JJs

http://www.electricquilt.com/Support/FAQ/copyright.asp

All this talk of copyright and designers claiming you have to pay them if you make a quilt and sell it - in effect, claiming you have to pay THEM for YOUR labor, materials, effort, etc, has made me think about the creative process in quilt making.

As I've stated numerous times, although I have lots of magazines and books and downloaded (Free) quilt patterns, I have mainly made my own designs for my quilts.

And, I do have issues with the software portion of EQs programs - the fact that it "phones home" and you HAVE to have internet access for it to do so. (read people - it says so) - so does this mean that if you lose your internet access at some time your software quits working? I don't know.

But, read the copyright information on that page and see that *if* you use any of the gazillion public domain blocks already in EQ, or if you design your own blocks, and you put them together in a quatrillion different ways (hey, I just made up a new word) the resulting quilt is YOURS AND YOURS ALONE - to do with what you wish - keep, SELL, give away, burn, trash, walk on at the fireworks show, or whatever.

There are some copyrighted blocks in the program and they are clearly marked - whether or not you choose to use them is up to you.

And you can COPYRIGHT the design you make IF you do not use any copyrighted blocks or designs included in EQ.

FATCAT uses EQ to create all the designs that she gives away FREE - and she clearly states that you can SELL your quilts that you make using her designs - all she asks is that you do not sell her patterns and you do not mass produce quilts made from her patterns - what could be nicer than that.

I hate being being a "Mrs. Olsen" (maybe some of the younger people don't know who she was - carried her can of coffee everywhere) - anyway, the more I contemplate the copyright issue, the hysteria involved in it, the paranoia of the designers, etc, the more I'm glad I invested in the EQ software.

You don't have to have the latest/greatest version - EQ5 runs on Windows 7 - I know, because I have 5,6, and 7 installed!

Way back when, women would scribble pattern notes on anything they could find, they would have stacks of quilt blocks done up and tied together with a string - this was NOT a sampler quilt in the making - it was their "book" of quilt designs. Everyone made their own quilts their own way - then came newspapers printing out designs - oh happy day - an easy way to get new ideas, and a second later came someone yelling, "hey that's my design, pay me for it"....

bah humbug

Moonpi

By posting your EQ designs, photos, and such on this site, you are allowing them to be used for reprint and further publication. From "Terms of Use"

"Visitor agrees as a condition of viewing, that any communication between Visitor and Website is deemed a submission. By making a submission, Visitor grants the administration and the owners of the Website a worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licenseable and transferable license to use in any way, reproduce and distribute the submission and prepare derivative works of the submission without further permission. This includes commercial and non-commercial use of all submissions, including portions thereof, graphics contained thereon, or any of the content of the submission. Visitor agrees to only communicate that information to the Website, which it wishes to forever allow the Website to use in any manner as it sees fit. "Submissions" is also a provision of the Privacy Policy.

At the bottom of the Home page, you can find the links to the entire Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. I think everyone should have looked at these when they joined, but it never hurts to review the site rules.

Navy Wife

I don't know about all the copyright laws, but I do know that EQ just uses the internet during installation. I think they need the internet to register the program. If I had spent that much time putting together a computer program, I wouldn't want anyone to pass it around to all their friends without paying for it. My DGS makes his living writing computer programs. Just wish he knew something about quilting!

JJs

Book for EQ7
As I said, READ:
Page 8, paragraph 6 (last paragraph of the page)

"Periodically EQ7 will validate the license over the internet at start up of the program. If your computer is not connected to the Internet, or communication is being blocked because of your computer's firewall settings, you will receive a message, "License validation failed. Validation required in xx days"

So that is NOT just using the internet during installation.

hobo2000

Look up the term "Intellectual Properties" There are many lawsuits each year by quilt designers and they mostly win. They dream up the quilt, make the pattern, they own the design. We buy the pattern, it is for our own private use. We cannot sell the pattern nor make quantities of the quilt, etc. to sell without their permission and we must note on quilt whose pattern it is. They are getting very tight about this. This is their living we are playing with and people are picky when others do not recognize their work.

dglvr

If I were a pattern designer I guess I'd want my pattern made into quilts and passed around (or sold) that way my pattern is out there and people would want to go buy the pattern.
I know they don't see it that way. I would see it as adverstisement. I understand the don't make copies and pass that around.
Its all confusing. :shock:

Rosyhf

I hang on to my EQ5 because I have it on a another computer and it will work off line and I like to sit in bed and just play on my laptop...

Navy Wife

I used mine all last winter without the internet. We did not have access to it, even wi-fi. I didn't get any messages. I haven't used EQ7 without access yet, but will this winter. It will be interesting to see if there is a difference!

JJs

Ok, we all agree that the initial cost of EQ is kind of steep - but it's 'specialty' software meaning that few people in the overall population are going to be buying it - less copies sold=more price per copy.
Think about the UNLIMITED number of quilts you can design ROYALTY FREE with that investment. You no longer have to pay anybody anything to make a quilt that YOU design. You do NOT have to worry about getting some person's permission to show your quilt, you don't have to wonder if a real life quilt police is going to show up and demand a cut of your money from the sale of a quilt.
Sounds like a good deal to me. And if you get version 5 you can use it forever.
geez, I'll put the coffee and the laxatives away now....