterpart stood at times as the world's premier soccer league. Players earned as little as $67 per week, plus an $86 match bonus, and benefits like healthcare and pensions were a pipe dream. The turning point came in 2019, when Italy's surprise run to the Women's World Cup quarterfinals ignited a passionate fanbase that showed how popular women's soccer could be, driving calls for professionalization. It helped that at the same time, clubs like Juventus and AC Milan began investing more heavily in their women's teams. Just one year later, following a new law passed by the Italian Senate that removed the salary cap, the Italian soccer federation voted unanimously to grant professional status to Serie A Femminile beginning in 2022. The last word: "We've reached something amazing, something extraordinary, and however it goes, I really hope it continues to feed this passion, this love for us," said Girelli. "I really hope that with all my heart, because we struggled to get here." 📊 By the numbers ⚾️ 36 HR No player in MLB history has been traded in-season after reaching 35 home runs. Diamondbacks All-Star 3B Eugenio Suárez, who is now up to 36 after homering for the fifth time in three games on Monday, is a strong candidate to become the first as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. Go deeper: 6 players who could be on the move at the deadline 🏈 10.5 wins Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State (10.5 wins) have the highest college football season win totals at BetMGM. Alabama, Boise State, Clemson, Georgia, Liberty, Miami and Texas (9.5 wins) have the second-highest. 🎓 $200 million In the most lucrative membership proposal in college sports history, Memphis has made a $200 million offer to enter the Big 12, sources tell Yahoo Sports. For now, it does not have enough support but potentially sets a standard for all future expansion. 🥍 355 goals Boston Cannons attackman Marcus Holman tied Paul Rabil for second-most goals (355) in pro field lacrosse history on Saturday and now trails only John Grant Jr. (393) for most all-time. Holman's history-making goal came during the PLL game of the year: Denver 18, Boston 17. 📺 Watchlist: Tuesday, July 22 🚴 Tour de France, Stage 16 | 6:10am ET, Peacock Today's 107-mile ride starts in Montpelier before concluding with a punishing climb up Mont Ventoux. The "Giant of Provence" has an eerie, moonlike landscape and a unique reputation on the Tour: "The Ventoux is a god of Evil, to which sacrifices must be made," said French philosopher and cycling fan Roland Barthes. ⚽️ England vs. Italy | 3pm, Fox The first Women's Euro semifinal pits the defending champion Lionesses against Le Azzurre, who've reached the final four for the first time since 1997. More to watch: ⚽️ MLS: All-Star Skills Challenge (9pm, Apple/Prime) … Players will compete in six different skills challenges in Austin ahead of tomorrow's All-Star Game. ⚾️ MLB: Red Sox at Phillies (6:45pm, TBS) … Richard Fitts (1-3, 4.28 ERA) vs. Christopher Sanchez (8-2, 2.50 ERA). 🏀 WNBA: Fever at Liberty (8pm, ESPN); Dream at Aces (10pm, ESPN) … First day back from the All-Star break. Today's full slate → ⚾️ MLB trivia Rich Hill, 45, has been called up to start tonight's game for the Royals, which will be his MLB record-tying 14th team. Question: Who currently holds that record? Hint: He famously threw a 149-pitch, 8-walk no-hitter for Arizona in 2010. Answer at the bottom. ⛳️ The four-cut club Golf's major season has come and gone, and while it's clear who's had the best year, Scottie Scheffler isn't the only player to find wide-ranging success at the biggest events of 2025. Exclusive club: Just 16 golfers made the cut at all four majors, including the winners of all four. And while the top three (as ranked by cumulative score to par) are, appropriately, the world's top three golfers, there are a few names on this list that might surprise you. 🏆🏆 Scottie Scheffler: -32 🏆 Rory McIlroy: -11 Xander Schauffele: -10 Corey Conners: -8* Jon Rahm: -6 Harris English: -5 Matt Fitzpatrick: -1 Tyrrell Hatton: -1 🏆 J.J. Spaun: +1 Aaron Rai: +3 Viktor Hovland: +3 Maverick McNealy: +5 Sam Burns: +6 Daniel Berger: +7 Rasmus Hojgaard: +14 Brian Harman: +17 Looking ahead: There are just two events left in the PGA Tour's regular season before the three-leg FedEx Cup playoffs begin on Aug. 7 in Memphis. Then comes the Ryder Cup in late September at New York's iconic Bethpage Black. *Conners made the cut at the U.S. Open but withdrew after Round 3 with a wrist injury. Given how tough Oakmont was playing, his -8 cumulative score would have likely been at least a few strokes worse. Trivia answer: Edwin Jackson We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
The Verge
13 minutes ago
- The Verge
Knock it off!
