Chele, your heart is definitely in the right place, but perhaps we're talking about different things. There is a huge difference between making (and selling) items from a legally obtained pattern and copying someone's original work without permission.
The legitimate use of a pattern is not a matter of ethics or manners. It is a matter of copyright law, which the pattern maker should understand before selling her pattern. If she wants to have more control than the law provides, she should not sell the pattern.
It's not as if you are ripping off the pattern maker. You are paying the asking price for the pattern, and with that goes the right to make items from the pattern. You own whatever you make, and so you have the right to sell it if you choose. I say this from the standpoint of someone who is currently selling a quilt pattern. I hope that everyone who buys my pattern will make many, many quilts from it, and if they want to sell, display, give away, donate, or even burn those quilts, they have the absolute right to do so. I am being compensated for my time and expenses by the payment I receive from the pattern, and that is all I am entitled to. If someone wants to give me credit for having written the pattern, I will be thrilled to receive it, but I will look on that as a nice gesture, not as something the quilter was required by law or ethics to provide.
Originally Posted by Chele
What if I figure out Apple's "pattern" for the IPhone? Do you think I could sell it? Or is that that license/law thing? Doesn't it really boil down to ethics or manners? If you didn't create it, you should really ask permission to profit from it.
As an aside, I bet all of you talented quilters could come up with your own wonderful patterns. And I'm sure you'd be more than willing to share with the rest of the world. That's what I love about quilters. Huge hearts and sharing personalities. And if your fellow quilter made billions off your pattern without ever asking if it was okay, you'd send a congratulations bouquet, right? Laws or not, what's the right thing to do?