There are two different issues here. One is copyright, regarding
making a copy of part of a book. There are other ways to get the
information, for example Inter Library Loan or looking at a friend's
copy. Or asking the friend if the book contains a particular thing.
If one is interested in buying the book, you can read reviews. For
some books, Amazon and other online sellers offer the table of
contents and a representative page or three for view.
After the discussions of copyright on various forums, I'm
surprised when I see people offer, on a public forum, to scan and
send parts of books. Likewise, when someone asks to borrow a book and
then says it's because they want to copy it, I'm dismayed and do not
loan it. It's not the lack of awareness about copyright (since
everyone seems to be aware of it), it's the casual attitude about
violating copyright.
The other issue is the rights of ownership of an object. A
photographer owns the copyright of their photographs, but may agree
to a limited use as a condition of access. If a museum allows you to
examine and make a pattern of a garment, and you sell it as "that red
dress in the XYZ museum" without their permission, you could get in
trouble and also limit future access for yourself and other researchers.
I have seen cases of people researching and reproducing
original objects. Take the Eleanora of Toledo stockings, for example.
People have come up with patterns, usually adapted for their own
size. If they decided to sell the pattern on a large scale, or
decided to manufacture and sell the repro stockings, they may need
special permission to do so.
Some projects are best consulted privately, which people have
done on this list. Now that we know people are interested in the
pourpoint brocade, anyone on the list could grab the project and run
with it. Someone might decide to do a print of the fabric on
Spoonflower. Which is a third issue — if you have an idea for a
commercial product, why discuss it on H-costume? We can ask if others
have done a particular type of project, but why give away the details?
-Carol
On May 13, 2010, at 8:42 AM, Beteena Paradise wrote:
I think in order to make your question more closely resemble the
current issue, you need to add the words "700 years after your death."
________________________________
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Okay, let's try this one more time. Suppose someone bought a yard
of your custom-produced brocade, and using technology (that
admittedly probably doesn't exist yet) scanned it and starting
producing their own brocade, in exactly the same pattern, and
selling it. Would you regard that as "fair use"?
Ann Wass
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