Cassey Ho was getting her roots dyed when she started receiving hundreds of ecstatic messages. In a video clip promoting her song 'Fortnight,' Taylor Swift was shown wearing the Pirouette Skort, a flouncy, tutu-style skirt with built-in shorts underneath, that Ho had designed for her athleisure brand Popflex. She knew immediately this exposure — one of the world's biggest pop stars, flaunting Ho's design — would be life-changing. 'I am just numb. I can't even scream, I can't even speak,' she recalls of the moment she realized what was happening. 'I am just dead.' Even though it appeared for literally one second in Swift's video, that brief moment caused the entire inventory of thousands of skorts to be snapped up within an hour, and a week later, over 10,000 customers had placed preorders for the product (to date, Popflex has sold over 50,000 Pirouette Skorts in total). Then came the dupes. The Popflex skort caught the attention of a more ominous group: imitators, or more precisely, companies churning out look-alikes of popular clothing items. Within weeks, Pirouette Skort copies — mesh ruffles, drawstring waistband, pastel colors and all — had flooded the web. More than a year later, they haven't stopped. And there is not much Ho, who built a fitness empire around her popular YouTube channel, can do about it, even as someone with a large and recognizable platform. Copycat Pirouette Skorts have been sold on Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, TikTok Shop, DHGate, Temu, Shein, and countless other fly-by-night storefronts that will seemingly disappear as quickly as they popped up. They are cheaper, faster, and shameless; many of the listings do not even show the actual item that is being sold. They simply use Popflex's copyrighted images without permission, sometimes editing the color of the skort in the photo to fit the listing. In May 2025 alone, Popflex counted 461 listings it believes infringe on its Pirouette Skort design patent, but it's still a drop in the bucket of the thousands that Ho has encountered just by doing reverse image searches. 'I don't have the time or the money to go after all of these infringements, all these dupers,' Ho says. 'It's just too much.' Many listings live on, copyrighted images promoting a product of unknown origin and quality. Dupes for popular, covetable products are nothing new: for hundreds of years, people have meticulously copied other artists' work, from forged ancient Chinese art, to licensed replicas of designer ballgowns in the 1940s, to knockoff phone chargers meant to mimic Apple aesthetics. The internet has helped dupes spread like wildfire, so much so that even relatively niche and unknown products — in fashion, home goods, makeup, and tech — likely have a doppelgänger floating around out there. It has never been faster or easier to make and sell a copy of something. What was once relegated to Canal Street is now an industry in and of itself. Some companies seem to operate with the express purpose of copying popular (or even niche) consumer products. And for American shoppers already accustomed to inexpensive products, finding the same thing for less is second nature. Living among copies of something else is as ordinary an experience as scrolling past three of the same posts, one after another, on any given social media site. The similitude of consumers' options has even upended certain corners of the legal system, where intellectual property rights holders are trying to fight the speed and scale of the internet with their own — at times flawed — versions of the same. It is dupes all the way down. Here are just a few of the things that have been duped, according to people online: makeup, Le Creuset Dutch ovens, hand sanitizer, designer perfumes, Apple AirPods Max, Oura Ring fitness trackers, viral phone cases, dishwasher pods, famous banana pudding recipes, Pilates workouts, and the entire island of Santorini. Across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and online forums, content creators have built entire personas and brands on the promise of finding lower-cost versions of popular products. This phenomenon isn't exactly new — for years celebrity and fashion blogs have done something similar — but the dupe industrial complex has taken on a new life in the age of influencer marketing. Grocery chain Trader Joe's, for example, regularly releases cosmetics that are unsubtle in their imitation of existing, popular products: lip glosses, body washes, lotions, and more with near-identical packaging, concepts, and even formulas to other brands' products. While the average shopper might not catch the reference, those in the know seek the products out. Content begets more content, a cycle of someone making a video about a dupe, someone else watching it, buying the same dupe, and recording their own enthusiasts lean on the same rhetoric that the internet is built on: that wider accessibility is a democratizing force. But unlike democratizing the media industry through citizen journalism, or learning video editing via YouTube tutorials, a dupe begins by picking up an existing work or idea. A dupe is valuable precisely because of the value of the original, and without it, the dupe is just another tube of lip gloss. For some consumers, dupes are proof that the original is overpriced and taking advantage of the consumer. If a company can make a dupe that's $10 less, the originator must be ripping us off, the thinking goes; the creative work of making something new in the first place is worthless, reduced to a game of who can do it cheaper. Some social media platforms have taken to displaying scary-sounding notices when a user searches for the word 'dupes' — a query on Instagram for 'Apple dupes' returns a blank results page that urges users to 'protect [their] favorite brands' against 'counterfeit goods.' A search on TikTok for 'Amazon dupes' returns a message reading, in part, 'Fight Piracy, Champion Creativity … the promotion of counterfeit goods are not allowed on our platform and violate our policies and Community Guidelines.' Interestingly, a search on Amazon for 'Skims dupes' — Skims being the minimalist clothing line by Kim Kardashian — doesn't return any kind of scold-y message, just pages of similar products. Dupes are not synonymous with counterfeits — intentional imitations that the law often recognizes as trademark infringement — but exist in something of a gray zone, often not quite illegal but a little gross-feeling all the same. Marketing a product as a dupe has a powerful effect: descriptions like 'alternative' or 'imitation' just don't have the same pull Marketing a product as a dupe has a powerful effect: descriptions like 'alternative' or 'imitation' just don't have the same pull. A dupe shouldn't just be less expensive than the apparent original — it also must be an adequate substitute, whether that means they look the same, feel the same, or do (roughly) the same thing. The buyer