Leah Day‘s blog is seldom political or controversial. The Free Motion Quilting Project treats us nearly every day to a new video tutorial demonstrating a technique or pattern for free-motion quilting. So I was surprised to see a long essay about recent crafting copyright dustups and Leah’s take on the situation. Surprised enough to read every word and raise a fist in solidarity. If you ever use commercially produced fabric, I hope you will form an opinion on this issue. Whether or not you agree with Leah’s point of view, her post is a great starting point for thinking about the impact of “copyright terrorism.” See the post.
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This is a great post. My father was a fabric designer and all his work belonged to the company he worked for. The individual fabric designer is a new beast and since companies now out-source what was orgignally designed in house there are lots of new problems. Copyright isn’t one that the fabric companies probably had not thought about, just the bottom line.
I think that the fashion industry is a good model to follow but I also recognise that designers often sell the same designs for other end uses. The question that Leah raises about “where do we want to end up” is probably the most important one to ask in this debate.
This is an interesting question. I have to admit that sometimes I think things go a little too copyright crazy especially in cases like the long arm stitching patterns. I’ll have to give it some more thought.
I am so absolutely delighted to read this! Too many crafters do not understand what copyright actually covers–nor how going crazy claiming intellectual property of everything in sight would stifle creativity in the long run.
Thank you for the link!