Originally Posted by
Chester the bunny
I have never bought a pattern that you have to download and I'm not sure how the process works. Does it come as an attachment that you save to the computer, open and print? Can I then send the file to a photocopy place to get it printed? How does the seller control how many people one could send a pattern to? It would seem to me that a PDF would make it a lot easier for a pattern to be shared as opposed to making actual copies which is not allowed. Are there restrictions with a PDF?
Of course we should not share downloadable patterns unless the author/digitizer says we may do so. All designs and patterns are copyrighted. When I buy eBooks from Martingale, there is the sentence at the bottom of each page stating that it is for the sole use of myself, the purchaser. Some designs are licensed for teachers and are limited to a certain number of usages. Inklingo, for instance, sells design sets which download in the form of a book and we have a key to open that book for 200 days books cannot be opened without the key. OfficeWorks have sometimes refused to print patterns from books because of breaching copyright.