I’ve not been away or doing anything crafty over the past few months because my personal life has interfered with my crafting life - and my walks too. Still I do have time for a little catchup this week so here goes with day 1!!!
I do have a bit of a Monday moan about one Facebook tatting group that I’m in. No, not about the group itself but one member who posted that they thought that it was perfectly fine to copy tat people’s designs.
Now my stance (whether you agree or not) is that it’s acceptable to do that as a way of learning how patterns are constructed and if you really want the bother of doing it. BUT I think that should never be boasted about publicly and encouragement for others should never happen - it should be kept quiet about. As I see it it’s a pain and time consuming to copy tat but I guess some people think they’re saving money by not buying the pattern even though there are plenty of free ones available. I guess that they don’t realise that the money they’ve saved has cost them a lot of time when they could’ve been doing something else. I also doubt that their results lie as well as they should if they’d followed the proper pattern. A missing double can make a difference in some cases and techniques might be missed which would make the design flow better too.
Anyway, having said that the member then said they were going to take designer’s patterns and publish them in a book. I really, really wish she would as then the copyright/intellectual property laws would be fully tested worldwide!!! We could all then properly find out what can and can’t be done through a court of law.
The group moderator handled this post/person in a very calm and sensible way and hasn’t thrown her off the group. Well done to her as it’ll keep the discussion going and again, we’ll all learn from it.
6 comments:
I saw that post too! Wondered if you’d see it!! Obviously a self entitled ‘princess’, or just wanting to anger others ‘for fun’!!
I agree that the moderator has handled the discussion well. Jane, you have made good points. The member appears very hostile with a chip on her shoulder and looking for a quarrel. I do hope she has a change of hwart
WOW!!!! I saw that and shook my head!!! I agree with Sue's thoughts.
I guess I'm not on that group, as I didn't see that post. You're absolutely right, Jane; I've tried to copy-tat a couple times, because the patterns were not available (broken links, closed Etsy stores, books out of print). It's not worth the effort!!
It seems a lot of patterns put out in 2011-2012 (when I was in a hiatus from tatting) aren't available any more, which is a shame. But diligent searching usually has led me to a suitable alternative somewhere.
From what I read about the situation, she holds a grudge against certain designer who told her she was not allowed to gift a used pattern to a friend. Generalizing it to every designer is not something I'd do, but I get where her resentment is coming from. For the potential lawsuit, I'm almost certain that copyright laws won't protect patterns in the way most people think they do. Pattern theft has mostly been a moral issue, but too many treat it like a legal one.
I have been on the receiving end of a copy-tat issue. The offender published a photo of her effort on her blog, and then promised her followers that she would publish the pattern of the article 'in a few days'. That's when I stepped in, as her followers had only to email me and ask for it. Which she could have done herself.
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