ckcowl

i was reading the newsletter from one of my favorite quilts shops this morning and came to this paragraph:

FYI: IF you are buying fabrics to make quilts and to sell them you need to start looking at the selvage and see if it says "Not for Commercial Use" This means that you cannot make a quilt and sell it without the permission of the fabric designer! There is a lot going on right now with pattern designers and people making quilts using fabrics with this on the selvage. Right now there are some designers that are being sued over this! It's all over the internet right now so just Beware!! It doesn't make sense to me and a lot of people but it's happening now. You'd think the designer would be happy seeing her fabrics in people's quilts but some aren't I guess! Watch your selvages before buying the fabrics if you're going to sell the quilt!


so, be careful- and check those salvages- it used to be we only had to be careful about using someone else's designs---now some of the fabrics are (off-limits too)--licensed fabrics always were off limits- but the rest were ok- not anymore- so,
if you are making to sell- please be sure and request the permissions needed and keep your self safe from legal actions

Sewhappytoquilt

Well, here's a quick fix - stop buying licensed fabrics. Do they want folks to use their fabrics or not?

ckcowl

yes, they want you to still buy their fabrics---they just want you to use them for personal projects---not sell what ever you make with them.

mic-pa

Yep, lets have a moratoriam on buying their fabric. So far I have not seen any but will check for it the next time I go to my LQS>

kacklebird

sewhappytoquilt-I agree with you!

ptquilts

I don't see how they can enforce this. Let's say Sue bought the fabric from LQS and it had the warning. It goes into her stash, a year later she has one fat quarter left with no selvage on it. She gives or sells it to Pam, who uses it to make a quilt that she offers for sale. She has no way of knowing the limitations.

Also, there is something called First Sale Doctrine. From Wikipedia, "The doctrine allows the purchaser to transfer (i.e., sell, lend or give away) a particular lawfully made copy of the copyrighted work without permission once it has been obtained. This means that the copyright holder's rights to control the change of ownership of a particular copy ends once ownership of that copy has passed to someone else, as long as the copy itself is not an infringing copy. This doctrine is also referred to as the "right of first sale," "first sale rule," or "exhaustion rule."

I run into this when selling books on Amazon. Sometimes you get a book marked, Not for Re-sale. It is not legally binding for eternity.

dunster

I don't even want to think about this. I don't want to argue about whether it's legal or binding or what "commercial" means. I just won't buy any fabric that's marked that way. Ever! And if a manufacturer has one line marked that way and not another, I just might have to avoid that manufacturer completely. So there!

sewmuchmore

To make life easier for me I will not buy any fabric with that one it. And if everyone did that then the fabric designer would go out of business or change their minds. So sad!

Pieces2

If we all stop buying these fabrics maybe the designers will have to change their policy.
I can't believe these designers want to put these restrictions on their fabric.
Let the fabric stay on the shelves, theres always other fabric to purchase.

ptquilts

In addition to not buying the fabric, let the store owners know you are NOT buying that fabric, and WHY.