Yellow Brick Road (sort of)
10-24-2020, 11:07 AM
#1
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Davenport, Iowa
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Yellow Brick Road (sort of)
I'm making twin sized quilts for my granddaughters and their "big girl beds". Thought about the different patterns that I could use for ease and quickness. For the youngest little one I used a pattern by Missouri Star and enlarged it to the twin size. Not wanting the quilts to be alike, I thought of Yellow Brick Road for the oldest girl, which uses quarter yards cut into 6 1/2" and 3 1/2" pieces., but I have a layer cake on order in blues, teals, and has butterflies. Is it possible to use the layer cake, cut 5" and 2 1/2" pieces? Is this copyright infringement? Not sure. I realize I will have to add a solid color such as white to the layer cake somewhere along the line.to make the blocks and come out with the right amount for a twin bed. Have I over thought this...or will it be possible.
10-24-2020, 12:01 PM
#2
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Texas
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You could made a Double Slice Layer cake out of layer cakes. It looks very close to a Yellow Brick Road pattern and is actually quicker. Let me see if I can find a picture of one. Double Slice Laye Cake is a video from Missouri Star.
....well, I found a picture but couldn't get it to download. Google it and you can decide if it might work for you.
Dina
....well, I found a picture but couldn't get it to download. Google it and you can decide if it might work for you.
Dina
10-24-2020, 12:08 PM
#3
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Canada
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You can cut your fabric from yardage, pre-cut, scraps or anything you choose.
That's not copyright infringement. Just make sure you have the right size
and amount you need to make the quilt. If you plan to modify the pattern
then use graph paper and don't forget the seam allowance.
That's not copyright infringement. Just make sure you have the right size
and amount you need to make the quilt. If you plan to modify the pattern
then use graph paper and don't forget the seam allowance.
10-26-2020, 06:11 PM
#7
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Location: Southern USA
Posts: 1,983
Annievee thank you. Fabrics were a collection called Cottage Joy by Shannon Christenson. I bought 2 layer cakes at Missouri Star and kept them for 2 years before deciding what to do with them. When I decided on the Double Slice and a Queen size they didn’t have layer cakes anymore or any of the yardage. I had to search and finally get enough to finish. Luckily I found enough of all the colors but it sure made it cost more than if I’d have gotten 3 to begin with.
10-27-2020, 11:26 PM
#8
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Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 1,348
It would only be copyright infringement if you made copies of the pattern and sold them, either as your own work or just as copies of the designer's work.
That's the whole essence of copyright -- who has the right to authorize the sale of copies. Let's say I write a book. I sell the first publication rights (and maybe other stuff, since they want everything and your firstborn child) to a publisher. You borrow the book from the library and run it through an OCR scanner, then put the whole book up on Amazon for sale at $3 per copy, none of which comes to me. You have just committed copyright infringement. So what if you put it up on the web to read for free, like a library? Still copyright infringement -- libraries pay for their copies too. Doesn't matter if it's a story or a pattern book. What if you pay me 50 cents from every ebook you sell for $3? Still copyright infringement, with the added bonus that it proves you knew that was my work.
But if you find a pattern either as a stand-alone pattern or in a published book and make changes to it for your own use, it's not copyright infringement. Make it bigger, or smaller, or change the colors from pink and green to red and white. Or use it as a jumping off point for whatever your heart desires. You just can't sell patterns derived from that original -- derivations are protected under copyright as well.
Storytime! I don't know if you recognize the name Margo Rose. She was an American, an inventive quilt designer who made the most imaginative designs, principally in applique. One of her patterns, an elaborate unicorn, was stolen by someone in Australia who was selling copies as her own work. Margo contacted the thief with a cease-and-desist letter. The thief refused. Margo offered to make her an authorized dealer. Thief refused again. Margo consulted her lawyer, who told her that any copyright infringement lawsuit would have be pursued in Australia in person. And that was when she gave up. Airfare + indefinite hotel stay + cost of an Australian lawyer would cost her far more than her losses from that pattern.