doesn't want to simply get a good deal; they want to feel like they stumbled into a secret, like they pulled a fast one on the companies charging more than what's right. '[The thinking is] a little bit of an 'I deserve it,'' Alexandra J. Roberts, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law who has written about the dupes market, says. ''It's not my fault the economy is the way it is, and if I want nice things, I should be able to get them and get them cheap.'' Some industries, like beauty, have a long tradition of churning out similar (sometimes cheaper) products, and for good reason: favorite lipstick shades get discontinued, formulas get reworked, and some products don't work for all skin types. In post-WWII Japan, craftsmen and fashion lovers meticulously re-created American garments brought over by soldiers that were out of reach for young shoppers. Some have argued that Japanese brands iterated on — and then perfected — Americana style. Now dupes have spread to just about every industry imaginable, and they aren't just comparisons created by shoppers; Roberts notes that brands and retailers have called their products 'dupes' as a promotional tactic. (Here's Whole Foods' TikTok account calling its house-brand foods 'dupes,' for example.) But there's a word-of-mouth quality pervasive in dupe content — 'I saw someone else post about this viral dupe' is a common opening hook to videos that have racked up millions of views online. Dupe content is so popular that simply posting about potential alternatives can be a whole career for influencers. Take the curious case of two Amazon influencers engaged in a bitter legal fight over allegations of unlawful copying: both women regularly promote products that are look-alikes for higher-end items. They earn a commission each time a viewer purchases an item through their affiliate links, whether that's a handbag 'inspired' by a luxury version or sofas designed to mimic a style popular among the ultra-wealthy. They profit off the veneer of a lifestyle — and a house full — of opulence, while accusing the other of biting their vibe. It's not just that the products they push are often diluted versions of an original; even the influencers themselves are basically dupes, an endless game of telephone that carries, copies, and eventually distorts and replaces the original reference or design. It's not entirely surprising that our physical goods have come to mirror the digital content that sandwiches our purchases. The websites that compete to bring us information (and scoop up our traffic) have grown to look nearly indistinguishable from one another. Social media recommendation algorithms depend on scale and similarity, not originality: they feed users more of the same based on finely tuned preferences. That repetition has escaped the containment of digital worlds. The web has become a drumbeat of derivative works and characters repackaged in mind-numbing — and sometimes creepy — ways. Now it has infiltrated our living rooms, closets, and pantries, the very contours of our lives. When Ho's skort was first ripped off by Shein, the popular ultra-cheap Chinese retailer, she joined the ranks of knitwear designers, artists, stained-glass artisans, and others who've seen their work wind up on fast-fashion sites. 'You need to copyright this!' is a common response to businesses that find their products have been copied by bigger companies, but those who do pursue this route might find that the law is more complicated than they imagined. Unlike traditional counterfeits and copyright violations — a handbag covered in the Louis Vuitton logo but sold for just a few dollars, for example, or a copyrighted photograph printed on a T-shirt — dupes are not as straightforward, at least legally. The Pirouette Skort dupes don't claim to be Popflex products, and they don't include the Popflex name, logo, or branding, making a trademark claim moot. There's no obviously copyrightable artwork on something like Ho's skort. When it comes to fashion, the bulk of designers' work is not protectable When it comes to fashion, the bulk of designers' work is not protectable, says Roberts. Elements like logos or artwork on designs, and trade-dress protections that cover distinctive product design — like specific stitching on Vans shoes, for example — are 'mostly exceptions to the rule,' Roberts says. If a random online storefront is using a brand's copyrighted image to promote its look-alike products, that's a straightforward DMCA takedown. For dupes, it's not as simple. The nuance between what's allowed and what isn't means that the public debate is often emotionally charged and convoluted — sometimes simply vibes-based. 'Is this dupe OK?' isn't just a question of IP law, but is viewed through a series of overlapping political, social, and ethical arguments. It can quickly spiral into conversations about whether poor people deserve nice things; whether a design is unique enough to warrant protection; and whether the business owner is deserving of sympathy or ridicule. It's a legal question filtered through a moral lens, and the jury is made up of any social media user who happens across a video or post about a dupe. It doesn't help that the language we use to describe two things that look alike is itself extremely muddy: 'dupe,' 'knockoff,' 'counterfeit,' and 'copy' are often used interchangeably even when they have distinct meanings. Discussion of dupes also tends to be framed in black-and-white terms; they're either perfectly above board, even righteous (a lower price point means expanded accessibility), or they're unethical and dangerous. 'Between those two poles, there is some gray area,' Roberts says. Some companies purposely toe the line of infringement while still technically being in the clear. Some design elements — rugby shirts in classic colors — are so standard and widely sold that no one entity can realistically 'own' them. And often, only a portion of a design is protected: courts have found that the iconic red soles of Christian Louboutin shoes are only a protected trademark when they're applied to shoes of a contrasting color, for example. An all-red shoe with a red sole to match? Well, that doesn't infringe. One way Ho has tried to protect her designs is through design patents. Seven of her designs, including the Pirouette Skort and the Corset Pirouette Dress, have received design patents, which protect how things look, as opposed to utility patents, which protect how things work. Design patents are historically popular in the fashion industry, but their use has expanded dramatically into tech in the wake of Apple v. Samsung. The web pages for Ho's design-patented products boast a design-patent disclaimer, a digital version of a 'keep out' sign. On the page for the skort: 'The Pirouette Skort is a Patented Design (patent no. US D1,010,983 S) created by Cassey Ho. All artwork and materials associated with the Pirouette Skort design are protected under the law.' It took Ho about a year to secure a patent for the widely duped skort, in a process that involved doing lots of research to demonstrate to the US Patent and Trademark Office that her product is, in fact, unique. She also paid extra to have her application fast-tracked using a 'Rocket Docket'; without shelling out to have it expedited, she would be waiting for nearly two years. In order to secure a design patent for the skort, Ho paid the USPTO $1,344 (about half of that, $640, was for the Rocket Docket to expedite the application; the rest covered the filing, design search, examination, and issue fees). Once you factor in attorney fees, each patent ends up costing thousands of dollars, Ho says. 