And so will all of us, I hope! Thank you for the big reminder!

I was under the impression that most selling patterns on ebay are selling the original pattern, ripped out of magainzes.

I can't imagine why anyone thinks that is a copyright violation if they are selling originals.

Please understand that when pattern designers say their work is copyright (or copywritten), they are talking about the words of instruction, the layout of the whole work (and in my personal case, the graphics I have drawn) they have written.....not the specific block, of course. Most of those are wide open. But if I have taken the time to drawn the design, modify it, take it apart into sections in a graphic, color it my way, and then broken the quilt down into steps of how to sew it together the way I suggest...well, all of that is MY WORK and is copyrightable. THAT is what we mean by a "pattern" being a copyright. We do not say a BLOCK is a copyright.

Lest it be misunderstood, I restate that BettyGee was right on the money, I agree with her, and I'm glad she wrote the topic.

Jan in VA

Interesting thread! When I comment on lovely quilts at our guild show and tell, especially if I inquire about the name/designer of the pattern, many folks will say something like, "Oh, don't buy it, I'll copy mine." Which is often a copy already, for crying in the beer. It amazes and disappoints me.

An annual event - Bonnie Hunter's huge mystery - starts soon. It'll be posted on her blog, in weekly segments, for 6 to 8 weeks. Then she'll say - and send/post reminders - that it's going to remain up until (whatever date, usually in late June or July). At that point, it is taken down and will be put in a future book. I can't tell you how many times people have sent me PM's saying, "I know it's not posted any more, so can you just send me a copy so I don't have to buy the book next year?" Um... No. I usually just don't answer b/c I don't know how to tactfully say it's illegal!

I often say that I'm good at following instructions, but am not creative enough to come up with a pattern. If I want people to be successful in the quilting design business so that I can follow those patterns, I'd better be willing to pay them to do it.

And once I'm done with a pattern, it's unlikely that I'll make it again. First, I'm usually really glad to be finished doing the same thing over and over. Second, there are too many things that I want to make. I'll never get to them all even making just one, so sure can't make more than one. Once I'm done with them, I usually give them away at guild meetings. The original pattern, with any notes I made and all, not a copy!

It's legal to sell original pages from a magazine. What I don't understand is why the big bookstores do not stop people from taking pictures with their cell phone of recipes, patterns, etc from a book off their shelf. I see this happening all the time. I saw one woman in Target taking pictures of patterns in a craft magazines. I was brave enough to say I think that is not allowed. She just shrugged, laughed and said so what and she had two children with her. When I turned to leave I heard one of the kids say Mom that woman was being mean to you.

BettyGee ... bravo to you. I also came close to making the same mistake with part of a pattern. The more I thought about it, the copyright applied to every bit of the pattern!!

I see intellectual property violations all the time on Etsy and Ebay. People making their own versions of Spiderman, Bart Simpson, etc, and selling them without paying royalties to the original creators.

One thing I found most interesting in the link from HettyB's post was the issue of public domain. If I understood the blogger correctly, any quilt pattern designed prior to 1978 is considered public domain and not subject to copyright.

Great discussion, thank you all for your respectful thoughts and comments.

Thanks I did ask the question. It's such a blurred area. If I personally design a quilt and then did a workshop doing the pattern do I have any copyright right, or no rights at all to the people at workshop sharing the pattern?