Handcraftsbyjen

Copyright is NOT free. For those of us that are designers and want our patterns protected by copyright laws, we DO PAY per pattern. The fee varies as to if you submit by mail or via email.

zennia

I belong to two quilting groups and we always share patterns and ideas but if someone i really don't know I would give them the title and author of the book.
Dont be hard on the girl coming to the retreat..She might not have anyone at home and has saved all year just to come out for some friendship. We have such a person at our yearly retreat.

ghostrider

Relax, Kristi clearly stated that it's the registration of the copyright that has the fee attached, not the copyright itself. It is your choice to register so that you can defend your copyright against infringement in court if/when necessary. Absent that registration, you still have the copyright on your original work, you just can't easily bring suit to defend it. You pay for the protection of the rights, not for the rights themselves. What Kristi said was perfectly clear and correct.

QUILTNMO

i learned the hard way i loaned a magazine to someone i hardly knew she was going to make a copy well she says she lost the magazine luckily i was able to replace it i dont loan to any one i say you can find it at so and so. some people just dont get it!

Skratchie

Actually, you CAN defend your copyright against infringement in court without registration - it's as easy as posting it to a blog that you keep private, that time and date stamps the post. I found this out several years ago when a photo that a photographer friend of mine had taken was used on a public billboard. He was able to force the company to remove the photo by proving that he had posted the photo himself and owned the original file when the company couldn't produce a release. In this digital age, it is very easy to validate copyright, just by keeping a blog.

tellabella

Isn't loaning patterns and books to good friends and sisters also breaking copyright?

Skratchie

No, loaning a book is not breaking copyright, as long as there is no copying of the content, though loaning a pattern might be. The rule of thumb is, one person can read a book at a time, so if you loan the book, the person you loaned it to is reading it.

But I gotta tell ya'll ... I think the whole copyright thing in the creative world has gotten out of hand. From designers saying you can't use their fabric to make an item to sell, to pattern makers who state you can't use their pattern to make an item to sell ... it's all ridiculous, and more importantly, not enforceable. Did you know that according to some designers, we break the rules every single day, right here on Quilting Board? Every time someone posts a photo of a quilt they've made from a pattern, some designers think you're infringing on their copyright.

Quilts are utilitarian items, and outside of a patented technique, I don't think copyrights, even when registered, are going to be enforceable, because unless it's a truly unique design (and truthfully, how many truly unique designs are there these days that wouldn't be considered public domain?), it's not subject to copyright protection.

tessagin

I do this often. If interested in a book or pattern, I'll take a photo of it with the information so I can go on line and order it. I also do this when I want to make a note of something. I always ask first though. I don't want to be responsible for something loaned. I can't tell you the last time I borrowed from anyone. I just tell DH what I want or need then hold my hand out or grab the debt card. LOL!

stillclock

huh. i don't ever buy patterns. i learned to draft blocks and design quilts in my learn-to-quilt class. i love traditional quilts and those designs are solidly in the public domain. i recently made a "swoon" block quilt but in looking at them over the course of months i came to realize "swoon" blocks are simplified, modernized and copyrighted evolutions of a more complex block called the dutch rose. i balk at the number of people trying to make money by selling patterns that are no more than modifications of trad designs. that never sits right with me and i don't consider it stealing to use bits and pieces or even whole parts of designs i see.

i can't speak to the whys and wherefores of this woman's requests. i don't collect quilting books or patterns or anything anyone would be particularly interested in. i wouldn't loan out my fons and porter book because i still use it a lot.

i am surprised by how hard we hold on to every little thing. it's the way of this world, but it's so incredibly cold.

ailene

Dodie

stillclock a great answer you are so right most of these copyrighted quilt patterns are copied from someplace else I know One Block Wonder was a copy of Stack and Whack also Twister was a copy of an earlier book called Square Dance and have seen many more copies just the day we live in Greed and money I am thankful to be in a fun sharing group gues if they have nothing better to do they can arrest me