Thank you for bringing this up. I am a brand new quilter and frankly this had never even been in my thinking until now. I have several times asked people on the board if they would share their pattern for a particular quilt that I just fell in love with. Most times they would send me a link to where they bought it. Great! I appreciated it. Now I'm wondering if they were thinking I was trying to get away with something. I didn't understand there were copyrighted patterns and such. I bet most people don't realize it until it is brought to their attention.

I used to belong to a charity knitting group and we swapped patterns and books and such all the time. Were we breaking the law? I would think once I bought a book of patterns if I wanted to share it, shouldn't I be able to? And at work, we all read the same authors. One will buy a book and then it gets passed around. Cuts our reading expenses. If libraries can do this, why can't I? And what if I find a great quilting book in the library - I can't use the pattern??? Ok, now I'm getting a headache. :) I want to do the right thing, just confused as to what exactly that is! Virg

If you just swapped the original, that's fine. But if you took a purchased pattern & made 15 photocopies of it, that is illegal. Sure, who is going to turn you in? But I want to keep the designers in business & that is done thru actual sales of their designs.

Quilts aren't clones, (Walmart quilts excepted)
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I do not understand your comment. What does Walmart have to do with this?
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Lots of quilts are sold by Walmart and are made in China, which seems to be the major producer of such things, and lots of them are, or seem to me to be duplicates. I haven't spent that much time on checking for accuracy, but China doesn't seem worried about copyrights, so I won't either on the quilts Wally sells.

I have a pattern that I'm waiting for someone to want badly, so since I also love it, I'll make ME a copy and then give it to them. I think that would be legal, since someone bought this for full price and I in turn bought it at a flea market at a vastly reduced price, so if I give it to someone it should not be illegal.
Or even selling it in a yard sale...makes my head spin, thinking of all the twists and turns of the law.

Ok, I'm getting that. And I agree - anyone who is that creative needs to stay in business. Now where does that put the garage sales, the used book stores, the selling of used books and magazines on this board, etc... I would think if used book stores were doing something illegal, somebody would have put a stop to them by now.

I am one that does not share/copy patterns. I have no trouble telling someone where I got my pattern though.

I have copyrighted things in the past. What I am under the impression of the laws is that you cannot make a printed copy of the pattern and SELL it as your own. I still do not understand how the designers put several vintage patterns together and then call it their own.

As both a quilter and pattern maker, I do not accept the idea of copying patterns to "share" with a friend. Designing and selling patterns is how I make a living. I am thin enough and need the money for groceries. So please, you and your friend, buy the pattern and help me keep food on the table:-)

Well, to be honest, I sometimes will post a topic to find out what other people think. But, also to get them to think. A brain that is left idle is laid to waste. And, I enjoy the comments and sometimes learn from them! <grin>

I do not copy patterns for friends, but I also rarely purchase a pattern. There are so many free patterns and ideas on the web, and I need to be able to purchase groceries also.

What about a class that you take and you are given a photocopy of a pattern that the class is making. Is the author of the pattern getting the credit or do we need to ask the teacher if this pattern is copywrited? I am confused. Also, if I make a quilt block from a pattern and post a picture of the quilt I made from this block and someone wants me to do a tutorial, am I breaking the law by doing a tute? I am sure that the person who did a tute on the folded dahlia did not design the pattern (or maybe they did LOL).