Quilting and Copyright Rules
Heather ThomasDescription
Copyright law can be a confusing and intimidating topic. Heather Thomas explains many aspects of copyright law including when a pattern is considered copyrighted, what you can and cannot do with a pattern that is copyrighted and what it means to license a pattern.
Copyright
From the moment a designer writes a pattern it is considered copyrighted. While some designs and patterns will have an actual copyright symbol on them and some might not, both are still considered copyrighted. This means that the pattern and design belong to the designer and cannot be copied and reproduced. Heather explains that when you purchase a design you are purchasing the rights to make that pattern for yourself. You can also make that pattern and give it to a friend, however you cannot sell what you have made from that pattern. Heather explains several other scenarios in which you can make a pattern for a friend and receive money and explains which break copyright law and which do not. Heather also explains how you can ‘date’ your patterns, meaning how you can prove how long you have had a pattern by either taking a picture of it next to that day’s newspaper or by mailing it to yourself so that the pattern is in a sealed envelope with a date printed on it. Having a dated pattern can be very helpful when needing to prove if a pattern is yours or not when it comes to copyright.
Licensing
Heather also explains a term known as licensing. This is when you contact a designer and ask for permission to make their pattern to sell. If they allow you to do so, they will often either allow you to make the pattern for a certain period of time for a fee, or ask for some kind of percentage of what you make selling their pattern.
Copyright, copyright is an intriguing and interesting issue that comes up quite often in the quilting world. And namely because probably a good 80% of the people who quilt, quilt by purchasing patterns or designs designed by other people, and then they make quilt using those designs. First and foremost when you purchase a pattern that somebody else has designed, you are purchasing the right to make that pattern. That is it, you do not own that pattern, you own the paper that pattern was written on, and the right to make that pattern and that is it. You have no right to do anything else with that pattern, you cannot make a copy of that pattern and give it to your friend. You cannot make a quilt from that pattern and sell that quilt. If you do, you're breaking copyright law. That being said, copyright law is broken constantly in the quilting world. I don't think it's fair, I don't think it's right but most people don't realize that they're breaking law. Here's what you need to know about copyright. The minute I write something, it is copyrighted, I do not have to send it to the copyright office to have a copyright on it, I do not have to have a copyright symbol on it to have it copy written. It is copy written and protected as my property the minute I write it, whether I ever print it out on a piece of paper, or if it stays on my computer. All I have to be able to do is prove it's provenance, meaning that I wrote it. So a lot of people will print it out at least once, and then they'll take a picture of it next to that day's newspaper, so that they can prove that they've had it since that date. Other people will actually send their work to the copyright office in their state, pay a fee, it gets put in on Microfiche or whatever system they're using at the time, and it becomes a legally protected copyright. Sometimes depending on the state, they will take everything they write in one year's time and send it to the copyright office and for the same fee as if they'd sent one item in and other people and most of the people that I know, they simply write what they're going to write, put it in an envelope and mail it to themselves. When they do that they leave it in that envelope, it's in the envelope sealed with the date that it went through the post office, therefore giving it it's provenance and then they simply file it away and keep it in case they ever have a problem. However if they have a problem, it's nearly impossible to go after somebody who breaks the copyright law. So if I develop a pattern and I sell that pattern locally or in my store or to my friends or to my students, and somebody else gets a hold of that pattern didn't decides that they want to make that quilt and then sell that quilt or make that quilt, copy that pattern and sell that pattern. For me to make them stop legally I have to hire a copyright attorney. To the extent of generally at least $20,000, so most of us aren't going to do that those of us who publish. Instead we hope that people who buy our patterns will be judicious and they will be tactful, and as I said once before they won't be jerks. And they'll use the pattern for their own benefit only and they won't try to make money off of our intellectual material or the things that the author of that pattern actually owns. So some people say well I bought this pattern this is the cover of one of my patterns. And it did say copyright on it so I should be able to do whatever I want to, no mm-mm doesn't work that way. This is another one of my patterns and it does say copyright on it, doesn't matter they're both equally copyrighted, they both are protected by copyright law. So if you have a favorite pattern you love making it, your friend wants one and you make one for her and you give it to her, you're not breaking