But increasingly, I'm seeing nasty notes (like this one, from a Ravelry user - you'll need a Ravelry account) telling people they may not re-sell the pattern, may not use the pattern to teach a class, and may not even sell things made from the pattern. This, ladies and gents, is bullshit.
It'd be akin to providing instructions on making a birdhouse and then telling people they aren't allowed to sell a birdhouse made from these instructions for profit. Or writing a book on writing and telling people they can't sell stories written using these techniques. The copyright doesn't extend to the materials used or the time spent on the project - only to the pattern itself.
Not only do you have no legal standing to tell people that, it's not practical to enforce. So, you post your pattern and some no-good-nik like me makes a sweater from it and sells it, earning over $150 from the sale. Just to catch me, you'd have to be keeping an eye on all hand-made sweaters posted on sites like eBay and Etsy - it'd be a full-time job. Once you catch me, you'd have to find me and tell me, "Hey! You no-good-nik! Stop that, or else!" To which I'd sneeringly reply, "Or else what?" Then you'd actually have to take me to court, where I'd win, but we'd both be out much more money than either of us could have made from selling sweaters. Very worst-case scenario, I get ostracized from the knitting communities.
The concern for people who post patterns seems to be that some one will see their pattern, make hundreds of products from the pattern and retire on the French Riviera off the profits.
I don't understand where the possessiveness is coming from, especially since chances are, the vast majority of people are not going to run around making massive profits off scarves knit from some fabulous free pattern. (If someone is claiming the pattern itself as theirs, sure, that would piss me off, but that's not exactly what we're talking about, I don't think.) The bitter attitude just makes me stay away. One of my good friends has a couple dozen patterns up on Ravelry, is pretty successful, and I've never seen her freak out over the same issue.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love how the pattern in question happens to be "Burberry Inspired" and wonder what the Burberry folks would have to say about all of this. But, copyright issues over patterns have been a raging debate ever since the inception of Ravelry (and I'm sure before then) and I doubt that they'll let up any time soon.
Oh. And making profits off knitwear? Yeah, it's nigh unto impossible for the vast majority of lay knitters out there to get even close to earning minimum wage once you calculate the cost of time and materials. (And sorry my response is so tangential, I haven't had coffee yet.)