Sharing Crochet Patterns You Buy Right or Wrong?
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I am not a copyright lawyer so please take this as a blogger sharing her opinion and NOT legal advice. ~ Sara
When it comes to intellectual copyright law or copyright law in general there are a lot of misconception.
Simply – (USA) you own the copyright of every original thing you create/write/make/think the moment it is made. You can officially copyright your idea/design/etc to help further your case in a lawsuit but basically, whatever you make or write – belongs to YOU.
Sharing, unless for editorial purposes i.e. a quote or picture (restrictions do apply) is off limits.
So what if I buy a pattern and share it with my crochet group or with my friends? What harm does it do?
Put yourself in the designers place:
You work 40+ hours a week, come up with a design, find the right yarn, fix any flaws in the pattern, grade the pattern so people can have more than one size, invest in testing your work, photography, and marketing your design ONLY to find it shared free on someone’s blog.
or
You finally get a book deal with a big name publisher and put in an enormous amount of work. The book is finally printed and for sale. Only, you see scanned images of your work shared in groups, in public forums and on social media. Worse you find your work on other blogs that are monetizing aka making money from your work.
With a simple copy and paste function or scan all your work (and that of everyone who supported you – photographers, agents, publishers, testers, tech editors) is for naught.
Rachel of Crochet Spot is a very generous designer. Not only does she offer many of her patterns for free, she offers a financially affordable way for crocheters to get access to all her patterns through her membership. Patterns that would normally cost $3 – $5+ dollars a piece are all offered for $10/month.
When is sharing okay?
I’ll let you read what Rachel has to say as she sums it up perfectly.
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