permission to display quilt
 

I have made a quilt by " Debbie Beaves" from McCall's Quick Quilts Feb./March 2010. I want to display my quilt in the Me. Quilt Show. I need Debbies' permission in order to display it. This is the shows rule, so she will get the credit due her. I have emailed the magazines customer service dept. & no reply. Does anyone have any other suggestions ? I need to have my application in by May 1st. Thanks for any help. Rowena101

I think that you need Mccall's permission, not Debbie's. I have several cross stitch patterns published in needlework magazines and when I "sold" them my design I signed a contract letting them have the copyright for X number of years. Until that time period passes, I do not have copyright over them, however copyright reverts back to me once the length of time noted in the contract expires.

It looks like Leslie found a general notice in their magazine, that should be sufficient. If you still have the magazine you used check to see if it still has the notice.

Hope that helps.

This is what happens when show organizers don't think about the restrictions they're imposing. A great many designers sell their copyright to the magazine when they have a design published. So, yes, they are the designer, but they no longer hold the copyright. Where does that leave someone who wants to show that quilt? Maine Quilts specifically states you need written permission from the designer...period.

If I were you, I'd track down a phone number for McCall's customer service, talk to a living human being and explain that you need written permission from Debbie Beaves to enter and publically display a quilt made from her design, regardless of who holds the copyright or what the policy of McCall's magazine may be. They may or may not choose to put you in touch with Ms Beaves.

Other options would be to track her down in Vancouver somehow, and/or contact the Maine Quilts quilt registrar, Susan Bulay (hyperlink is on the entry FAQ page at Maine Quilts website). The entry deadline, btw, is a May 15 postmark, so you have a bit of extra time. Wishing you the best of luck.

Personally I think it's a pretty sad point we've come to when you have to ask permission to display your *own* work. No matter who designed the pattern, you made the quilt.

Amen! Couldn't agree more. What happens when you change an element in the design? Does it then become yours?

You might want to read the thread called "question about copyright", here on quilting board, to see why you could be pestering the designer with a question she's heard a hundred times already and has decided to ignore any and all future questions.

I agree

I feel if the pattern is in a maginze or book or on the internet you should be able to display it when you make the quilt when they sold or gave the pattern to the maginze or for the books it is free to make and display. For you bought the maginze or the book so you should have the right to display it when you make a quilt from it.
Phillis

I totally agree with this statement. If the pattern is put out there to use then let us use it. I feel that as long as you put the designers name or what book it came from that should be good enough for anyone. This is one reason I very rarely use a pattern. I do not display mine but have been asked by some who's patterhn I used.

Conversations such as this hurt business. One person who hears gossip from so and so (in this case, the quilt show director who invented the ridiculous rule that has nothing to do with true copyright law). The rule requires innocent people to perform the equivalent of 'go jump in a lake' in order to submit a beautiful quilt that took hundreds of hours to make. Of course they're going to jump in the lake! And those who find jumping in the lake annoying, simply skip entering a show completely.

So where does this lead us? The owners of the lake get tired of telling people to quit jumping in the lake, so they put up fences (I.e.: ignore emails asking for permission to jump in the lake.) And when the innocent people go public, disheartened because they can't get permission to jump in the lake, it gives the owner a bad reputation, which is completely undeserved. People stop buying quilt patterns, the numbers of quilts entered in shows dwindles down to women who are artistic enough to create their own patterns (I'm not one of them, by the way) and the industry suffers, especially the pattern designers who so graciously share their talent with the rest of us!

Here's another conversation on quilting board, in a thread called "question about copyright"

... an added note. I ripped up my subscription renewal to McCalls magazine and went with Fons & Porter Love of Quilting instead. If McCalls is this inept at checking facts then anything else they write about is certainly not trustworthy either.

I will continue to support both the local quilt shop AND pattern designers. :thumbup:

Here is a great website that further dicusses it. This person is not a lawyer as I understand it, but cites cases.

http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/...aftSites.shtml

It seems this discussion of copyright and how we all "think" this issue should be handled is irrelevant in this case. The show has it's own rules, and if the poster wants her quilt shown, she has to abide by the rules, no matter what we think of them, and no matter what actual copyright law states.
I would think that if you get no response by calling McCalls, and no way to contact the original designer (via her website), perhaps you can provide "proof" to the show organizers that you did indeed try, and perhaps you can just credit the designer in the information tag attached to your quilt? Maybe at this point, contact the show's organizers and ask what to do if you are unable to get a response from McCalls? Good luck!

Thank you for posting this! :thumbup: I knew I'd seen this somewhere, but couldn't find it this morning in all my bookmarks.

The show organizer is making a good faith attempt to do things correctly, even though it's misguided. You can't blame them for that. I would think the organizer would be relieved to see the facts shown on the tabberone.com website. A thoughtfully written email to the organizer, including the link Feline Fanatic has given us could make things much easier for everyone involved.

I sponsor a local quilt show every year. If you enter a quilt (free entry) it is hung up. No rules other then the deadline to enter. Viewer's Choice Ribbons and no quilts are judged. No money but a gift baskets for the winners donated by the show vendors. The only label for each quilt is a number to vote for it. No names or info unless it's on the quilter's label on the back or if the quiltmaker want to attach any personal info. There are usually around 100 quilts entered. Simple and no hassles and we draw a bigger crowd every year. I've been to countless state and local fairs and have seen many quilts made from popular purchased patterns. Never any permissions required to enter the quilts at any of them.

