Copyright and fair use

[Antiquarian]

I have to say that as a tatter I get frustrated when people don't document thier work...maybe it's more the archivist in me, but I have a number of pictures of tatted pieces I've come across online that have no info attached to them, but I really want to make them. I've even tried asking here with no luck. I hate trying to "figure it out" from a poor/itty-bitty picture and would much rather just buy the pattern. However, when someone puts up a photo and just say, 'blue doily' or 'bookmark with beads' - drives my crazy!!! Is it so hard to let us know where the pattern came from and what thread you used? *sigh in frustration*

[Pixie]

Here in the UK we have none of the fair use laws mentioned at the beginning of this thread. I'm not sure where we stand on patterns as the wording in the link Jane posted talks about 'design'. As I understand it I can photocopy a book in my possession - either library or owned - as a backup to the original, but must only work from one at a time - I can lend my photocopy, but then technically must not use the version in the book until the lent photocopy is destroyed. There are many laws similar - like how long you can keep VHS recorded off the television or the restrictions on recording radio onto cassette tape that were (and are) so obviously flaunted and often illogical as technology progresses. With intellectual copyright I have heard it asserted that an unenforceable law is a non-existent law. I'm sure most of us here understand that the argument is largely academic as the costs of prosecution are likely to loom large over whatever profit an individual could make by 'stealing' the designs of others. For me the moral argument is about deprivation.
In Jane's Seahorse case she was derived of the credit in the magazine and any commission money given to the 'thief' (although to me the credit would be more of an issue than income because of the relation to other works). The readers were also deprived of clear and thought out instructions and of links to Jane's other freely available work. I would hope that the magazine would have added a note in the next issue, noting that it had been brought to their attention a very similar pre-existing design is available online. From what you've said it seems like an innocent mistake.

If it were possible that copying and sharing designs would deprive people of significant income I would actually be quite pleased to find that there was that much of an economy for tatted goods and I imagine that, in that scenario, designers could and would appeal to the fairness of the community and use and develop their skills and patterns to establish their own income stream. I'm not suggesting that this makes profiting from the reproduction of others work moral. Unfortunately I can't imagine anyone making a living wage out of tatted lace exclusively, and although I don't doubt the value of supplementary income, a lot of the cases of 'tatting police' as Kersti puts it have nothing to do with credit or income. These instances only deprive the maker (or 'thief') and community of the joy and information which could help them to develop the craft and the hostility often seems disproportionate. If nobody is losing anything other than their right to hide their work (which is easily accomplished by never making it available in anyway) It feels like ideas of copyright are counter productive. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the free sharing of ideas/techniques and information is beneficial to the innovation and economics of many industries. The strength of communities is often the ability to share and develop together for the benefit of all.

As a sidenote - no copyright mark is legally required in the UK - if any conflict arose you must be able to show the precedence of your design and undated photo would do just as well as a dated one so long as there was proof of when it was taken- in essence it's existence make it yours but you may have the burden of proof on the timing- in music many people used to post themselves tapes in recorded delivery envelopes. The internet in some ways makes this easier as Jane could clearly show that she had made her designs available previously using the way-back machine or internet archive. Many digital photo's have embedded data showing when they were taken. However (as antiquarian mentioned) documenting your work can only be a good thing!

Phew..that was a lot of words!

[Lynn]

Thank you for taking the time to post this, Pixie. The more informed we all are about this sticky subject, the better.