Well last Monday’s moan (which you can find here) opened up a can of worms so I’m giving the link so you can read any comments you might have missed.
Now this has led me to think further about the ‘other’ problem that designers have too. That’s the problem of intellectual property.
Now I consider if I’ve done something totally unique that’s never been done before that this is then MY intellectual property even if it has been changed a bit. Whoever would’ve thought of taking what we call plain bangles and turning them into a dragon or ‘tattysaurus’. Well I know I was the first to do so but it seems that somebody thought it was such a good idea she’d copy it and never give credit to the original (which was already on my pattern page). As far as I know this has never been acknowledged as ‘inspired by’ me but has been shown off as ‘hers’ and hers alone. I’m mentioning no names as it’s well hidden online and I don’t want to embarrass the person concerned. It’s happened with another design and after a ‘firm’ conversation that person did eventually put ‘inspired by’ on her version which was very close to my original.
By the way - my Monday moans may make you think I’m a real old grump - I assure you I’m not. Honestly. To prove it I’m showing you a picture which is titled ‘exterminate, exterminate, exterminate’!!!! With apologies to Dr Who fans!!!
It would be good if courtesy and commonsense came into these discussions! You're very generous with your patterns, which makes it worse when someone doesn't acknowledge that they have used your ideas and techniques.
ReplyDeleteI still think the first 4 doctors were the best. Don't care for the 2000 versions at all.
ReplyDeleteI am not a designer, tried in knitting and crochet many years ago, my husband wanted me to try to create a cowboy boot in tatting, never could. I can only speak for myself in saying I appreciate all designers! If you decide to share your patterns for free that is great but if you sell (I don't buy too often, no family or friends to give to so all I do is put items in a box) I can mostly not afford. Please Jane there are enough of us out here who love what you do, keep designing for us!
ReplyDeleteTeresa - I think the first ‘asset’ you need to become a designer is a convoluted brain (BC3). I didn’t start designing for the first 35 years of tatting and by then I ‘think’ I’d got so many ideas that they had to get out of my head. I decided when I first started publishing patterns on the internet that I wanted the craft to progress and that if people liked them then that would help tatted lace to become popular. When my personal life settles down again (hopefully) I’ll be able to find time to finish off and publish a few that are ‘nearly’ ready.
ReplyDeleteThey really are reminiscent of Daleks! LOL
ReplyDelete