Originally Posted by Dorothy Ann
I wish you knew be better. I am so not puffed up about my quilt designs, we have so much fun making them and seeing them in print. I want all of my employees to feel a part of this experience. You see, I have a business. I have employees. I pay them. I earn money by designing, writing patterns and selling kits. A lot of people do that, are they wrong to want to protect what belongs to them. I have ownership in my ideas and creative designs, they are mine and I'm sorry that you can't take that in. You may see the Cinderella on a poster, but Disney is one of the few companies that does seek out and sue those who take what they have spent time in creative thought, money, energy and countless dollars in producing. I am small, there are laws that protect that which the law says belongs to me, but I can't enforce them as Disney does. But it makes me feel like someone has take something that didn't belong to them. The ideas and designs are mine, I will express that plainly. I will never deny a person the right to use something that is mine. I share all the time, books, money, recipes, patterns. But a person should ask to use them. Because it is not tangible does not matter, an idea is a noun and can be owned, possessed and given away. I'm sorry it isn't more plainly stated that the copyright remains with the designer, but it does.
I have one more thought and then I hope to heaven I shut up!!
The issue, Dorothy Ann, is that we all understand you design. you design and we go to your website or a quilt store and buy your patterns. They are copyrighted, we understand that. That makes sense.
The issue is, why put copyrighted patterns in a magazine that the whole world can buy, borrow, or check out from a library and make a quilt from your pattern? If it is in a magazine, it is almost public domain. Anyone can use the patterns. Why put copyrighted patterns in a publication that can be used by anyone and then add, by the way, you need my permission to make, display, or sell this quilt? Why not say up front that ALL the patterns in ANY magazine are free to be used as we see fit without strings attached??? And sell the copyrighted patterns thru another medium?? That is the issue here, I think. We aren't against copyright laws and no one is blaming McCalls or you for the laws. It just doesn't make sense to put patterns in a magazine that can't be used without permission. period. Unfortunately, that article opened a can of worms and also unfortunately, McCalls will probably bear the brunt of the anger/dismay/misunderstandings/whatever the quilting public throws at it.