Originally Posted by
Quiltngolfer
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?
I wanted to take a photograph of a wall quilt at the Houston show one time. The booth attendant asked me not to and said it was against the rules. The fear was that I'd take the photo and make my own pattern. Instead, she gave me some handouts with much nicer photographs of that quilt and several others. I really didn't have the heart to tell her that I could make a much better pattern from her handout than I ever could with my photograph.