copyright for crafters

copyright lite

Choose one of the following questions:

  1. Explain copyright in 20 words or less.
  2. So what’s copyright infringement?
  3. I’ve heard that it’s okay to share patterns as long as you don’t change the title, or claim that you designed it yourself. Isn’t that true?
  4. Don’t you have to mark the pattern with a © to have copyright?
  5. When I buy a pattern or a book, I become the owner. What difference does copyright make?
  6. Why is it okay to lend my copy of the latest Stephen King book to a friend, but it’s not okay to give her a copy of my favourite pattern?
  7. If sharing patterns by sending copies is stealing, isn’t taping a TV show on your VCR stealing, too?
  8. Explain libraries, then. How come you can borrow pattern books from libraries, and use their photocopiers to copy them?
  9. Well, what about people on fixed income who can’t afford to buy new patterns? It’s not fair to make them buy a pattern just because it’s copyrighted.
  10. Well, I design things and give my designs away for free. Why should other designers complain about the free publicity they get when people give their friends copies of patterns?
  11. What’s the big deal? Designers get their money anyway. Often, when I get a pattern from the Internet, the copy quality isn’t very good, so I go out and buy the original.
  12. Copyright’s just about making money, isn’t it? As long as I don’t ask anyone for money for my patterns, that’s okay, right?
  13. Oh, yeah? I’ve seen an article from Annie’s Pattern Club that says what I’m doing is all right. Got an answer for that?
  14. But it’s okay to share patterns as long as you specify that it’s for educational use only, and not for resale, right?
  15. I searched the copyright database online and didn’t find a record of a “vintage” pattern I have in my collection. That means it’s not protected by copyright and I can share it on the Internet, right?
  16. I copied a single pattern out of a book and I want to distribute this copy. It’s less than 10% of the book, so that’s okay, isn’t it?
  17. Well, I was told that a lawyer said it’s okay to e-mail and share patterns on Internet groups as long as you are not photocopying the patterns and selling the copies to others. Are you saying that’s wrong?
  18. I can call a work my “own” if I change 10% (or 30%, etc.) of somebody else’s work, right?
last updated 041223 and filed under

 

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