I agree that is not helpful for a designer to put all those
do's and don't's in her copyright statement. I am not
one of those designers that puts those kinds of restrictions
on my patterns for that very reason.
And, you are right - there are many free patterns now
available, both for EQ and for blocks of the months,
etc., which makes it really hard to make a living designing patterns because of those reasons.
Then, there are many people that do have misconceptions
about a copyrighted pattern, and some quilters, quilt
teachers and even shop owners, think that they can take someone's pattern, photocopy it for the members of
their class or even shop, and hand it out freely. Also,
many quilters think it is fine to purchase one pattern
and then pass it out to their quilting group for everyone
to make - that is completely against anyone's copyright.
I am on several yahoo quilting groups and they offer
free quilt patterns quite often, usually designed by someone
in the group. However, even the designers of those free
patterns have copyright statements and strict rules on who
can have access to that pattern and who can't.
If it is a charity making quilts for say "Wounded Warriors",
or "Quilts of Valor", I think most designers, if contacted,
would be happy to give permission for a small group to
use one pattern for that purpose - I know I would. But
that has to be the individual designers decision, because
it is their livelihood that they have to consider.
Photo copying patterns and freely handing them out
to classes, quilting groups, etc. goes on all over the
place many times with no hesitation whatsoever.
So, designers are forced to try and set some rules
to hopefully make people stop and think at least.
And, if they have it stated clearly on their pattern,
then if a violation has occurred, they can legally
take measures. This is a very tough issue for
both the consumer and the designer. Like I said before,
my perception completely changed when I got on the
designing side rather than the consumer side.