No Copyright-Related "Witch Hunts," Please!

[Amy]

I appreciate the fact that so many members are now aware of the copyright infringement issues involved in the distribution of copyrighted patterns by people who don't have the permission of the copyright holder. However, I am very concerned that, out of a real desire to help crochet designers, some people are becoming a little over-zealous in their attempts to seek out copyright infringements.

 

We've had several threads lately where people post a link to a pattern somewhere and then ask "Is this person stealing somebody else's pattern?" or something similar to that effect. They're doing this based on "thinking they remember" seeing that pattern or a similar pattern somewhere else. In these cases, the person being called into question has been innocent of any wrong-doing.

 

Starting threads like this, without sufficient hard evidence that copyright infringement has occurred, expose both the original poster, other posters who post in agreement, and potentially Crochetville itself to legal risk of charges of libel and/or defamation or character if the person being discussed is indeed innocent. While I do my best to remove threads as soon as I can once an individual has been directly identified within a thread, I can't catch everything here. (There have been several recent court cases setting precedent that forum owners aren't liable if they make good faith efforts to remove content, but I really don't want to have to go to court, and I'm sure neither does anyone else.)

 

So I'd like to offer some guidelines as to the best way to proceed if you run across a site where you think infringement is occurring.

 

• If you aren't really sure, but you think you might have seen the pattern before or you think something isn't right, just contact the website or individual and ask for more information. If that doesn't yield enough information to satisfy you, please don't post a query on Crochetville. Instead, contact me via PM first so I can offer guidance as to whether anything should be posted here or not. In most cases, if your suspicions are very nebulous, I'm going to have to say no.
  
• If you definitely recognize a pattern as belonging to someone else, contact the copyright holder and inform them of the infringement.
  
• If you definitely recognize a pattern that has been posted here at Crochetville, send a PM both to the original poster here and to me. Then the OP and I can work together, if necessary, to protect the OP's rights.
  
• Sometimes, if you run across a site that has patterns you definitely recognize as belonging to others plus some you aren't sure about but want others to check out, that MAY be appropriate to post about here at Crochetville. But I still request that you send me a PM first with your information, so I can determine whether I think there's enough hard evidence to warrant the information being posted here. Again, in many cases, I will probably decide no, because there are better avenues for pursuing this through proper legal channels.

Thank you helping make sure we don't expose Crochetville or our members to any unnecessary legal risk as we all work to help reduce the amount of copyright theft occuring in the crochet world.

[ErinLindsey]

Good advice.

 

When I found some super obvious evidence of copyright theft on a photo sharing website, I emailed the designer who was getting her stuff stolen and told her about it. The stuff was removed.

 

and in thanks for telling her about the copyright theft, the designer sent me a crochet hook case she made herself. Which I totally love and use all the time.

 

Not all designers will respond like she did, but at least they'll know about the copyright theft.

[Empress Busy Bee]

Excellent advice!

[Selune]

A good post and some sound advice! No one wants to see innocent people accused of wrongdoing based on assumptions, especially when so many designs these days seem similar but are uniquely different. Defamation of character is an important issue, and all precautions should be taken to avoid it.

 

Thanks for the post!

[christinascrochethaven]

Thanks for reminding us about the legality of this. The last thing we want to do is get Crochetville in trouble. I love this place.

 

Great advice to remember!

[losingmymind2]

I agree. When I recognized a story I was reading as too similar to one I'd already seen, I sent the original author the link to the story and let her handle it. She wrote me she was most grateful.

 

Another time, on one of my lists there was a story that someone else loudly accused the writer of 'stealing the style and characters' of another author. I had to tell them that it was the same person, she just wrote the more adult stories under a different pen name. It's possible that the eBay or Esty name and Crochetville name of the designer are different. I am Mother2cat on eBay (long before I found the 'ville) and losingmymind2 here.

[darski]

Yah know, i have to say that I am so sick and tired of the word copyright I am ready to rip it out of my dictionary.