'It's a very expensive cost for me, but it's extremely powerful, because once I get [the patent], it's much easier to take the infringing product off of Amazon and certain platforms,' Ho says. 'Without it, it was almost like they wouldn't even listen to you.' The Pirouette Skort copycats are enticing. The online pictures look just like the original, because many of the images are the original, pulled straight from Ho's website and lightly edited. (Many shoppers likely don't realize they are looking at stolen images.) Listings often have detailed size charts, fabric composition information, and plenty of reviews exalting the quality for the price. I picked two listings on AliExpress from two different storefronts and hit checkout: one skirt from Gym Fitness Expert Store ($16.99) and another from Topmoon Store ($9.52). I also bought the original ($60) to compare. When it comes to dupes, what is promising online often ends up disappointing in the harsh light of day When it comes to dupes, what is promising online often ends up disappointing in the harsh light of day. The spandex waistband on the Popflex original is soft and pliable, what you'd want in a piece of activewear. The skirt is full and flouncy, likely because it uses more mesh fabric yardage than the AliExpress versions to create the gathered tiers. The stitching is neat — no loose threads — and the shorts underneath are a better fit thanks to a more detailed design. Strangely, the two AliExpress skirts are identical down to the unbranded inner care tag despite being from different storefronts — possibly made in the same factory or by the same manufacturer and listed on different storefronts for different prices. The AliExpress dupes, even with their differences, would perhaps be passable if you just wanted the general look of the original Pirouette Skort, but holding them in my hands, it's clear which one is 'real.' The impostors are stiff, oddly proportioned, and inappropriately short. I could not go to the grocery store in them, much less play tennis. They would probably look fine in a photo on social media, though. Ho's securing of design patents is a good strategy in some ways, Roberts says. But it's slow compared to the breakneck pace of ultrafast fashion. '[Shein and Temu] come out with so much stuff so quickly, like within days or hours of … something [going] viral because Taylor Swift wore it. They just churn it out instantly,' Roberts says. 'By the time you get the gears moving and the mechanism in place to try to stop them, they've moved on to the next thing.' Indeed, the AliExpress listings I purchased the dupes from have since disappeared — but plenty more have taken their place. People looking for a less-expensive version of the real thing don't have to look too far: a simple search on Shein for 'Popflex' delivers several listings with edited versions of Popflex's product shots. In one of the more disturbing instances, a video that Ho posted on social media of her modeling the skort was used in an Amazon listing — except her face had been replaced with another woman's, perhaps using AI, resulting in a deepfake ad for a copycat product. 'Amazon strictly prohibits counterfeit and IP infringing products in our store. We have proactive measures in place to prevent counterfeit or infringing products from being listed, and our advanced technology continually scans our catalog for potential counterfeit, fraud, and abuse,' Amazon spokesperson Juliana Karber told The Verge in an email. Brands can enroll in an Amazon program that helps detect and report potential infringements; Karber says Amazon has 'taken action' based on Popflex's use of the tool. 'There is a distinction between IP infringing products and alternatives to brand-name products. Amazon's wide selection includes alternatives to brand-name products, which exist across categories and retailers, but do not violate a particular brand's IP,' Karber says. Amazon itself acknowledges that a 'dupe' — in its current expansive and messy definition — isn't black and white. It's easy to find look-alikes and claim infringement; it's harder to actually litigate it. In November 2023, a Chinese home goods company called AccEncyc (pronounced 'accents') got a vague email from Amazon out of the blue with troubling news: there was an issue with the closet hanging hooks it was selling, and the listing was removed. Not just that, but the funds in its seller account had also been frozen, and it was unable to withdraw its earnings. The details were scarce. It wasn't like AccEncyc was getting rich on the hooks — in a legal filing, the company said it had sold less than $500 worth of the item — but now it was caught up in federal design patent infringement litigation, with a temporary restraining order upending its business. Even though the Amazon listing for the hooks in question was removed, AccEncyc's other products were still for sale on the platform, meaning earnings kept growing even though the company couldn't withdraw the money from its account, says Timothy A. Duffy, an attorney based in the Chicago area who represents AccEncyc. The money held in AccEncyc's Amazon account eventually swelled to nearly $50,000 and stayed tied up for months. Overnight, AccEncyc's Amazon business was thrown into disarray, in a case that is still ongoing. And though the company didn't know it yet, it was one of dozens of online storefronts getting swept up in a new legal strategy going after alleged dupers. The entity suing AccEncyc was Jacki Easlick LLC, a company founded by a fashion and accessories designer who used to work in product development for fashion brands like Vera Bradley and Kenneth Cole, according to Easlick's LinkedIn. Easlick claimed that AccEncyc and the other sellers named in the suit were ripping off the Tote Hanger, a two-sided hook with a corkscrew middle portion that holds handbags from a closet rod, for which Easlick obtained a design patent in 2013. But the suit wasn't the typical patent infringement case: in one fell swoop, Easlick's company was able to take legal action against 67 alleged infringers simultaneously and not just get products taken down, but bring many of their businesses to a grinding halt. All of this happened before AccEncyc