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