I get the impression I wasn't totally clear in my post yesterday.
As for myself, I am quite liberal when it comes to creative licenses. If you're knitting up one of my patterns, and you want to change something so the toy is more to your liking, feel free! Heck, I've seen someone knit a moose from my lamb pattern. I'm quite happy if my patterns encourage you to be more creative. I don't think I ever knit a pattern without changing something.
It's when selling gets involved that things become a little sticky. I'm sure you can all understand why I wouldn't want anyone else selling copies of my patterns. As for toys, if you're thinking of selling toys made from my patterns, I would appreciate if you would contact me directly and we can discuss it.
What got me upset was that people might be using my patterns to violate someone else's copyright. Because, well, it would make me look bad, and because I like Julie and don't want to see her upset. If she wants to be the only one selling toys like that, we should all respect her right to make that choice, and help her protect her business by being honest. It's really about reciprocity - treating others how you would like to be treated.
Ergh. Sometimes these things seem so simple in my head, but get very complicated once they're out there for everyone to read. For future reference, I always try to write exactly what I mean, and not put anything between the lines :)
By the way, if you're interested, read what Julie had to say.
Barbara, if you really want people to have to ASK you about selling things they knit from your patterns, you MUST put that restriction on your patterns and sale listings. If it's not there, I'm pretty sure that the default under contract law is that they can do whatever they want with the results.
ReplyDeleteIANAL, but you're definitely making it a grey area if you DON'T put that restriction on.
I should mention that the reason this is a bit of a hot-button topic for me is that I see far too many people in the crafty world assigning much more to copyright than it actually covers. (Though if you're not planning on enforcing licensing restrictions, it's not worth putting them on either, in my opinion.)
ReplyDeleteI do understand the feeling of being slighted if someone claims to have designed something that they just copied from you and they're profiting from it. But most people in the community are probably honest and well-meaning. I think it's better for us all to focus our energies there. Yay for the creative and amazing! :)