I worked in advertising and especially the creative department for a few years and I'm big on copyright protection. I'm also big on fair use which does allow you to make a direct lift of something for personal use. Even though I did draft up my version of Elizabeth Hartman's Hazel Hedgehog pattern that is exactly what it was which was someone else's distinctive work with no independent concept-- so I bought the pattern.
But I'm not going to buy a pattern on some variation of something traditional. All I need to do is see it and store it away in a corner of the quilt brain.
I am much more willing to buy books on techniques I want to learn than basically a single use pattern. Don't know why that is...