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.

Original artwork is also copyrighted... doesn't fall into the same category as shapes. So some applique quilt patterns would be copyrighted.

You're probably confusing copyright with patent or trademark. Copyright has always been simple, the other two are not.

The fashion industry is another thing, because wearable items are considered utilitarian, and courts have generally decided that they cannot therefore be copyrighted.

You can make the quilt - where you could get into trouble is if after drafting the pattern for your own use you decide to sell the pattern as your own. The quilts are not copyrighted, the patterns are

To help understand this better, I listened to the following podcast, Just Wanna Quilt, in which the hostess --Elizabeth Townsend Gard (a law professor and a quilter)--interviews a copyright lawyer, Cynthia Burstein Waldmen. Gard asks Walmen many of same questions we as quilters have on the subject.

https://www.justwannaquilt.com/podcast Look for Episode 207, I believe it is. (It's the most recent as of today's date.)

No copyright infringement. Chances are no matter the pattern you have seen somewhere, they have seen it before as well. With the designing software these days, hundreds of people could be creating the same design.

Very true.

No. I understand the difference between copyright and patent. I was just remembering a lot of time involved in the research to make sure the item hadn't already been copyrighted.

One thing to remember..... don't believe everything you read. wikihow.com is a site where anyone can write an article and compose a page. That means that the information isn't always accurate and could be totally misleading and a lot of the facts can be left out.

A lot of the quilts I make I recreate from someone's pattern without purchasing the pattern. If it's a copyright infringement then I have a closet full of evidence against me. lol! When I share my quilts with others, I always credit the pattern or designer for the inspiration and provide links, if I can, but I do disclose I did not use a pattern so other's know it may not be a perfect rendition of a specific pattern. I respect designers and their creations but, at some point, some have to realize that it's the same stuff of history, just regurgitated in a quilt top differently. I was playing with a bearclaw quilt block the other day in EQ8...just changing the color placement alters the block to something completely different. Then, a couple of days later, I saw a quilt using that redesigned block in a quilt top and the pattern was $9. lol...go figure!