On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:05:20 -0400, Robin wrote: >>>>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? ><<< > >As the one who has been most vocal on this point, I have to say >again--there's never been any claim that you can't show your work to your >friends. However, publishing to the web is mass-production and comes under >copyright restrictions. If someone published a book of their work, with >detailed photos of the pieces they did from others' patterns, would that not >be infringement? Do you really think the publisher would accept the job >without permission from the designers? Do you really think the author could >win in court using the argument, "I was just showing my work to my friends"?
The difference is between showing the physical piece of lace itself, and showing a copy of it. When someone buys a pricking (whether in a book or as a single piece of paper) they buy the right to make lace from the pricking. However they do not buy the right to copy in any other way. That's why putting a picture of finished lace on a website is a breach of copyright if done without the copyright holder's permission, whereas putting the physical piece of lace in an exhibition does not need permission. The legal dividing line has nothing to do with how many people see the items; it's the copying that's forbidden. Devon pointed out that copyright law is an attempt to balance the interests of creators with those of society as a whole. The law has to draw a line somewhere. By considering extreme cases the law can indeed be reduced to absurdities, but that does not give anyone grounds to break the law. -- A friend: someone who likes you even after they know you Steph Peters, Manchester, England [EMAIL PROTECTED] Scanned by WinProxy http://www.Ositis.com/ - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
