Pattern and tutorial writing is tedious and hard work. By the time I am done with all the steps it takes it is freaking likely that I will not want to see that project again for a good long time, but it does not mean I am not totally vested in my ownership of the rights.
I know I am not the only one in this boat. Designers and bloggers put a lot of effort and money into the patterns and content they create no matter if they are for sale or offered free on their website as a way to attract web based traffic. Â The fact that it is offered free of charge in no means indicates that the creator does not hold the copyright and all decisions about how the pattern can and cannot be distributed.
So when a social media group owner takes  content offered on a blog, reformats it, and creates it as a new PDF stripping off the name of the blog and the author that is what we call STEALING.
Worse yet, the majority of those group members have no idea where this content was gleaned and when they take it and print it out they now too are complicit in stealing from the pattern/content author.- Theft by accident.
How Not to Be an Accidental PatternThief….. Â and how to talk about it without people thinking you have a stick up your ass.
Unless expressly noted, no print pattern may be copied and given to another for use. This includes magazines, print patterns and purchased PDF patterns/ tutorials.  COPYING IS STEALING.  (Do note that you may make a working copy for your own use but  when done with it is must be destroyed or archived  with the original pattern.)
SITUATION EXAMPLE – You see that Sue has a great new quilt pattern while at guild and compliment her on it, next time you see Sue she hands you a copy of that pattern fresh off her printer. Sue has now stolen a copy of this pattern from the creator just as sure as if she had slipped on her Keds and tip-toed into that designers studio durning the dark of night and taken a copy from her desk. Worse yet, she has given YOU the stolen goods, YIKES. ..what to do..what to do!
This is a ticklish situation indeed! Â You have two choices – say nothing, take it and then destroy it in your shredder- otherwise known as the chicken-shit way or do the thing that makes your stomach twist. You need to tell Sue that you are not comfortable stealing from the designer ( sure you can say violating the designers copyright, but lets be honest..this is theft) and that while you appreciate her trying to hook you up with the pattern you will buy a copy from your LQS or online when you are ready.
SITUATION EXAMPLE – You get to your monthly private quilt group and the member teaching the class has made copies of a single pattern she bought and is teaching the class from it. again…STICKY and time to ask some questions.
Perhaps the member bought additional rights to copy the pattern, this can happen and if so she should be able to show you this paperwork. Â If copied from the web, we can search of attribution or release to be used in a class setting. We can ask and be clear that we value those who create for us and we need to be on the right side of the law as well as the right side of our fabric. We need to be clear both privately and publicly that we are willing to pay for patterns and/or obtain them in the proper way.
SITUATION EXAMPLE – You are part of an online group and patterns you know that are sold at your LQS are being scanned and  uploaded into the files section of the group page for free download by any member. Or perhaps complete  online instructions with no attribution. Or patterns copied from leading magazines. Oh dear, oh dear…little figure-eight black masks and black and white striped shirts for everyone!
What to do!… Â This is hard and each person has to check in with their own moral compass on this. For those of us made of less than stern stuff and yet are made sick by the idea that they are being made complicit in theft can just leave the group. For those made of an iron-will and the desire to land on the right side of justice.. well you might capture some screen shots, and contact the pattern makers where able to let them know their content is being stolen.
You can also bring it up in the group and to the group owner but do know this is a fast flume ride to being kicked out the group…which while not the worst thing, you were going to leave anyway, it does help alert other group members that there is an issue.
Pro-Active Responses
It is always easier to deal with a situation when it is still in the abstract so  becoming educated about content theft  ( active and passive) and sharing that knowledge when you are able is a great way to avoid these sticky situations.
Volunteer to do a session about it at your next guild meeting. Share articles ( like this one!) about it in your online groups. Speak up when you hear people suggest “sharing” a pattern while at the quilt store. Speak of the value that designers and their work bring to your life. Put a face and family to each and every pattern maker and blogger out there who brings you content that inspires.
