On Aug 23, 2004, at 20:20, Weronika Patena wrote:
If I take an edging pattern I found in a book, and make a bookmark pattern that basically consists of two pieces of that edging, with some changes, is that an adaptation of the pattern, or what is it called?
I'm not a lawyer, much less a copyright lawyer, so what I *think* is not likely to have much weight... But I'd call it an adaptation; the shape is basically the same (if mirrored).
And can I put the pricking on my website?
I wouldn't; I'd put a photo of the finished lace, and reference the pattern to the book you got it from.
What if I made my pricking by scanning the book pattern and making changes with
a graphics program? And what if I drew it by myself without any scanning?
Makes no diff (IMO) whether you got at your pricking the hard or the easy way; it's still a copy... :)
Also, are all designs in books automatically copyright? For example, in the
Milanese books by Read and Kincaid there are lots of Milanese braid designs - I
guess I don't really know, but I was assuming that they didn't personally design
all the braids, but that some of them were just traditional Milanese braids.
*All* of them are traditional designs - Pat Read's daughter clarified that for us some years ago. But the diagrams, and the lace which illustrates them (in extensio - the photos of the lace) - as well as the names - *are* original, and should be copyright protected. I think that applies to all other books as well, even if all ("all"??? <g>) they do is reproduce traditional patterns. The *way* the patterns are reproduced/illustrated/diagrammed might differ, and each will be unique to the person who'd done the work. The same patterns from the Luton (UK) Lace Dealer's Sample Book have been re-created, for years, by various lacemakers; some don't even vary much :) All the same, those re-creations are the personal property of the re-creator; paid for in blood, sweat and tears... <g> Same's true about many of the Danish (Toender) patterns
Can I use these braids in my patterns (including "patterns" that are just a
straight piece of braid for a bookmark <g>) without copyright infringement?
Yes, you can *use* them any way you want (especially if you own the books - not difficult at the moment, since both are available, in paperback, as reprint), as long as you don't copy a page, and sell it on E-Bay <g> And you can use the collection of braids (placed at the beginning of both books; my personal "dictionary <g>) to design your own patterns incorporating them; I've been doing it for years, and, last year in Ithaca, got Pat Read's imprimatur (indeed, a *commendation* <g>) on the practice.
But... When I publish (website or hard copy; makes no difference) a pattern which uses one of the braids from one of the books, I do not attach a diagram to it; I refer people to the (relevant) book for it, unless I've meddled with a braid well past the point where I think a lesss-experienced lacemaker would be able to reproduce the effect, even *with* the book in hand; the only braids I diagram are the ones I came up with myself. And, even when I diagram a "wild detour" from something I got from the book, I tend to give credit to the original source; if nothing else, I think it's illuminating to see both the starting point, and the end of the journey
I draw diagrams by myself, can I put them on my webpage?
IMO, if you *copy* by hand (either via tracing paper or via graph paper), it's still "no cigar" - the diagram belongs to whoever came up with it in the first place (and the diagram is, often, the hardest part of designing a pattern. Except for writing the instructions <g>); all you've done is make it hard on yourself... :) If, OTOH, you come accross a piece of (old) lace which *has no* diagram, reproduce it, and diagram your thought-path... *Then* the diagram is your property, and you can do anything you want with it, including publishing it in any format you want
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) Healthy US through The No-CARB Diet: no C-heney, no A-shcroft, no R-umsfeld, no B-ush.
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