Originally Posted by MelodyWB
I never thought of it that way..your right..my issue with the NFL.. was it was my design..their issue was the wording(Super Bowl) now if you buy Disney fabric then make something..is that the same..you already paid for the right to use it? I know you can ask them..I e-mailed Ricky Tims and he was a doll about using his stuff for a class..so maybe she should check into it more !!
So all the NFL wanted was for you to either cease using the words "Super Bowl" (which is actually trademarked rather than copyrighted) or buy their license in order to use them.
The problem for trademark holders is that if they do not go after every single violation of their trademark that they become aware of, then they are at risk of losing their trademark altogether. That requirement forces "big guys" like big corporations or famous authors like J.K.Rowling to act like heavies because they must pursue every violation they become aware of, no matter how trivial.
I am not a lawyer, just a grumpy author who was forced to learn about copyright. I may well have misunderstood what the lawyer I consulted meant or have misapplied the principles in law.
With that said, though, I believe that if you take a fabric with a design licensed by Disney, use it to make a quilt and then give that quilt away, you're fine. That is akin to buying a book and then giving it to another person. No actual proliferation of copies has occurred. That single object (length of fabric or book) has not been used to generate more copies; it exists as a single copy and has been passed along in that form.
In other words, you don't have to pay twice for one copy. And in fact, fair use says that you can make a xerox of part of a copy (say, a pattern out of a book or magazine) for your own personal use only. If you then sell that book or magazine, though, you have to either include the copy you made for personal use or destroy it. You cannot legally sell the original and keep a copy that you made for your own personal use.