could even hire a lawyer. Even the people and entities named as defendants often do not know they are being sued Lawsuits like Easlick's have become something of a trend with rights owners trying to protect their intellectual property, or, depending on the case, hoping to knock out competing storefronts that they assert infringe on their IP. The cases are referred to as 'Schedule A' cases, named after the separate form filed to the court that lists the defendants being sued. It's standard that the complaint and/or the Schedule A form is filed under seal, meaning there isn't the same public transparency into the case as other federal suits might have. Even the people and entities named as defendants often do not know they are being sued; some are served notice via emails that sometimes even look scammy, like emails being signed off by 'Attorneys of Luke Combs.' Easlick's suit naming 67 defendants is relatively small potatoes — similar suits have named hundreds of defendants on their Schedule A forms. For rights holders, it's a cheap and fast way to cast a wide net. 'It has swamped normal design-patent litigation,' Sarah Fackrell, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology and a design-patent expert, says of Schedule A cases. Fackrell, who detailed the phenomenon in a piece for Harvard Law Review, says that while it appears that more of these suits deal with trademark infringement, new design-patent lawsuits are often Schedule A cases. 'If people want to take part in this [but] they don't have any IP so far, you could go get a design patent pretty quickly,' Fackrell says. 'Then all of a sudden [they can] start shaking down people on Amazon. Because that's what this is — it's a shakedown scheme.' Easlick's suit, filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania, accuses the defendants of duping consumers into thinking the hooks were authentic products from Easlick's company even when they weren't; that the alleged copycats were 'poorly manufactured products' that risked 'injury and disappointment from the confused customers'; and that Easlick's company was 'suffering irreparable and indivisible injury' and 'substantial damages' thanks to the alleged impostor handbag hooks that were for sale on sites like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. Duffy is based in the epicenter of Schedule A cases: the Northern District of Illinois, where, by one count, 88 percent of these lawsuits were filed. Thousands of these cases have been filed in the Northern District of Illinois; Duffy says he's worked on at least 50 Schedule A cases in just the last year and a half, and that there are 'easily' several hundred of them coming through the court each year. Fackrell has theories about why so many Schedule A cases go through the Northern District of Illinois, but declined to elaborate on the record; one simple answer she offered is that law firms appear to be continuously filing cases there because some judges let them do it. Why judges allow it is a separate (and unresolved) matter. '[Having] hundreds of defendants, hundreds of thousands of dollars — usually a federal case like that would take a couple of years to sort out,' Duffy says. But using the Schedule A tactic puts plaintiffs at an advantage. 'These things get processed like Oreo cookies in a factory.' The Schedule A litigation tactic — at least as it is functioning now — is so stacked against defendants that even weaker claims of alleged infringement can get through. Most of the defendants named are based in China, Duffy says, and are unable to pull together a legal team in time for hearings. 'All of a sudden they get an email in a language they can't really read that says, 'Your Amazon account is frozen. Call these lawyers,'' Duffy says of clients he represents. 'You've got to call a lawyer in Chicago and somehow respond to a federal court case if you want your biweekly Amazon payment to come out.' That AccEncyc hired an attorney to defend itself is rare; Duffy says it's typical that at hearings before a judge, none of the dozens or hundreds of defendants are represented at all. Attorneys for Easlick initially said they would work to set up an interview, but eventually stopped responding to The Verge's request for comment. Along with asset freezes, rights owners have won default judgments far surpassing any money the alleged infringers made from selling their products Critics of the Schedule A tactic also point to the extraordinary forms of relief plaintiffs have been able to secure — sometimes before the accused even understands they're being sued at all, raising concerns that the defendants named in these suits are not getting due process. Along with asset freezes, rights owners have won default judgments far surpassing any money the alleged infringers made from selling their products. In a 2024 Schedule A trademark case, an Australian woman was one of hundreds of people and businesses sued for allegedly infringing the Grumpy Cat trademark — the viral internet feline whose litigious owners have milked the IP for years. The Guardian reported in April that the woman was ordered to pay $100,000 for a single T-shirt she sold with a cartoon cat printed on it, and also had $600 removed from her PayPal account without warning. Her earnings on the shirt totaled $1.87. The actual Grumpy Cat (real name: Tardar Sauce) died in 2019 at age 7. 'The Schedule A model allows a plaintiff to extract more money from defendants than they would be able to in a full and fair adjudication,' Fackrell writes in her Harvard Law Review piece. 'And it allows them to do so at a much lower cost.' In the Easlick case, only after some of the defendants hired lawyers did the judge take a closer look at the infringement claims. In reality, Easlick's bag hooks and the other hooks are not that similar: many of the alleged infringements are different colors and obviously different shapes. 'As can be plainly seen, the hooks sold by AccEncyc lack the 'corkscrew' twist in the middle of the hook and the ball-shaped ends on plaintiff's design,' Duffy wrote in a response filed to the court. The judge agreed, finding that AccEncyc's hook was not substantially the same as Easlick's patented design. AccEncyc's money in Amazon that was quickly frozen without question took two and a half months to be released. Easlick is appealing the decision to the Federal Circuit; an amicus brief was filed in the case on behalf of Fackrell and other experts. Some of the Schedule A cases Duffy has seen have gone 'overboard,' going after small businesses — especially those based in China — that are being unfairly generalized as counterfeiters looking to deceive shoppers, he says. Duffy believes AccEncyc's case could set an important precedent. 