While not always easy I am pretty sure that you would speak up and step in if you saw someone breaking into your neighbor’s car or saw someone reach into someone else’s purse and extract their wallet. Content theft is no different and it takes quilters of integrity to put a stop to those who have fallen or thrown themselves down this slippery slope and are stealing the livelihood from the hardworking members of our industry. So slap on that badge, there is a new sheriff in town…. and it is you!
Have you run into someone stealing content? Â How did you deal with situation?
Need a printable copy of this article that I give you permission to copy as published? Â CLICK HERE
Hello Maddie, Thanks for the great article written “How Not to be ab Accidental Content Thief.”
I am a designer and would like to share it my Facebook page with your permission. I did download your .pdf.
Thanks in advance.
Of course! 🙂
Question: A designer gas instruction for a 6 inch block and I want to make it a12 inch. Is is wrong of me to change that for my personal use. And is it wrong to share those with someone who has also purchased the same pattern. Patterns we’re purchased by both parties.
Given what you say.. it sounds good… but remember my law degree comes from late night television 🙂
A question for you.
I saw a quilt on the internet. I know how to make 9 patches and flying geese. So I wrote up my own instructions and made the quilt for myself. But I did arrange the blocks how I saw on the internet. Is this wrong?
To my mind no…. But I am not a lawyer. We are often inspired by what we see and we each need to make the decision about what that inspiration is worth to us. I personally don’t ever use patterns but am sure that I am affected by all the things I see each day and when I feel a certain influence is strong I will give credit to it…. We are really striding into new territory here as we are now greatly influenced by seeing content from around the world… it makes for some difficult choices.
In the end I think my gut knows and I do what makes it happy.
Great article! Glad to find out it is ok to donate to a guild, I moved last year and have a collection of years worth oh quilt magazines I do not have space to store.
Great article. I have tried to be aware of copyright for awhile. Having just moved, I have years of quilt magazines packed. I was hoping to donate to a guild, glad to know that is ok.
Not only making copies of patterns, I have people (customers?) who will photograph work hanging in the shop, There are patterns for sale , visibly pinned to the quilt. I know they will use the photo to make the quilt themselves. Despite saying please don’t , I have been asked to step out of the way, so” they an get it all in” GRRRRR. On a positive note, I did receive a lovely email from a quilt group in America asking permission to make one of my published patterns as a guild fundraiser . Of course I said yes, lovely to be asked.
I’m pretty blunt. No filter! “I don’t want this if you illegally copied it. The designer is working hard to make a living, just like I do, even if they love the job. She/he deserves my money.”
On a lighter note – I frequently copy the patterns from magazines I’ve bought (especially the older ones) so that I can put all the directions together! I hate when they split the pattern over multiple pages – nothing like seeing refer to diagram B on page 14 when you are on page 21 and then it says, refer to layout on page 23 to see order! Of course, I bought the magazine and I recycle the pages I’ve copied when I’m done! Someone was here dropping off a quilt for longarming and looked rather perturbed at the copied pattern on my table – once I explained, everything , was all fine so if you see a copy make sure it’s really illegal! When my grandmother was alive, I used to photocopy her patterns so I could enlarge the print for her – so if you see something questionable, I would caution anyone to tread carefully. There are legitimate reasons someone might have a copied pattern on hand. Obviously when they are handing them off at the local guild that is BAD, really, really BAD!!!!
I know of a quilt designer who is very popular at quilt shows and sells a lot of patterns. I have an old book of copyright free designs and many of this quilt designers designs are straight from this book. Any thoughts on this?
HI Barbara, When it comes to copyright the essence is more in how you explain doing/making a thing than the thing it self in this case. So it is the “voice” of said famous designer that is protected in this case… the HOW they instruct you to put your block together combined with their own personal spin on the matter. Let’s take brick laying as an example. Of course brick laying has been done for ages but if I write a book on the matter talking you through how I do it.. the way I cut my bricks, how I lay them and mortar them in… when using my own words. My words put to paper are then protected by my copyright. A bit more clear?
