My understanding of the thought behind the copyright law is that it is an attempt to balance different interests. It recognizes that society benefits from creative work and innovation. Individuals will not create or invent if they will not reap some benefit from their efforts. The law seeks to encourage people to invest time and energy doing creative work that will benefit society by giving them the ability to profit from the work for a limited period of time. The details of where exactly the monopoly of the author versus the benefit to society line is drawn is something that is hashed out by the courts. This is why it is rather hard to come to absolute conclusions based just on theoretical reasoning. It is hard even for the courts to put it into specifics when they have high priced legal talent arguing both sides. It seems to me that where we are going with this in the lace world is in the direction of forgetting that the real purpose of the laws is to make creative ideas available to society. Instead it seems to be operating to suppress the production of new material. What is the difference between a situation where someone doesn't buy a book because they have photocopied another book and one where someone doesn't buy a book because then she will be unable to show the finished piece to her friends without getting permission from the author? What about the situation where people are afraid to look at a book lest they inadvertantly get ideas from it that they apply to their work? What about the situation where people are afraid that they will invent on their own a design that resembles one already invented? Library sales are a large part of book sales and also a powerful force to make ideas available to society. Why would a library buy a pattern book at all if the patterns if it were illegal to copy a pattern for personal use? I wonder how many sales of worthy books are being lost and worthy ideas not developed in our zeal not to violate the spirit of the copyright law because we are ignorent of the case law that illuminates it? I think the only solution here is for arachnids to make a concerted effort to recruit a copyright lawyer who is familiar with the case law and keeps abreast of new deveopments in the field into our ranks. I call for a national movement to demonstrate at Bar Association events, Copyright Conferences and pubs located near Courthouses. Let two lawyers never meet but that there be a lace demonstrator within twenty feet of them... Devon
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