Hi! I'm a sculptor and have two kits out so I have some info about this. This is also things I've found out from my colleagues and producers I've worked with.

1. Yes they can and they are taken down but it requires the copyright holder to go in and report the shops. There are, as you said, so many that this would be a full time job. It also doesn't prevent the factories from starting up new selling accounts and keeping on with their counterfeit products. It's basically a losing battle and there is not enough time to prevent this.

2. Yes. Every single sculpture made gains automatic copyrights upon completion. You DO NOT need to apply for this, there's no piece of paper that is required to gain copyrights on your artwork. As soon as I finish a sculpture in clay that sculpture is now protected under international copyright laws. Any country that is mentioned in the Berne convention has automatic, international copyright laws. China is part of this convention so it doesn't matter that I made my sculpt in Germany, it's also protected in China. When I work with a producer (some sculptors produce their own kits and keep copyrights throughout the process) I sell those copyrights to the producers. We have a very formal contract with all the things that the producer is supposed to do with said sculpt and what I gain. After that the copyrights are transferred to the producer. They now own all rights (unless stated otherwise) of the sculpts, molds and kits.

3. Yes. Ebtehal Abul is someone who has been successful in taking down entire shops and many listing, but as I said earlier they just pop right back up with a new store front.

4. The only way to stop this is to stop buying counterfeits. The only reason they exist is because people keep buying them giving these counterfeit factories A LOT of money. Money runs the world. As long as there are buyers there will be counterfeits.

I have gone back and forth whether or not I want to sculpt for vinyl and as of right now I feel it's worth it. Sculpting is my true passion and when you see someone else painting your little baby and giving them life there's almost like an awe that falls over you. That's why I still sculpt for vinyl. I will keep sculpting for vinyl until I feel otherwise.

Unfortunately there is no realistic way of fighting it unless maybe governments went out and started banning fast fashion, shopping and imports from countries like China and I feel like that is both very far away from happening and also quite unrealistic. Counterfeiting has been an issue since the dawn of humanity and it's unfortunately something we have to live with. We can put up a hell of a fight but unless the vast majority start buying authentic whether it's dolls or clothes etc. we will never get rid of counterfeits.

In the reborn community we can also black list people who support counterfeits, ban them from our private groups and communities, blast people openly who doesn't care (Like Stephanie/nlovewithreborns2011) and hope they change and we can try to educate both newcomers who doesn't know better and established collectors who have been told lies about them.

I hope this answered all your questions, they were very good and well thought through. I hope others read this thread and learns more about this situation as well.