I am a published author and people do ask me for permission to use a poem for their class. I give them permission and most authors if asked for written permission will do so. I do know some people require that you purchase the book. I think too that if you do a pattern to have a label that gives the designer credit as well as the author of the piece you can not go wrong. I have seen people copying an afghan book patterns, that was wrong and they could well get into serious trouble if caught. Always check the ISBN number because that means it was copyrighted.