May I ask a question? I saw a picture in Pinterest that I liked. Recently I used the photo (only) as inspiration on a quilt I made. I never went to the link behind it so I have no idea if there even was a pattern. I sketched out the quilt the way I wanted it and made my own “pattern” with my own sizes but it was inspired by the photo I saw. Did I steal?
The photo was intellectual property of the photographer. You should have made a good faith effort to find out who that was and ask permission to base your design on their photo.
If you use Pinterest, please note that items pinned from gallery.ru may be in violation of copyright, especially cross-stitch patterns. I’ve seen entire books uploaded there, which I know are NOT out of copyright. I’ve tried to diligently purge all the pins from my folders which originated in gallery.ru (which I delightfully pinned in complete ignorance), but every now and then I get notified by Pinterest that one of my pins has been deleted because the original post on gallery.ru infringes the US copyright of the designer.
.ru is the extension for Russia. Russians have been notorious copyright thieves for over a century.
I live and work in Russia. My email ends in ru because of that. I fully obey all copyright laws.
Sharon, you are VERY Welcome here!!
Yep, copyright is only enforceable here in the states for the most part and does not extend or for the most part even honored in many parts of the world and that is why it is important that each of us know the facts and stand firmly in our moral center as we run into such things out there on the WWW.
Maddie, thank you so much for your post. Well said! I will share this on my Facebook page, as there are many people who do not fully understand copyright law and you’ve broken it down well with your examples. Thanks, doll!
A few years ago, I bought a pattern for a cute little purse. I have made dozens of purses from this pattern and given them as gifts to many friends. Over the weekend, I was in a LQS that I had not visited before. There, hanging on a rack, were two purses made from the same pattern with price tags on them. (The price was about double the price of the pattern.) I didn’t look to see if she also sold the pattern, I was just so shocked. I noticed she also had other bags for sale.
While I don’t know the circumstance, it is very possible to obtain and cottage license from a lot of pattern makers to make up a limited number of bags and sell them.. so I would not worry much.
Question: I buy a quilt pattern magazine subscription where I get 6 issues a year. After a couple years the magazines have piled up and I no longer want them. Should I donate them to the free table at guild where someone else might like them? That person would then be getting the content for free. Or should I just just dump them in the recycling to prevent anyone else from getting the content? That seems so wasteful!
Jan, that is a great question!! Let me reach out to a magazine publisher I know and let’s see what they have to say about it!!
It seems as if your answer for the library book would alsofit this situation.
If you bought the magazine you can give it away. That isn’t a copyright violation because it is reasonably to be expected by the publisher.
Creative content always comes from somewhere- as responsible adults we should be making sure we aren’t cheating the creator of their due!
I’ve had this particular stick up my ass for years- some of the worst offenders are churches. They seem to feel since it’s “for church” intellectual rights don’t apply …
I watched a copyright song & lyrics written by a friend get copied & recopied “for Youth Group” & “for Camp” & distributed thru an entire district with the composer changed to “Anonymous” because it was “for a good cause” and “too expensive to buy copies for everybody”. Sadly, the composer would have donated the rights if anyone had thought to ASK!
Such an important reminder and discussion! I recently spent some time explaining why you couldn’t copy and distribute a “free” tutorial to a group, even though they were giving credit to the author. Each person in the group was encouraged to visit the author’s site independently if they were interested in the tutorial. (And maybe even follow the blog and leave thankful remarks as a sign of appreciation!)
Why is it bad to print multiple copies of a free online pattern with all the author and publisher info attached? I be taught folks to sew and we started with a pillowcase… I gave each person a copy of a free, on-line pattern so we were all working from the same instructions, same page, etc. How is that violating copyright law when the company/author was clearly there?
Part of the issue is the historical quilting cultured…. PATTERNS were shared …. no one got paid for them. If you saw a pattern you liked .. you made a quilt. Patterns were shared at sewing / quilting bees, over the back yard fence, newspaper articles. Met another quilter on the covered wagon trail women shared their patterns.
