Thread: copyright rules
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Old 02-03-2020, 05:22 AM
  #10  
bkay
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Join Date: Mar 2016
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Originally Posted by Claire123
You really are not supposed to make copies for friends. It’s ok to make the pattern multiple times for yourself or gifts for others. It is not ok to sell them in a home based business.
I believe you are mistaken. The "fair use" doctrine says the copyright holder cannot tell you what to do with something once you purchase it. Once you pay for it, you can use it any way you want. (You cannot make copies of the pattern itself to sell or give away, however.) They have a copyright on the pattern (the paper itself), not what you make with it.
For instance, you can buy a Grateful Dead t-shirt and make a dress out of it and sell it. You cannot reproduce their logo on a garment and sell it without their permission, though. If you buy the t-shirt, it's yours and they have nothing to say about what you do with it.
Oftentimes, a quilt pattern maker will say you cannot sell an item made from their pattern. They specify that on the pattern. It's impossible to enforce even if it were true, but it's not. I once returned a pattern for a wheelchair quilt that specified that on it. I don't sell quilts, but was offended that someone was attempting to restrict a perfectly legal use of their pattern. (I did not make the quilt, but could have made it without the pattern, anyway.)
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