Tuesday, February 3, 2015

A little etiquette please

  Before I get to the etiquette, I will share this progress.  Sort of.....I finished up the portfolio with a traditional binding.  It was too thick for the pinked edge binding.  I am on the fence about this design....even though I picked out fabric to try another one.  I plan on letting it simmer before I try again.
   Meanwhile, I am onto the third side of the border for the English Garden quilt.  Just fusing and stitching.....I will show it probably by week's end.
 
    On to the please and thank you part and reason for posting.  I read a very long post by Bonnie Hunter yesterday.......read it here.   She hits the nail on the head in my opinion about some inappropriate behavior and use of patterns, etc.   Bonnie freely shares a lot with us, allowing us to even teach from her patterns.  She does require a request and permission to use and then link to her website.  I know because she gave me permission one time.
   To take a pattern/design of another, post it as your own, make a video, do a full tutorial, with no credit to the original source/designer is bad manners and does violate copy right and intellectual property laws.  I recently ran across an original pattern from this blog posted on another blog.....full tutorial, with my  cropped photos, and no credit or permission granted.  Apparently she thought she had changed the colors and size and could claim it as her own.  There was no reply when contacted......so I am taking the high road and will let it go.   Not because I am a better person, or nicer.......rather I will be more cautious, learn a lesson, and be sure to watermark anything I consider original.   The Golden Rule applies here....and I need to always remember to give credit to others.....even when I swipe a photo to share.  Guess I got caught on that didn't I?  
   Anyway, read her post, it is a good one.

6 comments:

Janet O. said...

Read it yesterday. That must be maddening for designers.
Many people really don't seem to have a grasp on copyright etiquette--or in some cases they just don't care.

Dolores said...

I have always given credit for things I make or post. It just would not sit right if someone thought I did/made up something that I didn't. Some people think otherwise.

Terri said...

It's one of my pet peeves that now-a-days quilts are named for the fabric used. Watch for yourself... there is a pattern there, old as the hills, but because they used pink in the making of that pattern the quilt is called Pink Princess. Whaaaat? And don 't claim that you made up the pattern. Like I said, I see it all the time, patterns I remember from Beth Gutcheon's book, printed in the 60s or 70s, are claimed as their own. Really? And easy things that really don't need a pattern are now showing up as patterns. Pretty soon you won't be able to make anything to sell without infringement.
Sorry that your pattern was infringed, and worse, that your pictures were just down right stolen. You should at least complain to Blogger... (lower right on your Dashboard page.) The theft should cost her at least some embarrassment, if not money. At least you know someone really admired your work.
I do.
Hugs

Dana Gaffney said...

I'm not sure that this will ever end, shoot I don't like it when one of my quilts is on pinterest and doesn't link back to my blog, it makes me wonder where it came from. I've seen a lot of Bonnie's quilts with slight changes claimed as someone else's, she shares so much I hope she doesn't stop.

Judy said...

Great post! This is probably happening more and more, especially with the internet. It happens in the weaving world too as I saw a pattern for a kitchen towel that was published last year in a weaving magazine that had been designed and published by an entirely different weaver in the early '80's with no credit given to the original designer. That's just shabby. I can see why you'd be seriously annoyed with someone poaching your pattern and not giving you credit.

Lynne said...

Ewww! Yukky! I won't even borrow photos without permission now -- I am so aware of intellectual theft. People just don't realise that it is no different from other forms of theft. In my sewing class the other day there was a discussion about how much change does one need to make to someone else's pattern to make it original! Ooooo. I didn't know what to say so I stayed out if it!

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