It has only been within the 30-50 or so years that “designers” expected to be paid for the “patterns,” before that patterns were shared. Instructions were shared. It has only been since that “quilt revival” that designing patterns, writing the books has been a source of income and people have been concern with ” copy rights”
I do not mind paying for instructions for techniques I am unfamiliar with or for original designs. But I will not pay for a pattern of royalty free block, that I can figure out how make due to many years of quilting experience.
N.
I used a free pattern from a fabric company website to teach a group of friends to quilt. They each had to download the pattern from the website. They all understood my reasoning. Trying to explain copyright infringement to some (whether it’s music or quilt patterns) is like talking to a brick wall.🤔
I have dabbled in pattern writing when I made something I think others would like. I haven’t published, or even distributed anything yet, but as I work on the patterns, and especially on the original sketches, I date and sign the pages. I don’t copy/share anything I have purchased ever. It’s a lot of damn hard work to get all the math right for one size quilt, let alone adapting it for several sizes. I will also credit the original designer and/or quilter for anything I put out there on a blog or even just post a picture in a group. I want proper credit for my designs, it’s only fair to credit others who have gone through all the hard work of creating theirs, and that means not stealing it.
Can I share this Blog w my 2 guilds?
Of course!
I know of some folks that would meet at a LQS for sew days. One person bought a pattern at the shop, made copies of it at the neighboring copy place, came back to the shop and passed the copies out to some of the group. Illegal AND tacky
What happens if I want to make a quilt from a pattern in a book that I have bought , can I sell this quilt? I would not be claiming to have designed it ?
My question has always been what does a person do if a book is out of print and it isn’t possible to purchase said book?
As far as out-of-print books, you contact the copyright holder. For a magazine, I paid $5 for an article and they sent me a copy.
I am an “accidental”. I had absolutely no idea that copying from someone’s magazine is actually “stealing”. Really sorry . Kind Regards, Gayle. Ps: heatd a couple of days ago what happened with one of Paula Storms patterns for Slow&Steady.
Oh, my stars. I used to run across this problem all of the time. Especially when I was in small groups. I’m no longer in any smaller groups; I’m not even in a guild anymore. I got tired of figuratively beating my head against a brick wall. It appears that a great many people believe that once they buy a pattern, book, or software; they own it completely…they can do whatever they want with it. Grrrr.
One woman wouldn’t even give her longarmer credit for her quilting. Why? She’d paid for the quilting. Therefore, it belonged to her! She felt entitled to claim it as her own work. As a longarmer myself, I’m mighty glad I never quilted for her.
When making a quilt label I make sure the pattern name, the designer and the longarm quilter is on the label.
I spent my life in the library business so following copyright laws is not difficult. I do not ask for copies of patterns and I do not make copies of patterns for people. Period.
I am actually a friendly person, but stealing creativity and intellectual property annoys me no end.
A guild here maintains a “library” of quilting books, patterns, templates, etc. which all members can use. These are purchased with money from dues, so they consider that everyone shares ownership of everything. I’m no longer a member of this guild, but this practice has always bothered me. Any thoughts?
Interesting. Our guild was gifted a whole library of quilt books recently for our library. What does one then do if they no longer quilt, and have a 100 books they wish to donate ?
Long as you are not making copies of those books and in theory only one person is using anyone book at any time I can’t see why it would not be cool unless there is a restriction written in any of the books.
Sticky!… and I would totally want a copyright lawyer on this one… but when it comes to books and notions they are only being used by one person at a time… the pattern issue is more sticky for sure!
I’m a librarian. The books we buy for collections are not priced any differently to what we buy privately for home. It doesn’t matter that they are being loaned out. If members choose to photocopy, they are the ones breaking the law. Your guild library is fine.
Donate your collection wherever you like!
What about taking books out of a public library to use the patterns?
As long as you don’t make a copy but use the book, there is no problem.