copyright law. If you tell her it's gonna cost $50 for the fabric, you need to pay for the fabric and I'll make it for you and you make it for, you're not breaking copyright law. But if you make one it's really pretty and your friend likes it and you say well you're gonna have to buy it from me and it's $125 you have now broken copyright law. If you make a quilt and you enter in a quilt show, and it's somebody else's design and you don't say this was designed by somebody else and you're claiming it as your own, you're breaking copyright law. So let's not do that, most of the people who design quilts or other quilters like us, let's respect their intellectual property, let's be kind to them and give them the credit where credit is due. The minute I write something, it is copyrighted. The minute you write something, it is copyrighted. How does that work in something like a log cabin quilt? Well anybody can make a log cabin quilt, this is a design that is in the public realm. But what I can do is write instructions for a particular type of log cabin quilt that's different from the norm and those instructions are copyrighted. It doesn't mean that I own the copyright on every single log cabin quilt ever made, but if you make my log cabin quilt and applique a particular thing on a particular spot of that quilt exactly like mine, then you are copy... You're using my copyrighted design, so be careful. And when in doubt, contact the designer. There're informations all over their pattern, it's all over their pattern because they want you to know this is my stuff and if you have a problem whether you can contact me. Then you can do what's called licensing with somebody, if you have a pattern that you love and you want to make lots of them and sell them at craft fairs, then call that designer and say I'd like to do this, and they can say yes, you can do that, you can make up to 50 of them. Or they can say no you cannot do that unless you pay me a licensing fee. And I will give you the right to make that pattern for one year as many as you can make it a year and it's gonna cost you this amount of money. Basically I want part of your revenue that you get from using my design. So when in doubt ask for permission, be careful and be kind with other people's information. So now you know a little bit about copyright law.
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I just came from the US copyright.gov website. It says: copyright does not apply to methods or "procedures for doing, making, or building things." So, that includes recipes and patterns. One could copyright a recipe with detailed written instructions, as in a cookbook. So, apparently that would apply to a pattern. Somebody somewhere has made this before. Your explantation of what to do would be different. That would be protected, but not the idea. That is explicitly stated on the copyright website also. Ideas are not protected. Seeing a design and designing something similar is not copyright infringement. They are not using your pattern and making the same thing. They are using their imagination. How does one know they weren't already working on their idea before you? Or, at the same time? Quilting, crocheting, knitting have been practiced for 100s of years by millions of people. At any given point, 2 or more of the 8 Billion people on earth will come up with same idea. As an example, I saw Hungarian folk clothing that was almost identical to Oaxacan clothing.
Great information! I do have a question though. I bought a quilt kit and donated it to a non-profit organization to be raffled off. In the description I did give credit to the person who designed the quilt. Was that legal?
Have you even read "copyright law"??? There was so much wrong with this information I'm not sure where to start. She either hired a hack IP attorney who knows nothing about contract law, or vice versa. Just because someone is a lawyer doesn't mean they know what they're doing. Some is just plain wrong and some is at best incomplete and misleading. When you buy a pattern you are entering both copyright law and contract law. There is a huge difference. For instance, there is NOTHING under copyright law that mentions whether you can sell things made from that recipe or pattern. Only whether you can copy and distribute or make modified version of THE PATTERN. The part that mentions (if it does at all) regarding what you can or cannot do with what you make, that's contract law. It's an agreement between seller and buyer. If you do not tell people in your pattern "you cannot sell products made with this pattern" then you can't demand or expect people not to. And in most cases, you forfeit that expectation depending on how you present it. Do you have a meeting of the minds? did the person buying the pattern KNOW this up front? If they didn't, then it's not enforceable. If they only find this info out after opening the pattern, they don't agree to that provision and you do not honor a return, then you still do not have a meeting of the minds...a key element in an agreement. Remember software shrinkwrap when you had to agree to the terms you couldn't see yet, but they wouldn't let you return it after opening? Those days are gone because it wasn't fair to the consumer. There are also different areas of law based on the product, like clothing, food, etc. You don't need a $20k attorney, you can write your own cease and desist letter and will usually curb people. I love supporting pattern makers and giving them credit, and I adhere to reasonable rules. But