Thursday, August 18, 2005

Question from Reader: Links to Patterns a Copyright Violation?


Dee,
 I m confused? Is it stealing if it is on a web site and people send you the link then you download the pattern for your personal use? I get links all the time from people and I print out patterns from sites all the time. Is that stealing? Im really confused here. I dont want to do the wrong thing here. Help!


This is a great question!  Thank you for asking!

Here's my answer:
          Let's say that someone sent you a link to one of the free patterns I have available on my website at
www.CrochetWithDee.com -- This is OK because the link is direct to the copyright owner that's offering it for you to use. 

          Now let's say that someone sent you a link to a website that has posted photographs/scanned images/retyped entire copyrighted patterns that the copyright doesn't belong to, say to the site www.blong2001.multiply.com -- then this would be bad because this site that WAS functioning yesterday was violating copyright laws.  (No this is not the group I was discussing yesterday!) What happened to the blong2001 site?  It was reported to multiply.com, the hosts of multiply.com acted immediatly and told the webpage creator to take the material down.  They didn't comply, so multiply.com immediatly shut them down!  I think that's great!


So watch those links!  If it looks like you're getting something you should be paying for -- for free, then there's a good chance that the law has been broken. 
If you get a link like that and are not sure about it, email it to me and I'll forward it to the "copyright watchdogs." 


There are a great number of new books coming out in the months ahead; long overdue if you ask me!  ... delicious new books filled with patterns to quench our thirst to take our crocheting art to the next level.  If the stealing continues with no one willing to stand up and declare it's wrong, do you think the publishers will continue introducing us to new designs and concepts?  This is why it's important for us to take a stand and educate our fellow hookers -- let them know that it's wrong to post work that doesn't belong to them and when they do so, it hurts us all!

Thanks again for such a great question!  :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Something else to watch out for is bidding on patterns on ebay that are given out free on the internet OR are violations of copyright because they are stolen (as in the seller is claiming them to be their own creation when in fact they are someone elses hard work) or they are photocopied from a book/magazine that still has a valid copyright.

Anonymous said...

 Well I have to say Ive never recieved anything that was photo copied or anything like that so maybe Im ok:) I will watch out in the future for items like this. Ive never bought anything off of Ebay unless it was a magazine or book with patterns in them. I hope that was ok. I buy books off of ebay all the time. And I collect old crochet magazines as well.
 Thanks for helping me out here. Keep up the good work. Now I know what no to put on my journal:)