copyright rules
#11
Power Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 16,514
where did you read that?
My sew group wanted to make quilts to sell using a bought pattern. We contacted the designer and she said buy as many patterns as the quilts we were making to sell. All she wanted was the profit from the patterns to satisfy her end and that was all she was entitled to legally. We bought 20 patterns. Sold 18 quilts. One member's husband is an attorney and he said we didn't even have to contact the designer as long as we had documentation we bought 20 patterns sold no more then 20 quilts. Anyway no one was arrested.
My sew group wanted to make quilts to sell using a bought pattern. We contacted the designer and she said buy as many patterns as the quilts we were making to sell. All she wanted was the profit from the patterns to satisfy her end and that was all she was entitled to legally. We bought 20 patterns. Sold 18 quilts. One member's husband is an attorney and he said we didn't even have to contact the designer as long as we had documentation we bought 20 patterns sold no more then 20 quilts. Anyway no one was arrested.
#12
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 9,299
where did you read that?
My sew group wanted to make quilts to sell using a bought pattern. We contacted the designer and she said buy as many patterns as the quilts we were making to sell. All she wanted was the profit from the patterns to satisfy her end and that was all she was entitled to legally. We bought 20 patterns. Sold 18 quilts. One member's husband is an attorney and he said we didn't even have to contact the designer as long as we had documentation we bought 20 patterns sold no more then 20 quilts. Anyway no one was arrested.
My sew group wanted to make quilts to sell using a bought pattern. We contacted the designer and she said buy as many patterns as the quilts we were making to sell. All she wanted was the profit from the patterns to satisfy her end and that was all she was entitled to legally. We bought 20 patterns. Sold 18 quilts. One member's husband is an attorney and he said we didn't even have to contact the designer as long as we had documentation we bought 20 patterns sold no more then 20 quilts. Anyway no one was arrested.
Think of a commercial pattern as a book; the designer is the author, with all rights to the instructions, diagrams, photos used, etc. It is intellectual property. The author cannot limit the number of times you personally read the book, but you are not allowed to make copies and hand them out to your book club or lit class.
#15
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Greater Peoria, IL -- just moved!
Posts: 6,183
But this is why we have lawyers, each of us can see so many things clearly on our side of the line (even if it is considered clearly wrong by those on the other side), and then there are the gray issues that we have to work through on a case by case basis.
#16
Power Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 16,514
The designer I talked to said it didn't matter if one person or twenty wanted to make and sell twenty quilts of one pattern. Twenty patterns should be bought. One for each quilt made. This gives the designer her due from each quilt sold but not mass produced. That would require a different contract. I could make and give away as many as I wanted from one pattern but not sell them. If in doubt contact the designer if it is a published pattern.
#17
The designer I talked to said it didn't matter if one person or twenty wanted to make and sell twenty quilts of one pattern. Twenty patterns should be bought. One for each quilt made. This gives the designer her due from each quilt sold but not mass produced. That would require a different contract. I could make and give away as many as I wanted from one pattern but not sell them. If in doubt contact the designer if it is a published pattern.
if twenty different people are each making one or more quilts from that pattern she would, again, have a right to expect each person to buy their own pattern.
however, if one person buys the pattern and then refers to it to make twenty quilts, i am not convinced that person has broken the law. (of course, i don't have a clue to where the line is between making multiple quilts and mass production of that quilt using one copy of the pattern.)
pattern makers and fabric designers count on our lack of knowledge and fear of lawsuits to demand all sorts of crazy things to which they are not entitled.
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#18
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 2,893
The designer I talked to said it didn't matter if one person or twenty wanted to make and sell twenty quilts of one pattern. Twenty patterns should be bought. One for each quilt made. This gives the designer her due from each quilt sold but not mass produced. That would require a different contract. I could make and give away as many as I wanted from one pattern but not sell them. If in doubt contact the designer if it is a published pattern.
Again, it's the paper that is copyrighted. The copyright does not extend to what you do with the copyrighted item.
bkay