This gets discussed in my other crafting circles as well... Knitting and diaper sewing. In both of those the agreed on consensus is that legally, you are allowed to do whatever you want with your finished product. You can sell it or display it under your own brand name. You couldn't sell it as "McCall's such and such quilt" but you can sell it as "Susie Q's Quilty Quilts" without any legal repercussions. Even if a pattern says you can't, there have been no cases of successful legal action. You can't deconstruct someone else's finished product and create a pattern and sell the pattern. I will add that there are acceptable community practices though, and I havent been in quilting long enough to know what they are like I do in diaper making. And I'm not a lawyer, just sharing how these discussions have happened in other crafts. And I realize this isn't helpful to the posters specific issue is her quilt show requiring specific documentation (which kind of goes back to those community standard I mentioned before.)

We should reverse the process! I think all of us before buying a pattern or quilt book should send a message saying I will buy your book or pattern only if I have permission to display the item I make from your pattern. No permission given then don't buy. If enough quilters would do that I think many of the too strict regulations would be removed very fast.

I agree totally!!!

have you tried Debbie's website? you may be able to contact her through there & tell her your situation- (cut out the middleman- magazine)
or contact the show administrators & explain the quilt copyright belongs to the magazine & there is published permission---see if that gets you anywhere.

I think it's sufficient to simply give credit for the pattern. Selling it is a different matter.
MaryKatherine

On several occasions when looking through magazines and internet sites, the designer or owner of the mag or web site post a statement that the design CAN be used for display or sales..you just can't sale the pattern...maybe McCall's does the same...go back and look...if they do then it would seem to me that gives you the permission...Good luck and post a pict...would love to see the quilt...

I agree with scissorqueen that is one reason I no longer subscribe to magazines they want tp publish patterns but then not allow tjem to be used and I do agree once we buy the pattern and fabric we already have lots of money tied up in it then the time of all of our work and we should be able to show it so I just leave all magazines alone check with the fabric companies there are lots of nice free patterns out there

yep, makes it NO fun at all!

Just curious! If someone used an old traditional pattern, what would the contest still require someone's permission? I don't use purchased patterns. And generally not even patterns from books------------outside of general ideas

This is not a case of right or wrong in anyone's opinion, legal or not legal. It's a question of how to work within the entry rules that this particular quilt guild has established for their show, plain and simple. There have been a few good suggestions for the OP that may solve her immediate problem and I hope she follows up on those and lets us know how it worked out.

Most shows are now requiring the designer's name if the quilt is not an original, many even ask for what inspired the quiltmaker. I think both of those tactics are quite fair. Only a few go to the extreme that Maine Quilts has gone. Those that require written permission from a designer are shooting themselves in the foot, imho, because they are truly discouraging many quilters from entering their shows, especially those just starting out on the competitive path.

When I've displayed quilts, and seen them in shows, there's always statement from the quilter - usually about the design and inspiration. This is where you need to reference the quilt designer and the magazine it came from. Then there will be no questions as to where the design came from.

I think it is ridiculois you need permission as you just need to give credit as it was just published for people to use and then you design it with your fabric

I feel the same, if we use diferrent fabric then that is your quilt ..also you bought the pattern when you paid for the book or maginze..

From what I have read about copyright law, if you have bought the pattern, whatever project you make is yours to display. That right is yours when she sold it to you. I have researched this at great length because I do the newsletter for my quilt guild. I used to maintain our guild's facebook page as well, so we wanted to be especially cautious. It was suggested that anytime we posted a picture of a quilt on our page, we should list the designer of the pattern as well as the company that made the fabric, i.e. Moda.

I am glad to say, I recieved the permmision from McCalls. I made 3 phone calls today to the various numbers in the fromt of the book. I finally got a nice call from Tricia. She emailed me the information I needed. Thanks for all the help from all you nice folks !!! You are all grate. Rowena101

Scissor, I completely agree with you!! Some shows have gone completely out of the park with this nonsense. So afraid someone is going to sue someone. Get a grip, people!! It's quilts, not $1 million intellectual property!!

Good luck and let us know what happens.

So glad it all worked out well for you!! Thanks for letting us know. Best of luck with your entry!! :)

Your group takes themselves entirely too seriously! I have so much stash, if I had to come up with the manufacturer of every piece of fabric I used in a quilt it would be impossible. I'm curious about the thought process your group went through to come up with a rule to include the company that made a fabric. Was it a request by fabric companies that led you to make this rule?

I think it's overkill, but that's my opinion. I can't think of any better way to discourage quilters from sharing their talents. I've been sewing for 38 years and in all that time I haven't seen one lawsuit, complaint or even a nasty letter by a fabric company because their name wasn't included as the maker of a fabric someone used. Can you imagine how large the quilt label could end up being on a quilt, even if someone were able to come up with all the manfacturers? Would we then need to create a "map" of where to find Moda's scrap, for example?

Grrrrrrrrr! Some quilt blocks have been in the public domain for generations. What then?

There was a dust up recently where exactly that happened, but it was the fabric designer. The designer's fabric was used in such a way that it landed in the gray area where she and her lawyers felt it was infringement, and the book publisher felt it was fair use. Google Carolina Patchworks and copyright and you should find some interesting reading. It's been settled, fortunately.

Most quilters don't need to worry about it unless we're publishing a book, using a designer's collection for the quilt projects, and making plastic tote bags from a picture of the resulting quilt.

Janet

For some very thought provoking reading on copyrights and their absurdity within the quilting world, see Leah Day's blog post on Copyright Terrorism. It's quite long, but well worth reading in it's entirety.
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.c...terrorism.html