On 2 May 2009, at 08:20, Jean Nathan wrote:
<It is not legal to sell lace made from a copyrighted pattern without
the permission of the designer.>
I thought it was illegal to sell the pattern, not the finished lace.
The design is the copyright of the designer, but the finished lace
made by you isn't unless it's a kit sold by the designer.
Dress, knitting and other patterns are copyrighted too, so that would
mean that you couldn't, for example, knit a sweater for someone and
charge them for your time and materials.
I think that a piece of lace made from a copyright pattern is a
derivative work, as is a sweater or a dress made from a copyrighted
pattern, and it's a bit of a grey area as to whether or not you can
sell that derivative work, it seems to depend on the conditions/licence
attached to the sale of the pattern.
Most commercial dressmaking and knitting patterns will have some small
print about being for non-commercial purposes only. Books of lace
patterns don't normally say that explicitly (and we all know that
making BL commercially just isn't financially viable) but most books
will have 'All rights reserved' somewhere in the small print. That
means that the author has retained the right to allow or refuse the
sale of derivative works from her (his) patterns.
However, if you buy just a pattern sheet the most it's likely to have
printed on it is the Copyright symbol (c) and the designer's name.
That means you can't copy the pattern (other than for fair usage which
does mean a copy to prick through and write notes on without damaging
your 'original'), but it doesn't specifically exclude you from selling
a derivative work. (In UK) even without the (c) on it an artistic
work, which a BL pattern is, is automatically copyrighted at its
creation, but not necessarily any derivative work.
I remember many years ago when I was bridesmaid to an aunt she paid a
local dressmaker to make my dress, but the dressmaker insisted that
Aunty Peggy provided both the pattern and the fabric, though she would
obtain all the other bits and bobs. At the time I assumed that that
was just to be sure that the dress would be what Aunty Peggy wanted,
but now I can see that it also covered the copyright issue; the
dressmaker had not bought a pattern nor sold a derivative work. My
aunt had bought a pattern and paid someone to make a derivative work
from that pattern but she didn't sell anything, and at the end of the
day she retained the used pattern.
A few useful websites with info on knitting pattern copyright are:
http://girlfromauntie.com/copyright/index.php/89/
http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall03/FEATcopyright.html
Brenda in Allhallows, Kent
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/index.html
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