Unfazed by all that Luna said, Janet swiped and zoomed in on the drawings on the PC tablet. She observed them closely for a while. She then said, "Yeah, they are similar, but that doesn't make them the same. Are you calling me a plagiarist because of these similarities? Besides, no one knows when you made these design drafts!"
Luna had prepared well for this confrontation, so she had expected Janet to say such a thing. She retorted fearlessly, "As I said earlier, I made these designs some time back. I decided to put the entire collection on a fashion design exchange platform since it wasn't selected by the design team. It was a way of putting my work out there and building my portfolio. From the website, you can see that it was uploaded a year ago. Have a look, everyone!"
As Luna spoke, she opened the fashion design exchange platform where she claimed to have uploaded her designs.
The date stamp indeed showed that the collection of designs was uploaded on the platform a year ago.
A slight frown appeared on the organizer's face after Luna pointed out the date stamp. "Miss Lind, what do you have to say about that?"
The tempo of the uproar also increased. Janet saw that some of the attendees were looking at her with disdainful expressions. Many dignified designers were also coming over.
Tiffany's mind-blowing introduction of Janet before the show began painted her in a good light. Most of them had good first impressions of her, so they were supportive of her. "People often get similar inspirations. It's possible that both women have similar interests and saw the same set of past designs that inspired them. After all, even experienced designers like us occasionally have such problems."
"It's true that people can take inspiration from the same things, but it is impossible for two creative minds to come up with the same designs. Similarities can happen. However, the styles and colors of Janet's designs are exactly the same as mine. Even a blind man could see that the resemblance is uncanny. How is it possible that she made these designs without looking at mine?" Luna insisted confidently.
The other designers were forced to admit that she had a point. Both designs had the slip style and silk fabric, among other similarities. From their experience, they knew that such coincidences hardly ever happened.
This seemed to be enough evidence. As a result, the organizers and designers couldn't speak for Janet anymore. One of them eventually spoke for the rest, "Miss Lind, you have to explain why your work is the same as hers. It's best that you own up to it if you indeed plagiarized her work. Otherwise, you would make matters worse for yourself."
This statement indicated that they were convinced that this was a clear case of plagiarism.
Despite being on the hot seat with little or no support, Janet was hell-bent on sticking to her truth. She wasn't intimidated by their lack of trust. She said calmly, "You said that even a blind man could see that I plagiarized your work. Now tell me, how is it possible that I blatantly plagiarized without changing any detail? I am a smart woman. If I wanted to copy someone's work, I would make plenty of changes so that the owner won't notice the similarities. Do you think I'm a fool that would just copy and paste without tweaking anything? Which intellectual property thief would want others to find out about his or her shady business?"
There was no trace of shame or fear on Janet's face. It didn't matter to her that no one supported her now. She was just ready to prove her innocence.
Folding her arms over her chest, Luna fired back, "Spare me that crap, Janet. Now is not the time to flatter yourself. Only a thief would know how a thief thinks. I'm not a plagiarist, so there's no way I would know how people like you think. I have brought out evidence that you stole my work. Everyone has seen it. As a designer, I can't just stand by and watch someone else take credit for my hard work. With my designs, Janet successfully entered the fashion show of Seacisco Fashion Week. I demand that all of her works be withdrawn and that she apologizes to me publicly."
Janet frowned deeply.
She couldn't take the insults, let alone apologize to her. "You are making a baseless claim. I didn't plagiarize your work. I have never logged on to the fashion design sharing platform you spoke about. More so, I have never seen any designs that are similar to mine anywhere before. You just want to tarnish my image!"
Luna held her chest and pretended to be hurt by Janet's words. "How could you say that I'm. making a baseless claim? You are just being a big bully. I've never seen anyone as shameless and wicked as you. The evidence is right here. Why are you still denying it? Anyway, let's wait and see!"
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