Cottage Liscense? HELP

[CaptivatedCrush]

I received an email today asking for the pattern to a hat that I designed. They stated someone asked them to make the hat and they tried to make it but couldnt figure it out. I replied and said that since it is my personal design, I am not selling the pattern and they replied that they found someone. Come to find out they sell crochet hats online and have a facebook page...which is fine, but now Im afraid that she will take what I have come up with and made and sell it herself for profit. Is there anything to protect me??

 

HELP!!

[CrochetKitten]

Send them a copy of this link: http://m.favecrafts.com/Craft-Business/Can-I-Sell-a-Project-I-Make-Using-Someone-Elses-Pattern

 

Let them know since you are the designer, they cannot legally sell your design without your permission, and if they do, you have the right to request royalties from the profits for your design contribution.

[RoseRed]

Unfortunately, the only thing that's copyrighted are your own pictures and your own wording in your pattern. The fashion design industry is based on people seeing what's on the runway and making their own version of it.

 

I understand how upsetting this is - I truly do.

 

A Cottage license is when you allow someone to make so many items from one of your patterns and allow them to sell it. They pay for this license.

 

Copyright protection is granted the moment that you put an idea into a usable format -pictures, written patterns, charts, etc. You NEED to claim All rights reserved.

 

I'm sorry this is happening to you.

 

When she replied that she found someone - was she saying she found someone to reverse engineer your pattern or that she found another pattern to make?

[lhendrix35]

Good question. Sadly, people take things from others sites and use them as their own. I wrote to a site about a person taking pictures from sites where I had posted them , but nothing came of it. I think they didn't want to be bothered. Some things are copywritten, but , there you ago again. With the internet, everything is (fair?) game. Good luck!

[Chiscrochetcrazy]

So sorry this is happening. Sadly it happens everywhere. I even see people here post pics of things they want others to help them figure out how to copy. It's frustrating & I hope you can get this resolved.

[Amy]

Unfortunately, there probably isn't too much you can do. Hats, and all clothing, are considered useful articles, and there are no design rights under copyright protection. If somebody sees a picture of your hat and figures out how to make it, legally they are able to do so. They can make hats to sell, write their own pattern to give away or sell, or pretty much anything they want to do. (What they can't do is distribute copies of your pattern--for sale or for free--without your permission.)

 

The question of whether it is morally and ethically right to do that to another crochet designer is a separate question. Crochetville does not support intentional copying of another person's designs, and we don't allow posting of or links to patterns for which the creator has publicly stated they're trying to duplicate the work of another person.

 

I am not offering legal advice, as I'm not an attorney. This is simply my understanding of copyright law. For a real legal opinion, you'd need to seek the services of an attorney, preferably one specializing in intellectual property, and even better with an additional specialization in the fiber arts.

[RoseRed]

Under the DCMA you could have written directly to the site hosting theirs and have them taken down legally.

 

This is a duplicate post. There's more discussion of it here http://www.crochetville.org/forum/showthread.php?t=133125

[Amy]

With the internet, everything is (fair?) game. Good luck!

 

Actually, copyright law applies to the Internet just as it does everywhere else.

 

Some people don't understand that, though, and think if it's posts on the Internet it's theirs for the taking. But they still can't use other people's copyrighted works without permission, except under the very limited fair use exclusions to copyright law.

 

Many sites have very specific ways you must report copyright infringement to me, following requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you don't follow those requirements, they won't do anything, and you may not even get a response.

[Amy]

So sorry this is happening. Sadly it happens everywhere. I even see people here post pics of things they want others to help them figure out how to copy. It's frustrating & I hope you can get this resolved.

 

If anybody ever sees something like this happening, please use the Report Post feature or the Contact Us form to let us know about it. Donna and I can't see every post that is made here; there are WAY too many of them!

 

While it may be legal to copy designs, here at Crochetville we do not support knocking off other crochet designers. We can help people figure out what stitch might have been used in a particular design, but it is then up to that person to figure out how to make whatever it is they want to make. If you can do it on your own, great. But we don't think it's right to help someone else reverse engineer something so they can avoid purchasing a pattern.

 

We do allow reverse engineering of items that have been mass-produced and are being sold by retail outlets, as that is not negatively impacting a fellow crochet designer.