Copyright

Jellybaby1

I have seen some sites selling copies of old knitting patterns in pdf form. One says that as the patterns are 'vintage' they are copyright free. I bought some of the patterns as originals back in the 1970's. As far as I know when it comes to books, they are only copyright free 70 years after the author's death. Does anyone know the situation regarding patterns?

Sulla Felix

Applies to the US not Ireland or Europe but the following article is interesting nonetheless.

http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/CopyrightLaw/Patterns.shtml

Jellybaby1

That makes for very interesting reading. Although it addresses sewing patterns I assume it also would cover knitting and crochet patterns. My mum was a dressmaker and never heard of the word Copyright. If she had it would have terrified her. It also tells me that if I am clever enough to design my own pattern, I can't copyright it. This has my brain in a spin. I now have so many questions about other items that I think the title of my post should just be 'Copyright'.

I'm curious about other items which may have restrictions, viz., rubber stamps, digital images, images torn from old books, stencil designs, 3d decoupage sheets etc. Many cardmakers are nervous of selling cards due to such restrictions by the rubber stamp companies, even though they have bought the image from the original artist and sell thousands of the rubber stamps. Indeed cardmakers have been contacted by rubber stamp companies requesting they remove a card they were selling on an auction site. Some cardmakers now restrict themselves to only buying stamps from companies with Angel policies due to these restrictions.

Thank you Sulla Felix for the link.

Capt'n Midnight

Sulla Felix wrote: »

Applies to the US not Ireland or Europe but the following article is interesting nonetheless.

http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/CopyrightLaw/Patterns.shtml

YOu can more or less ignore everything on that page , it's a woolly interpretation of old USA loopholes that no longer apply.

It doesn't even mention the 1896 Berne Convention

Copyright exists when the work is fixed. ie. every time you save / or print / any time you can point to something and say "that". There is no need to register.

Copyright here is life +70 years :mad:
It used to be life +50 but they changed the law with things like "the mickey mouse act" to grab back stuff whose copyright had already expired, but with some exceptions in some countries.


This is a nice overview of the loopholes that applied to stuff that wasn't reregistered after 26 years etc.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Copyright_How-To


I *hate* sites that make such claims as they are essentially selling stuff they don't own. If the copyright has really expired then it's public domain and it should be free or available at a nominal cost with nothing to stop you sharing it with the world.


http://www.gutenberg.org/ - some knitting books etc.
http://gutenberg.net.au/ - if you are lucky enough to live in Oz it's life +50

Also look up creative commons knitting