copyright for crafters
question 5: When I buy a pattern or a book, I become the owner. What difference does copyright make?
You’re only the owner of the physical pattern or book itself. You are not the copyright owner.
What’s the difference? Copyright isn’t about physical objects, like the paper the pattern is printed on. Copyright is about the contents of the pattern: the instructions, the charts, the pictures.
You can do what you want with the physical part of the pattern you bought. You can lend it to a friend, you can burn it, eat it, turn it into a paper airplane, donate it to a library or a church, sell it at a consignment shop, sell it at a yard sale, sell it to your best friend, give it to your best friend, give it to a complete stranger… all because you’re the owner of the physical part of the pattern.
But you can’t do whatever you want with the content. You can’t make a copy of it. You can’t scan it into your computer and send the scanned copy to anybody or put it on your website. You can’t photocopy it and give the photocopy to anybody. You can’t type the pattern out yourself and send what you typed to anybody, or put it on a website. You can’t do these things because you’re not the copyright owner.
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