Bree123

You'll probably get 10 different opinions on this. An attorney would be in the best position to advise you. My attorney & SBA adviser have advised me that simply changing the size does not get around the copyright on the design. If you're making it for personal use & bought a pattern, the copyright isn't an issue. If you plan to sell the quilt, display it for an audience or photograph it, copyright law might come into play. Nothing at all to do with the pattern; it has to do with the actual design itself. Typically if someone went through the effort of printing up a pattern, they probably registered both for a copyright on the instructions themselves and for a design patent (unless the design is traditional). The copyright means that you cannot scan the instructions & give them away or sell them online, or make copies and sell the paper copies of the pattern. The design patent means that you cannot photograph, substantially re-create, or make something else (for example, revised instructions on how to make the quilt) that is only useful because of its connection to the design. Note: There is also an automatic international copyright on all creative works that applies as soon as an artist creates an original work & labels it with his/her name and the year created. While it is technically illegal to copy those works, if no design patent was filed, it is incredibly difficult to win an infringement case. Most artwork falls into this category.

There are some internet attorneys and law enthusiasts who advise that because there haven't been many cases filed for copyright infringement of quilts, that you can do anything at all you want with the pattern other than make copies of the pattern instructions themselves for distribution. Of course, many of those same types of people gave the same advice about music until all the Napster cases flooded the courts.