bonnie's post today tweaked my conscience, so 'fessing up here to keep myself honest....the book i saw this little quilt in was "the blue and the gray" a book of reproduction quilts by mary etherington and connie tesene....photographing the quilt and then making my own seemed harmless and, honestly, copyright laws didn't even cross my mind. this was the only thing in the book i really wanted to make and the frugal yankee in me could not justify purchasing a book for one pattern. even now, i think that everyone probably does it at some point, but in reality it is still wrong. most everything i make is public domain stuff or my own interpretation of ideas i see on the internet. sigh...life was so much less complicated when magazines and shows were my only source of inspiration...
Was it a library book? I haven’t read the post yet but will be shortly. I take inspiration from many things. I see very similar quilt for free and for pay that could almost pass for the same. Ahhh well....
ReplyDeleteno....it belonged to a friend...
ReplyDeleteWell, your friend had bought it so the author was paid. You didn't photograph the book in the shop in which case the author would not have got a sale. I do understand and agree with what Bonnie was saying.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, Grace, I went over to Bonnie's post and read it. I absolutely understand the point that she's making - I work for several craft magazines, so I know how important it is that people buy them! But ... I don't think she's made an especially strong case in this particular instance. She hasn't used the word 'copyright' on this occasion - because she doesn't own the copyright on this block design. Instead, she's making the case for supporting book and magazine authors and publishers as a means of keeping them in business. She's perfectly entitled to do that and I applaud her for doing so. But it reminds me of all the little local patchwork shops who used to argue their case for customers to support them instead of shopping online: "If you don't support us, we won't be able to stay in business". They were right and a lot of small patchwork shops have closed. But ... the customer is king. They vote with their wallets and, presumably, the online shops were offering things that made them more attractive to many quiltmakers than the local shops.
ReplyDeleteIn Bonnie's case, she works incredibly hard with her books, articles, tours and workshops - she has a wide portfolio of quilt-related income-earning activities. She has also been incredibly generous over many years in giving away patterns and tips and ideas. But it seems somewhat naive of her to be annoyed that experienced quiltmakers are able to look at her samples of a traditional-style block and replicate it themselves without buying a copy of Quiltmaker magazine. That is just the internet at work. She could make the same case for every single block that she's ever published in her Quiltmaker column - they're not complex or hard to replicate. Quiltmaker magazine needs to produce a publication that is attractive to readers if they are to continue in business and persuade customers to pay real $$$ when so much inspiration is already available on the internet.
Megan
Sydney, Australia
Grace - I've continued to think about this. I'm wondering whether Bonnie has been criticised by the publishers of Quiltmaker magazine for 'jumping the gun' and writing blog posts about the block she features in the next issue of the magazine BEFORE the magazine was available on the newsstands. The publishers could, quite reasonably, table with Bonnie the thought that by doing this she has lost them sales.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading Bonnie's blog for many many years. My experience of her is that she is not particularly skilled at accepting responsiblity when mistakes are made - she tends to become a bit 'whingey' and tries to lay off at least some of the blame on others. In this case, she may have done something thoughtlessly - because she happened to be at home and wanted something to play around with. She didn't stop to think about the potential consequences for the magazine and now that that (might have been) pointed out to her, she's shedding some of the blame on to blog readers who have told her that they don't need to buy the magazine because they've been able to draft the block themselves. As I said in my first comment, this is true of every block that Bonnie features in her magazine column - so it's not a new phenomenon that has only just occurred to her.
Megan
Sydney, Australia
i understand your comments...the internet is so darn accessible and easy. i know for myself i am probably guilty of violating copyright laws without even thinking about it..but then i think that if somebody puts it out on the web, aren't they leaving themselves open to sharing to a certain degree? i am not a designer; anybody who uses public domain traditional blocks, even set in different ways, isn't that fair game? i felt i erred in taking the book's example and then making it without buying the book...the lines of right and wrong seem to get more blurried as time passes...
DeleteWow! they certainly are gorgeous. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteRoyal1688
Gclub