I don't know the answer to this one either. My friend and I were shopping one day and saw a pretty quilt. We started to take a picture and were asked to leave the store. It really hurt my feelings. I don't remember now why we tried to take a picture, but the lady made us feel like thieves. I didn't even quilt at that time, so I never meant to "steal" her pattern. My guess is if you intentionally copy someone's pattern exactly without their permission, you infringe on the copyright. If you make some changes, then it would be your new pattern. There are so many quilt patterns out there now, how can we possibly know if a pattern is copyrighted?