Another copyright question -
 

If I see a quilt ( or quilt design) that I like -

And then go and draft it - either with pencil and graph paper or a drafting program -

Is that considered copyright infringement?

If it is for your personal use then it's okay. You can't claim the design as your own if it is exactly like it.

Was the original quilt copyrighted? Things aren't automatically copyrighted just because someone makes it. Copyrighting something is a somewhat expensive and lengthy process so I doubt that someone does this for every quilt she makes. If the original quilt wasn't copyrighted ( and if it was it should have been marked as "copyright" ) then you have nothing to worry about.

Gosh I hope not!! I make most of my quilts off others that I have seen. I see it, think I can make that, and draw it up. If I post it here or on FB I will say something like "based on a design by..."

Probably not. Few quilt designs are protected by copyright, because they are not original.

Copyrighting something is not expensive. It is not a lengthy process. As soon as you produce something, it is protected. There is a small charge to register your copyright, but registration is not required. This article explains - https://m.wikihow.com/Copyright-Material-(US)

A lot of the confusion about copyright and quilt patterns stems from the fact that people assume that it is the quilt design that the author claims is copyrighted. In reality, it is almost always the quilt pattern itself - the words and pictures that the author wrote to describe how to make the quilt - that is under copyright protection.

Thank you, dunster, for saying it so clearly

not true. what you plan to do with it has nothing to do with whether or not you can legally copy it.

the questions to ask yourself:
whether or not the design is unique - or at least nothing you've ever seen before. (best to not copy it.)
is the layout composed of blocks already in the public domain? (safe to copy it if all of the blocks are from the public domain.)

is it an art quilt?
safest bet is to not copy it.

Wow, Dunster. Thanks for the info. The last time my husband was involved in copyrighting something was years ago and it was a fairly involved process especially with the research involved to see if this had indeed already been copyrighted.

Previous next door neighbor is a lawyer in a firm that represents a well known publisher of craft patterns. I got my copyright answers from him. Usually he just laughed and said make your quilt. I'm not going to sell the patterns, copy them, or claim the design. There are designer rules and then there is copyright law. Copyright law is the only one important.

It's perfectly fine to 'knock off' a design you see. Otherwise, you wouldn't see it happening in the fashion industry, right and left! Shapes and combinations thereof are, by law, not copyrightable. They are always public domain. What is copyrightable is copy... i.e., words. Your words are automatically copyrighted. You cannot steal another person's words. But shapes and their designs is totally up for grabs.

So... you can't take another person's written instruction and claim those exact words for yourself, but you can copy a design comprised of shapes. Look at how many times Eleanor Burns and all the other big names in quilting have done this... selling old pattern designs with their new names on them.