{"id":227,"date":"2007-08-10T15:03:50","date_gmt":"2007-08-10T22:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/archives\/2007\/08\/10\/knitting-and-copyright\/"},"modified":"2019-08-07T12:08:20","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T19:08:20","slug":"knitting-and-copyright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/2007\/08\/knitting-and-copyright\/","title":{"rendered":"Knitting and Copyright"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was quite a lot of dis\u00adcus\u00adsion about copy\u00adright issues in the com\u00adments to my knit\u00adted cush\u00adion piece<\/a>; this is an import\u00adant enough sub\u00adject that it deserves its own blog post\u00ading. Oblig\u00adat\u00adory dis\u00adclaim\u00ader here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The issue was wheth\u00ader a knit\u00adting pat\u00adtern can be copy\u00adrighted<\/a>. I believe that the com\u00adplete pat\u00adtern with all the words can be copy\u00adrighted in the same way as all my oth\u00ader post\u00adings are copy\u00adrighted. If it\u2019s ori\u00adgin\u00adal con\u00adtent that I cre\u00adated, and I haven\u2019t assigned the copy\u00adright to any\u00adone else, then I have the copy\u00adright. So the main ques\u00adtion is, can the straight\u00adfor\u00adward descrip\u00adtion of the stitches<\/q> (i.e., the \u201ck1, p1\u201d bit) be copy\u00adrighted? Mark claims it can\u00ad\u2019t, because you can\u00ad\u2019t copy\u00adright the design and stitches<\/q>. A related issue is wheth\u00ader you can impose licens\u00ading con\u00addi\u00adtions on someone mak\u00ading the art\u00adicle described in the pat\u00adtern (in the case of the cush\u00adion I designed, giv\u00ading attribution). <\/p>\n

Tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adally knit\u00adting has been about people mak\u00ading vari\u00adations on known ideas. Eliza\u00adbeth Zim\u00admer\u00adman, one of the knit\u00adting gurus, used the word \u201cunven\u00adted\u201d to describe tech\u00adniques that she dis\u00adcovered. She was con\u00advinced that someone else had prob\u00adably dis\u00adcovered the tech\u00adnique long ago, but not writ\u00adten it down, so what she was doing was re-invent\u00ading, or \u201cunvent\u00ading\u201d. She also encour\u00adaged people to make vari\u00adations on pat\u00adterns, to make things their own. How\u00adever, there are the leg\u00adal aspects of copy\u00adright to con\u00adsider. In the US<\/span>, a knit\u00adting pat\u00adtern falls under the Visu\u00adal Arts<\/a> cat\u00adegory for copy\u00adright as long as it fol\u00adlows the basic rules. Copy\u00adright pro\u00adtects \u201cori\u00adgin\u00adal works of author\u00adship\u201d that are fixed in a tan\u00adgible form of expres\u00adsion<\/a>. In the UK<\/span>, I assume knit\u00adting pat\u00adterns would fall under the writ\u00adten work cat\u00adegory, as it includes instruc\u00adtion manu\u00adals<\/a> (a knit\u00adting pat\u00adtern is argu\u00adably an instruc\u00adtion manu\u00adal). For Cana\u00addian law, it\u2019s easi\u00ader to refer to the web site<\/a> writ\u00adten by an IPR<\/span> law\u00adyer. From there I read Sec\u00adtion 5(1) of the Copy\u00adright Act spe\u00adcifies that copy\u00adright sub\u00adsists in every \u201cori\u00adgin\u00adal\u201d lit\u00ader\u00adary, dra\u00admat\u00adic, music\u00adal and artist\u00adic work. <\/a> So my cush\u00adion pat\u00adtern, since it is ori\u00adgin\u00adal in that sense, does have copy\u00adright pro\u00adtec\u00adtion. Includ\u00ading the arrange\u00adment of the stitches (or the basic \u201ck1, p1\u201d stuff). The stitch pat\u00adterns on their own, the mod\u00adules that I built the cush\u00adion pat\u00adtern out of, which are tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal, aren\u2019t copy\u00adrighted, of course. It\u2019s my arrange\u00adment of them to form the cush\u00adion pat\u00adtern that is.<\/p>\n