'It just goes to show you the danger of having cases like these that are not thoroughly litigated. Usually one side doesn't even show up,' he says. AccEncyc does not care if it sells handbag hooks or not. But the fate of its case could determine whether others can in the future. There are signs that judges are beginning to look more critically at Schedule A cases. In a stunning move in June, a judge in the Northern District of Illinois effectively froze all Schedule A cases in front of him, pending further review of how the court was dealing with them. The judge specifically listed practices like the sealing of cases, the temporary restraining orders, the bundling of multiple defendants, and the fact that cases proceed without one side involved — in other words, all the things that make Schedule A cases especially attractive to plaintiffs. 'Perhaps [the judge] will decide that … these things should keep going, and he's going to keep granting these things and keep proceeding as usual,' Fackrell says. 'But the fact that he's concerned enough to pause everything is really, really, really extraordinary.' Duffy and Fackrell both acknowledge that the explosion of Schedule A litigation exists in a world that is awash in copycat items or products that are very similar, if not identical. There are indeed companies — both foreign and domestic — that infringe on IP rights, and brands have valid concerns. Online shopping has become a dumping ground for cookie-cutter junk, galvanized by the limitless shelf space of web-based storefronts. The Northern District of Illinois has similarly been inundated with what some might call garbage legal filings. If you are selling something online and competing with an endless barrage of similar products, it pays to be fast and cheap and to cast as wide a net as possible — whether you are selling handbag hooks and suction cups on Amazon or you are looking for a legal intervention to the China-based sellers who are suddenly your competition. The breakneck pace of e-commerce means that just about anything goes, whether you're the plaintiff or the one being sued. In this way the two sides are not so different. Of all the viral dupes that have been shoved onto my digital feeds, nothing caused commotion quite like the 'Wirkin,' or the Walmart Birkin. For around $80, shoppers could purchase an Hermès Birkin look-alike from and before long, explainers, reviews, comparisons, and think pieces abounded. The Birkin is not just a flex to prove you are fashionable; it is so hard to get that it's a status symbol even among rich people. (Hermès is currently being sued by shoppers that allege the company only sells Birkins to people who have racked up a 'sufficient purchase history.') Now a serviceable look-alike was for sale at Walmart, the very antithesis of exclusivity and affluence. To some, the Wirkin was revenge on the 1 percent, a liberatory moment for the rest of us who are now free to carry the clunky handbags ourselves (albeit made of plastic, not leather). 'Walmart making the Birkin bag irrelevant and obsolete is literally one of the best things that happened in 2024,' one TikTok begins. 'Luxury is coming to an end,' someone else commented. The language of dupes as empowerment — even as a class equalizer — is everywhere. a startup that 'scans the web for visually similar products,' puts it like this: 'You can keep shopping like a normie, taking prices at face value and meekly accepting that you're limited by your bank account. Or, you can use Dupe to find lookalikes you can actually afford.' The ethos is one of relentless hacking, where shoppers' job is to pull one over on the brands that 'outsmart' them with 'overpriced' product offerings. Finding something cheaper elsewhere isn't just a pastime. It's a noble way to fight back against greedy companies, asserts. But whether it's luxury handbags or designer furniture, someone always profits, and it is never the shopper But whether it's luxury handbags or designer furniture, someone always profits, and it is never the shopper. The Wirkin didn't sink Hermès at all — in fact, profits were up 15 percent in 2024 at the fashion house, and the Wirkin was but a footnote to investors (the company's CEO, Axel Dumas, said the fake bags were 'detestable'). Fake Birkins are less likely to eat into Hermès' profits than they are to serve as a kind of advertisement for the company, dangling on the arms of shoppers who believe they are opting out of — rather than buying into — the allure of a purse that costs more than an SUV. on the other hand, could only function in an internet filled with repetition: the company is essentially an elaborate affiliate linking operation, and it makes a commission every time a user purchases a product using Dupe's personalized link. As long as consumers have endless access to thousands of options of near-identical products, there is no bottom; spits out alternatives for $1,800 Isamu Noguchi lamps as well as flimsy $22 phone cases. (The startup was sued in 2024 by Williams-Sonoma Inc., which accused of deceptive advertising.) Bobby Ghoshal, co-founder and CEO of notes that the platform also surfaces more expensive options along with cheaper alternatives. 'For us, it's about consumer choice,' Ghoshal says. Ghoshal, who describes himself as a furniture collector and enthusiast, believes can 'kindle [a] fire' within shoppers who appreciate upscale design and aesthetics but cannot presently afford it. Maybe a $7,000 Eames chair is out of reach for a fresh college graduate, but they can stomach shelling out a few hundred dollars for a knockoff, he said. Ghoshal is careful to describe not just as a search engine for dupes, but as an avenue for tastemaking: by sitting in their living room on an Eames look-alike and ottoman, the shopper begins to lust after the real thing, the thinking goes. But using to find something more expensive is at odds with how Ghoshal and his team market it: why would someone want to splurge on the 'real' thing if they could get a dupe for less? If a dupe is just a temporary Band-Aid on an aching desire for something you covet, then no level of resemblance will make you forget the original. Used in this way, strikes me not so much as a cheat code as it is adding to the ever-expanding list of things you desire. It is a way to spend money, not save it. The internet is built on repetition, and its main characters ascend based on their replicability: nobody wants to see your outfit or your desk setup if they can't also go out and buy your life (or copies of it) for themselves. From coffee shops and beige homes to entire neighborhoods in the cultural capitals of the world, the internet has fueled formulas for living, the rules of which are molded by the endless scroll of recommended content. Many people's experience of the web is of floating heads on their phone screen talking about the same topics, hawking the same products, and following the same career paths. They vlog from their puffy-cloud sofas that are meant to evoke a different, more expensive couch that celebrities like — except they are made by companies with names like QQU, HOOOWOOO, and LINSY HOME. Few have the time, money, or legal standing to take down every dupe For the most part, original products and their dupes go on existing next to each other, taking turns appearing in targeted ads and influencer videos in a sort of uneasy equilibrium: everyone knows it's happening, but few have the time, money, or legal standing to take down every dupe. Ho, preternaturally gifted at riding the internet wave thanks to her years spent online, seems to have figured out a powerful (and effective) tactic outside the courtroom: good old public shaming. 