we are all artists and just looking at the photo of something can give you the means to re-create it. That doesn't give the original drafter ownership. Even the supreme court says that recipes are not copyrightable, secret stuff can jump to trademark. If you add some fancy artwork then that snapshot of the recipe with the artwork is, but not the ingredients and how they are put together. I'm disappointed in this channel. I'm REALLY not a fan of her, nor the way she teaches, and the only reason I have a subscription is because it was $3 per year. That's about all it's worth to me. I'm just stunned at this video. The other part that bothers me...do pattern designers thing we are just chock full of money to pay $10-20 per pattern for our own personal use? There is an expectation that we are going to make and sell, even as a hobby, so to be this high and mighty...aggravating. If you want to make money designing patterns, great, design a pattern. But do you think you deserve a cut on the hard work WE put into making the product too?? THAT is being jerk. Perhaps you should NOT sell your pattern and just sell finished product. I can't believe you used the word JERK to describe probably half of the amateur crafters out there. Oh, as for "techniques" (like techniques to make bargello quilts) those can jump over to patent law, now just copyright. Are you trying to protected the process, or the written page and how it's presented. BIG DIFFERENCE. And I'll bet you dollars to donuts your technique is out there for free somewhere. Do you still demand we not sell products made if we also found a free version? It's not quite as easy as she makes it sound, much less what she does say is full of holes.
I do not agree with that lady saying if you buy a pattern and make a quilt you cannot sell the quilt. Quilt designers constantly break copyright law because no matter what design they come up with it has been done before. Designers get their inspiration from studying antique quilts. Have they the designers asked for permission to copy these quilts? They may make the block bigger or smaller change it's orientation but it's not their ORIGINAL DESIGN. A lot of modern quilt designer are trying to reinvent the wheel. They are becoming so obsessed with their success that they think they can dictate to the buying public, who by the way help to swell the designers bank balances, what they can and cannot do with a pattern they have paid for and it's the purchaser of the pattern who buys the fabric and whose labour goes into making the quilt deserves to be paid for her/his work. The designer has received payment for their pattern. Therefore what the person who paid for it, apart from not photocopying it, the purchaser is entitled to do what she likes with the end result. If you hire an architect to draw plans for your house you pay him. Then you hire a builder and pay him for his work. 10/20 years later you decide to sell the house is the architect entitled to tell you -you cannot sell your house because I own the plans. There is a lot of crap out there about copyright.
I believe the information you have shared in this video is not correct. Copyright covers your intellectual property the pattern you have designed. Copyright does not extend to the physical product that someone else produces after purchasing your pattern. The pattern maker has no rights to the physical products produced from their pattern. The pattern maker cannot stipulate what the product of the pattern can be used for under copyright law. That falls under contract law. For stipulation of use of the products produced from a pattern a contract must be entered into by both parties prior to purchase of the pattern otherwise a contract has not been entered into. Statements at the end of a pattern such as for personal use only do not create a contract between the pattern designer and the purchaser. Therefore once you purchase a pattern you are legally entitled to make a product from the pattern put it in a show or sell it of your own volition. No permission is legally required from the pattern designer.
So if I see a pattern on pinterest or somewhere else and I "copy" the design and make it myself that is breaking the copyright law?
I wish we had references available of where she got her information. Because I have researched this a bit too, and a few of her comments are conflicting with what I read. We had an instructor come to our quilting guild to clarify certain points about copyright, and it seems everyone has different interpretations. The overall rules are clear, but certain things are still obscure I find. Anyway....play it safe quilters and be respectful.
What is MS THOMAS 'S qualifications for stating these statements? Is she a lawyer? A lot of what she says is limited and inaccurate.
Patterns have different laws, specifically with clothing type items. The clothing industry is aware of this. Selling an exact copy of the pattern is braking the copyright, but not making and selling of the resulting product. Just make a tiny change, and it is different. Quote where she got this info would have be nice. She actually encouraged me to not purchase her patterns.
Hi. As a textbook author I am well aware of copyright, as so often huge sections of my books are copied by educational institutions and used!. If I use a quilting pattern, either purchased or taken from the Internet, I always reference the "author" if I know who it is. With the explosion of technology, plagiarism is so easy and most people don't realise that they have done it.