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This is the story of a 61-foot-tall duck that is being called a counterfeit of a different giant duck, which itself is a replica of a beloved bath toy.


As part of a celebration for Canada's 150th birthday, Ontario's provincial government gave a grant to a waterfront festival, which will spend about $150,000 to rent and deploy a 6-story floating duck. The oversize toy 

 you would expect about a government spending money to rent a giant rubber duck, there is also this: The original giant rubber duck maker says the fowl Ontario is getting is a counterfeit bird.
Dutch artist 

. Cities the world over have paid for Hofman's duck to float in their waterways and draw big crowds. It's a statement duck, and Hofman 

 the statement is this: "We are living on a planet, we are one family, and the global waters are our bathtub, so it joins people."

But 

 enormous inflatable duck. That duck, which he and co-owner Ryan Whaley call "Mama Duck," is even bigger. And some localities have hired 

 sent from Hofman's studio on Wednesday:


 Whaley, co-owner of the supposed counterfeit:



Events featuring Hofman's duck have not always gone smoothly. In 2013, 

 floated in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, 

. A few months later, it popped up in Taiwan's Keelung Port, when, before "scores of people gathered on a quayside," 

Hofman's Rubber Duck bursts while on display in Taiwan's Keelung Port in 2013.


Hofman's press release this week is not the first alleged copyright issue around the duck. When the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust 

brought Hofman's duck to town for a festival

, a local man named Joe Wos made T-shirts depicting a rubber duck, accompanied by some yinzer slang. The trust sent him a cease-and-desist letter, calling his T-shirts "a major problem."
"It symbolizes the David and Goliath story," Wos told the 

. "A little rubber duck versus a big rubber duck."
In 2015, Philadelphia hired Samborski's duck, over the protestations of Hofman. "It's not his duck," Samborski 

 magazine. "It's just another large inflatable duck."
And then 

.
The rubber duck isn't the only public art being scrutinized as a copycat. In 2015, a near-replica of Chicago's 

 that his 45-foot-tall inflated ballerina at Rockefeller Center was in fact 

Beyond the copyright issue and the ongoing exploding-duck problems, there is also this question for city officials thinking of bringing a giant duck to town: Why?

 in 2014, pointing out the expense not only to city budgets, but also the opportunity cost of not spending that money supporting local artists:


Arts and Culture

A Dutch artist says Ontario should be using his giant duck instead of a similar johnny-come-lately giant duck. But the skirmish raises bigger questions about copycats and public art.

Enormous rubber duck in Canada is counterfeit, artist alleges

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