'HELP. I'm being silenced!!' Ho captioned a video from February. In the clip, viewed more than 5 million times on TikTok, she says a dupe of the Pirouette Skort was for sale on Nordstrom Rack — it was even available in pastel purple, like the one Taylor Swift wore, except made by the brand X by Gottex. In the video, Ho says that after her team sent Nordstrom and X by Gottex cease and desist letters, X by Gottex's lawyers sent her an email threatening legal action if she pursued 'any further infringement allegations.' Nordstrom and X by Gottex did not respond to The Verge's questions about the incident. (Because the case did not proceed to court, there is no ruling on whether the X by Gottex version did indeed infringe on Ho's design patent. Nevertheless, the skort does appear to be quite similar to Popflex's Pirouette Skort — the X by Gottex item was marketed as the Tutu Skort.) After Ho posted the video, angry fans flooded Nordstrom's comment section on Instagram and reported that the item appeared to be unavailable for purchase shortly after Ho posted about it. The incident, of course, has not put an end to the Popflex dupes; in fact, part of Ho's professional brand as a business owner is that she aggressively goes after designs she believes copy her products. She regularly writes on her blog about the dupes she encounters, and every high-profile incident she discusses on her social pages is both a call-out and a marketing opportunity: another company making a look-alike product is the perfect moment for Ho to tell consumers why her designs are better. She says she even offered Nordstrom the option to carry the Popflex skort — an 'enemies to lovers arc,' as she put it. So far, she says that hasn't happened. The Popflex Skort and its endless clones are the physical manifestations of the experience of being online, where copying is good for business rather than a mark of theft. 'Jumping on trends' is part of the job of an influencer, and brands must do the same to seem relevant, relatable, and current. The popularity of the Pirouette Skort was bolstered by the same systems of influencers, recommendation algorithms, and frictionless shopping that turbocharged the copies Ho now fights against. The Pirouette Skort takes the textures and culture of the internet and brings it offline, where there are untold numbers of young women who are wearing the (mostly) same lilac purple mesh skort. Whether it is the 'real' version or a look-alike doesn't matter so much — these are all just the Viral Taylor Swift Skirt now. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, digital dupes escaping into the real world is a perverse compliment to Ho and countless others who've seen the same happen to their designs. If you are a designer who believes you are being ripped off, maybe the best you can do is ride the wave until the next viral thing comes around (surely it will) with the hope that eventually your imitators will get bored and move on to something else. At that point, perhaps your creation becomes your own again, and it can sink or swim on its own merit — it can just be a normal skirt, finally unmoored from its replicability.
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Eve Rodsky Says Solving Burnout Is All About 'The Life-Changing Magic of Mustard'
Parents Next Gen winner and author of 'Fair Play' author Eve Rodsky has been called the 'Marie Kondo of relationships' because of how she helped families balance domestic labor. She says it started with one question. Balance isn't a fairytale for Eve Rodsky, it's a way of life. Coming from Harvard with a background in organizational management, Rodsky applies the idea of treating our homes as our most important organizations, and it's made a big difference in the lives of families across the world. In her New York Times bestselling book, Fair Play, she developed a game plan to help couples restore balance to domestic labor within their homes and their relationships. Followed up by Find Your Unicorn Space, Rodsky dove deeper into the idea that every individual, especially parents, needs time to unlock their creativity without a margin. Rodsky's work to help parents balance that mental and physical load while reclaiming their creativity is what makes Rodsky a Parents Next Gen winner. Rodsky was born and raised by a single mom in New York City, and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their three kids. Called the 'Marie Kondo of relationships,' she shares how organization can be an effective tool for radical change, and gives more insight into what has now become a national conversation. How does Fair Play approach the imbalance within domestic labor? Fair Play is a system. It treats the home as an organization, so that was the big 'aha' moment. That's my background; I'm an organizational management specialist. I'm a lawyer, and I have lots of experience working for families that look like the HBO show Succession.I would say that people should feel bad for me, but what I learned in that work was that all successful organizations have two things: they have accountability and they have trust. So what Fair Play does is it uses organizational management techniques to restore accountability and trust to the home. No one had ever done that before. You surveyed over 500 couples across the US to get a better understanding of the invisible load families carry. Is there something you specifically heard from men that informed your approach to how couples can work together to restore balance? I call it the life-changing magic of mustard. What I heard from men at first was that they were overreporting what they were doing, so that was the thing that was most alarming to me. Women were coming to me saying they were completely overwhelmed and their partners weren't helping, but men thought that they were doing 50% of the work. What I had to do was change my research approach, so that's why I call it the life-changing magic of mustard, because how you ask questions is how you get good data. A lot of the questions that I asked before Fair Play were questions that weren't capturing the real problems. The question I started to ask was, 'How does mustard get in your refrigerators?'Once I asked that, I was able to capture data in 18 countries, and now we have a study on women's cognitive labor based on that question. What that allowed me to do was realize that in 18 countries, women were the ones who