I was in a forum devoted to her work. And when she told us, that was when I got to work. The thief sold her patterns through a website, so I went poking around to see what else she might have. Hm, all sorts of fantasy characters. Oh, look, dwarfs! Isn't it amazing how much they look like the dwarfs from Disney's Snow White! Except the pattern instructions said to make them green, for some reason. Maybe the thief believed the false claim that if you change 10% of something, that's enough to make it yours. (Hint: it's not.)
Disney vigorously pursues copyright infringement. Disney made my local library paint over a mural in their children's section because some of the pictures only looked vaguely like Disney characters. I had an idea that they wouldn't look kindly on Ms. Thief's appropriation of their copyrighted material. So I drew their attention to it and told them how I'd discovered it. I got a very nice email thanking me and that legalities were being pursued. Two weeks later I tried to go back to the thief's website. It was gone.
That's the whole essence of copyright -- who has the right to authorize the sale of copies. Let's say I write a book. I sell the first publication rights (and maybe other stuff, since they want everything and your firstborn child) to a publisher. You borrow the book from the library and run it through an OCR scanner, then put the whole book up on Amazon for sale at $3 per copy, none of which comes to me. You have just committed copyright infringement. So what if you put it up on the web to read for free, like a library? Still copyright infringement -- libraries pay for their copies too. Doesn't matter if it's a story or a pattern book. What if you pay me 50 cents from every ebook you sell for $3? Still copyright infringement, with the added bonus that it proves you knew that was my work.
But if you find a pattern either as a stand-alone pattern or in a published book and make changes to it for your own use, it's not copyright infringement. Make it bigger, or smaller, or change the colors from pink and green to red and white. Or use it as a jumping off point for whatever your heart desires. You just can't sell patterns derived from that original -- derivations are protected under copyright as well.
Storytime! I don't know if you recognize the name Margo Rose. She was an American, an inventive quilt designer who made the most imaginative designs, principally in applique. One of her patterns, an elaborate unicorn, was stolen by someone in Australia who was selling copies as her own work. Margo contacted the thief with a cease-and-desist letter. The thief refused. Margo offered to make her an authorized dealer. Thief refused again. Margo consulted her lawyer, who told her that any copyright infringement lawsuit would have be pursued in Australia in person. And that was when she gave up. Airfare + indefinite hotel stay + cost of an Australian lawyer would cost her far more than her losses from that pattern.
I was in a forum devoted to her work. And when she told us, that was when I got to work. The thief sold her patterns through a website, so I went poking around to see what else she might have. Hm, all sorts of fantasy characters. Oh, look, dwarfs! Isn't it amazing how much they look like the dwarfs from Disney's Snow White! Except the pattern instructions said to make them green, for some reason. Maybe the thief believed the false claim that if you change 10% of something, that's enough to make it yours. (Hint: it's not.)
Disney vigorously pursues copyright infringement. Disney made my local library paint over a mural in their children's section because some of the pictures only looked vaguely like Disney characters. I had an idea that they wouldn't look kindly on Ms. Thief's appropriation of their copyrighted material. So I drew their attention to it and told them how I'd discovered it. I got a very nice email thanking me and that legalities were being pursued. Two weeks later I tried to go back to the thief's website. It was gone.
10-28-2020, 08:46 AM
#9
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Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Greater Peoria, IL -- just moved!
Posts: 6,066
When I began my working career, I worked in the creative department in a small branch of one of the top advertising companies. Among things I had to be aware of are many copyright issues, like Kitty Litter is a brand name and not generic. Some brands are very protective. Disney as already mentioned! Band-aid for example is another trademarked name that does not wish to become generic. There is a small car dealership near me that I'm sure the Simpsons would not approve of their billboard, but no print or tv ads and so I don't turn them in.
And I used to be sent out as an undercover shopper to go to fast food chains that sell Pepsi products and ask for a Coke... they are supposed to correct you. If they didn't, we would report the incident and the more serious secret shoppers would be sent in until the lawyers sent corporate cease and desist letters.
And I used to be sent out as an undercover shopper to go to fast food chains that sell Pepsi products and ask for a Coke... they are supposed to correct you. If they didn't, we would report the incident and the more serious secret shoppers would be sent in until the lawyers sent corporate cease and desist letters.