Guilds have been doing this since the beginning of guilds … it is considered a private library. Public libraries have been doing the same since inception. I have often gotten quilt books from the library when looking for quilt inspiration. ( I think their is some kind of law/ exception for public and private libraries and educational facilities but I can not remember where I read about it or the details. )
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And using a book from a guild library or public library is not the issue. Making a copy of that book and then retaining it when the book is then returned to the library is the issue.
Once a physical book is purchased the author gets a royalty and there is a reasonable expectation it might be lent or sold in a used bookstore. As long as you aren’t copying the patterns and passing them off as your own, you haven’t violated the copyright. I teach Copyright for Quilters and am a retired attorney.
Copyright (Content) is always a misunderstood subject. I have been in the print industry for years (Printing and Graphics) and so many people, not just quilters have copyright questions. If in doubt don’t make the copy-do not accept copies of patterns ever or copies of music, books, any published document. I think you get the idea. And don’t eat apples in the grocery store that you have not purchased. Oops, Maddie now I’ve started!
I teach a class that is a sew along with a Craftsy Class with the class owner’s permission. And every student that takes the class has purchased the class and pattern as part of their materials fee.
Getting off my soap box now.
I see this in blogging too. Someone does a whole blog on a yummy dessert, and you look for the recipe….and it’s a link to the original blog. Hmmm…same content, same pictures, same wording for what to watch for when doing the cooking….wait a minute, this 2nd blogger just stole- on mass- the 1st person’s blog! Rewording things here and there is just a rouse, they did ZERO of the work. Linking to the original blog is not crediting that person will all the work, and it would anger me if someone did that of my blog and hard work.
Yes, I am a RowbyRow swap, and we are supposed to swap “original pattern” for “original pattern”. I got back copies, and then was told they swapped with someone and got copies too, (so more copying is OK???) and they just don’t get it. It happens everywhere and you can’t convince these people what they are doing is a CRIME. Nope, the wording is “we are each doing the other a “favor”.” That’s what crime is these days, doing one another a favor. And they all got mad at me when I spoke up about it.
How true “only a favor.” Or “oh it’s just for you”. Without thinking this , in reality, adds up to millions of unsold patterns , books, or magazines. Quilters do not think this business is someone’s income. Bread on the table.
Well, these ‘favors’ extend into the workplace. Two coworkers trading hours and still putting down 8 hours on their time sheets. One should be getting overtime and the other not. What actually should happen is the sub called in to sub for the one wanting time off.
Both are time sheet fraud, and the boss being complicit is also committing fraud….all three could see jail time. Yes, really.
And the one who started this doesn’t even play fair with the coworker they trade with.
Boss is OK with this as he’s doing the first one a favor to have time off to visit the 92 year old mother and then to grieve after she passes. Give me a break….this went on well before elderly mom was in the picture.
I look to not be working for this company next season, because to have this pointed out and to offer a solution is petty and vindictive as well as seeking to profit from someone else’s misfortune. Duh, that’s what a sub is for. Oh, well.
Over 10 years ago i was accused of stealing the content of a not yet published quilt book. I was set to be teaching this method at a national show a few months ahead, and this soon-to-be author accused me of stealing her idea . She wanted me to purchase one book per student or she would report me to the show. We all know that 1. You have to send in show classes nearly a year in advance, and 2. You can’t copyright an idea, just the directions. She was a fairly new quilter and I was pro for nearly 15 years at that time. My class was based on my 15 years of teaching work. I called the show within minutes of hearing her threats. They laughed and said i had better publish and have notarized a copy of my class materials before her publish date. I did. She isn’t quilting any more. I am. I dont advertise much, but am teaching all over the country still.
M.
An excellent reason to keep all documentation when working! 🙂
Thank you for the idea to notarized class notes.
We had a local attorney who is also author of numerous knitting books (seriously, what a find!) come to our guild for an entertaining (yes, really, she was funny) and informative lecture. She spoke for an hour and was then inundated by questions – a sure sign that many people are confused about this topic – much more than one hour is needed to really get a good grasp. But we now all know the basics, and no one in our guild is likely to ask for a copy of X-pattern.