Thou Shalt Not Steal - TheQuiltShow.com

Copyright was brought up recently my Rhapsody Reality forum thread. It is such a confusing issue for quilters. It is especially hard when much of our quilting roots was sharing blocks from friend to friend. However, there is a lot of information that every quilter should know on the subject. At the root of all copyright issues is the question, "Have I made any profit, or have I done anything that would take away any financial gain, regardless how small and insignificant it might seem to me, from the person in question?" Copyright laws are in place to protect the intellectual property of the person who created it.

Imagine if your paycheck was based on a certain total of sales you made that week. You file a report on each sale you made. However, another employee sneaks into your folder and removes one of the sales sheets and puts it in their own folder. Unknowingly, another employee does the same. And yes, a third person does the same. When the boss looks in your folder and calculates your paycheck, you get paid only what is in the folder. Essentially, the other employees stole your money. It's not a good feeling, especially since this paycheck is how you pay your bills, save for vacation and invest in your retirement. Any copyright infringement you make on any level is theft. Copyright infringement may only take away a few pennies, but those pennies add up, and those pennies are the wherewithal that help sustain those who share their ideas as a means for their livelihood.

Janet Jo Smith wrote a series of articles about copyright in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. Here is a link to the index page on copyright. Once there, you'll see links to Smith's series on the subject.

What areas of copyright do you find confusing? What do you think is "okay to do", and what constitutes a breach of copyright in your book? We'll explore this issue again after we hear some of your comments.

Daily Blog