Public Statement re: our digital products being distributed without our authorization
Public Statement - please read to make sure you were not one of the hundreds of people affected
On March 7th, 2023, it was brought to my attention that someone was distributing some of our work to their own members and customers.
Specifically several Canva templates for Instagram, an almost exact copy of our product 99 Caption Templates for Reels (including name and price) and even using the copy, word by word, from the emails we send out exclusively to members of Your Template Club, our Canva template subscription.
In case you are in this other membership or have bought some of these products that contain some copies of our work, the person’s name is Carissa Kruse-Fox.
A wedding photographer who offers a membership named Wedding-Preneurs Content Club™ and other digital products. Those products include the plagiarism of our product called “99 Caption Templates for Reels”.
Until that day, she was a member of both our memberships: The Smarter Social Club, which offers coaching, and Your Template Club, which offers Canva templates. She had also purchased other offers of ours, including the 99 Caption Templates for Reels.
She pirated our copyrighted materials and breached her contract with us. It is unlawful to sell or distribute other people’s digital products as your own.
She has since edited her caption product to differ from ours, but anyone who purchased that product or got it as a bonus from her before March 8th, 2023, would have the version that is an almost exact copy of ours word for word.
I believe she has since removed any of the Canva templates of ours she has distributed from her membership, but anyone who was a member prior to March 8th, 2023, could have some of our original designs.
We want to make this very clear: our templates are the originals. They were created before and purchased or received inside our membership by Carissa Kruse-Fox, and then redistributed and sold by her to her audience.
We have time stamped proof of when we first sent out all our products as well as screenshots showing her promoting and distributing our work.
This happened while I was recovering from my second surgery for breast cancer and about to start my treatment. It was highly detrimental for my mental health at a time where I already had more than I could handle.
Whoever said that copy is the highest form of flattery has clearly never had their hard work blatantly stolen from them.
Protecting our reputation is the only reason why we are making this public statement. We discourage any of you from contacting her, sending messages, or leaving comments regarding this topic. Harassment is never the answer.
If you are someone who paid her for the pirated content, we encourage you to request a full refund from her. If anyone mentions to you they have seen our templates elsewhere, please have them message us or refer them to this post.
As always thanks for your continued support, through the good, bad and ugly that is entrepreneurship.
Love,
Manu
Founder of Your Social Team
Manu Muraro is the founder of Your Social Team, an Instagram training membership and content shop to help social media managers and Instagram savvy women entrepreneurs to beat the algorithm and grow their organic engagement (yes, even in 2021).
This year she also launched Your Template Club, a Canva Template subscription to provide social media managers and Instagram savvy business owners with content templates designed for engagement in their inbox.
Born and raised in Brazil, Manu moved to the U.S. in 2000 right out of college to work for Cartoon Network, where she made an award winning career in creative and strategy. In 2017, Manu started Your Social Team with the mission of helping women entrepreneurs and social media managers grow engagement and sales through Instagram without the overwhelm.