The oth\u00ader ques\u00adtion is what con\u00addi\u00adtions I can impose on someone who wants to copy the pat\u00adtern, or make art\u00adicles from it. In my pat\u00adtern, I spe\u00adcific\u00adally said people should\u00adn\u2019t copy the pat\u00adtern, but should link to it instead. And that they can use the pat\u00adtern to make art\u00adicles, even for sale, as long as they give me attri\u00adbu\u00adtion for the pat\u00adtern. Most free knit\u00adting pat\u00adterns con\u00adtain the con\u00addi\u00adtion that the per\u00adson not make the art\u00adicle for sale, but I decided I did\u00adn\u2019t object to that. <\/p>\n

From all my read\u00ading, it\u2019s per\u00adfectly allow\u00adable (note I\u2019m not say\u00ading any\u00adthing about the mor\u00adal aspects here) to impose such con\u00addi\u00adtions on any\u00adone wish\u00ading to copy the pat\u00adtern or use it to make a cush\u00adion. You should not simply assume that because you have per\u00admis\u00adsion to make a copy of the sweat\u00ader or afghan by fol\u00adlow\u00ading the pat\u00adtern, you also have per\u00admis\u00adsion to deal with that work in any way, for example by selling what you made.<\/a><\/q> In the knit\u00adting industry, it\u2019s very com\u00admon for people to say that the res\u00adult\u00ading art\u00adicle may not be sold, and this is basic\u00adally a con\u00adtract that the knit\u00adter agrees to in using the pattern. <\/p>\n

In fact, the industry norm is that items made from any pat\u00adtern that the knit\u00adter buys or down\u00adloads (even free pat\u00adterns) may only be made for the knit\u00adter or as gifts. So in the absence of a copy\u00adright notice on the pat\u00adtern, it could be argued that those would be the implied con\u00addi\u00adtions of use. This is not uni\u00adver\u00adsally accep\u00adted; here\u2019s the start\u00ading point<\/a> to one long dis\u00adcus\u00adsion I read where this point was argued back and forth. I note, how\u00adever, that even the per\u00adson arguing that the knit\u00adted art\u00adicles should be able to be sold also argued that cred\u00adit should be giv\u00aden to the designer. <\/p>\n

References<\/h4>\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.copyright.gov\/circs\/circ01.pdf\nhttp:\/\/www.copyright.gov\/register\/va-examples.html\nhttps:\/\/webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk\/20080906010247\/https:\/\/www.ipo.gov.uk\/copy.htm\nhttp:\/\/www.girlfromauntie.com\/copyright\/\nhttp:\/\/knitty.com\/ISSUEfall03\/FEATcopyright.html\nhttp:\/\/community.livejournal.com\/knitting\/8179698.html\n<\/p>\n

Disclaimer<\/h4>\n

I am not a law\u00adyer, I don\u2019t know any law\u00adyers per\u00adson\u00adally who deal with the issue of copy\u00adright in knit\u00adting, and thus although I have read quite a lot about the sub\u00adject, any detailed ques\u00adtions you may have should be taken to someone who is prop\u00aderly qual\u00adi\u00adfied. And all of this leg\u00adal stuff does vary with the country\/state\/province you live in. Most of my read\u00ading has been based on Cana\u00addian and US<\/span> law; the laws in oth\u00ader coun\u00adtries may vary con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adably. I do hope that people who know more about the sub\u00adject than I do will comment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was quite a lot of dis\u00adcus\u00adsion about copy\u00adright issues in the com\u00adments to my knit\u00adted cush\u00adion piece; this is an import\u00adant enough sub\u00adject that it deserves its own blog post\u00ading. Oblig\u00adat\u00adory dis\u00adclaim\u00ader here. The issue was wheth\u00ader a knit\u00adting pat\u00adtern can be copy\u00adrighted. I believe that the com\u00adplete pat\u00adtern with all the words can be \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cKnit\u00adting and Copyright\u201d<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crafts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}