noticed that their son Johnny liked yellow mustard, not spicy noticing, that conception, is a key part of project management. The 'aha' moment was that the reason men were saying they were involved in groceries was because that's the planning phase, they weren't involved in that. They were involved in the execution phase.I realized that I could change the dynamic of how men felt as well by moving from a 50-50 scorekeeping exercise to one of full ownership, and that's where Fair Play was born. What is the toll that women often face being the 'she-fault,' as you call it? If you're always the one in charge of the C [conception] and the P [planning], regardless of whether you have someone helping you execute the E, that C and the P is where the cognitive labor is. We have a new study that shows that the more women hold the cognitive labor (that C and the P), the more they're not allowed to give ownership to others, the more their mental health suffers, the more they're personally burnt out, and the more their relationship satisfaction literally life and death. Women are sick, they're burnt out. We have women in our studies, basically any woman that says that she holds more than 60 of the Fair Play cards—most people play with about 80 cards if you have kids—if you're holding more than 60 cards, almost every single woman in our study was showing some physical ailment and the top ones were insomnia, stress-related disease, autoimmune diseases, we had women reporting a lot of cancer not saying that stress causes all these things, but it definitely exacerbates them. Recent research confirms what we're sure you already know, that 71% of moms still say they feel they're shouldering the majority of the mental load. What message do you have for them and what do you hope the future looks like for them? My message is that there is a way out. There is a secret formula for the home, assuming that you have a willing partner. My number one thing is if you have an unwilling partner, a partner not willing to engage in fair play, or any of these conversations, then you should leave the marriage. That's what I've learned over 10 years: get out if you can. But in most marriages, most of the couples—and we have thousands of couples that are in the Fair Play system—the partner is willing. They just didn't know how to help.I like people to do an audit where they ask themselves, 'In the past month, have I ever said to myself, 'I'm a better multitasker—I'm wired differently to do this?' Have I said to myself, 'we're both rectal surgeons, but my partner is better at focusing on one task at a time, and I can find the time? Have I ever said, 'My partner makes more money than me or my job is more flexible?''If you've ever said any one of those messages to yourself, they're all toxic. The system is Fair Play, it's ever-standing, and you can do an audit of the system. How well is your system working? How functional do you feel like your home is, or are you a home where you're waiting to decide who takes the dog out every night before it takes a pee on the rug? If you're feeling completely chaotic, start with the system. If you feel like you've said one of those toxic messages to yourself, start with your boundaries. If you feel like you can't even bring things up, start with communication. Do you and your husband follow the rules of Fair Play, and if so, how does it help you divide the labor of raising your kids? Everyone should watch our documentary on Hulu. It's called Fair Play, and it shows how we practice fair play. I think it's affected our kids the most because they have ownership of their tasks in the understand that laundry is not just putting the clothes in the washer. It's understanding to separate darks from lights. It's understanding that certain clothes don't go in the washer, that certain clothes have to be hand-washed or dry cleaned. It's understanding that you want to plan for when you do the laundry so that you have clean clothes for when you need them. It's understanding that once those clothes go in, you also have to set a timer to know when they go in the dryer, and then set another timer for when they have to come out of the dryer. And then you have to set another time to fold them, and then you also have to know where those clothes that's the ownership of laundry. Understanding that CPE [conception, planning, executing] is the core tenet of our household has been really helpful for our children's executive function. You shared that your mother was a single mom. What was it like growing up with her and how did she influence your perspective on unpaid domestic labor? My mother is a professor in macro-social work, so she does a lot of social change work. What she always taught me was that everything's a both-and. It's not I've learned is that we have to fight for better systems for parents within this country, whether it's subsidizing childcare, paid leave, allowing men more flexibility to be caregivers—but also, with the both-and, we can take the opportunity to change our lives can start practicing Fair Play. We can start demanding a better world for our time. We can reclaim our time. We can spend less time doing cognitive labor. We can insist that our partners share the load. You talk about people having a unicorn space. Can you explain what that is and tell us about what your unicorn space is? Unicorn space means creativity is not optional. As parents, we are parents, partners, and professionals on repeat. We have zero opportunity to explore creativity, and so what this concept really gets at is that identity loss in parents is real. To reclaim the things that we love, values-based curiosity, sharing ourselves with the world, and completing something different outside of our roles is really the antidote to antidote to burnout is being consistently interested in your own life. You're not going to get there by just having a once-a-year girls trip or men's trip or even going to the gym every day. We have to have this third thing, this idea of unicorn space. Something in our life to say, 'I'm working towards a goal where I can't believe I just did that.' The consistency of learning and excitement, and the fear, all those elements are really what make a meaningful life. I signed up for something called 29029. It's a hike up Whistler Mountain where you go up eight times to replicate what it would feel like to do the elevation of Everest. I've been training. It's helped me process my father's death in October. And it's the craziest endurance challenge I've ever done, so that's my unicorn space right now.I will say that I think it's very important to understand, my husband and my kids are not like, 'Wow mom you're amazing.' They're like, 'Ugh, mom's going on another hike again.' 'When you hold a boundary, people are not cheering for you. It doesn't work like that. Expect other people's discomfort when you hold your boundaries. Read the original article on Parents Solve the daily Crossword