 

I have promised myself that I won't even ask about or consider the origins of another post as long as I live. This post is my last word on this issue.

[ErinLindsey]

I agree. When I recognized a story I was reading as too similar to one I'd already seen, I sent the original author the link to the story and let her handle it. She wrote me she was most grateful.

 

Another time, on one of my lists there was a story that someone else loudly accused the writer of 'stealing the style and characters' of another author. I had to tell them that it was the same person, she just wrote the more adult stories under a different pen name. It's possible that the eBay or Esty name and Crochetville name of the designer are different. I am Mother2cat on eBay (long before I found the 'ville) and losingmymind2 here.

 

Do you read fanfiction??? What fandom(s)???

 

The fandom that I read the most stories in (Magnificent Seven tv series) has an author who thinks that just because she used certain nicknames for a character, that she owns that nickname and she gets all weird about it when someone else uses them, claims that people are plagiarizing her because of a generic nickname that I see in most of the fandoms that I read in. She also thinks she's the greatest author in the world (she's a little better than mediocre) She was on a fanfic list on Yahoo that I started, and she got all mad and left the fandom just because I wasnt giving her any feedback that was glowing and profusely sucking up to her.

[MaryPat]

Amyj,

Just the title of your posting made me want to read it. I had almost quit one of the crochet groups I belong to because of the witchhunts. People couldn't even ask innocent questions without being jumped on first to accuse them of illegally asking or posting or whatever. The quality of the discussions went downhill. The arguments and the tone of the arguments got more and more bitter.

 

I am one of those who scoffs at copyrights and all, but the pendulum had totally swung the other way and it was very unpleasant.

 

Thank you for your moderate approach and tone.

[Amy]

Amyj,

Just the title of your posting made me want to read it.

 

Thank you for your moderate approach and tone.

 

I was hoping the title would be intriguing enough to make people open the thread!

 

And you're very welcome.

[RoseRed]

I'm kinda right there with darski on this one. I just wanna crochet!

[cjansen]

I agree over zealous people can make life miserable on lists. intellectual property should be protected as physical property, but there has to be some give, such as in working copies of patterns! I'm glad to know there is someone to go to and we can leave most of the discussion off the board.

[Lisaizme]

Everytime I see the word Copyright, or read a discussion on copyright.... I'm reminded of a giggle I found once somewhere.

 

"Copywrong: All rights Reversed."

 

Have a good one all

[fuzzy ferret]

I'm kinda right there with darski on this one. I just wanna crochet!

 

 

A big ditto!

 

 

Krystal:hook

[nss]

:hugThank you Amy!!!

:yesI'm with Darski and RoseRed

[eurolyons]

Amy, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for this thread...seriously...I understand the need to ask questions when designing on copyright, and honestly that's the right thing to do in most cases...but I was getting tired of the same answers being posted that weren't really answering the questions...just the same ol', "if it ain't yours, it ain't yours and you're infringing on someone else's copyright..." (at least that's how it always sounded to me...) And there were (for a while) many threads that seemed like nothing but a witch hunt...

 

Great guidelines and I truly appreciate it.

 

Copyrights were not suppose to stifle creativity...and sometimes that's what it's felt like in trying to protect one's work...

[CrochettingMama]

Thank you Amy.

I agree with darski and rosered--I just wanna crochet!

[craftybutterfly]

Thank you Amy!! All of that, desperatly needed to be said.

Ditto for me too, Darski. I just want to crochet.....

[crochetgoddess]

I agree with many of the others about this. If you see something that is indeed a copyrights violation then inform that person who the copyright item belongs to and move on. Sometimes we get so lost in trying to find those who are doing wrong that we end up doing wrong ourselves. It is a shame that some feel the need to steal patterns from others, but it has been going on for quite sometime and unfortunately will not stop. I just try and use patterns from the original designers and that is it.

 

Thanks for posting this Amy!!