Offended?

A month or more ago I received an email from a reader which let me know that someone had posted my Booga Bag pattern on their website. I went to the website and basically my Booga Bag pattern was replicated there. (She had taken a scan of a print out of it I believe, becuase it was a jpg of the pattern.) So, I sent her an email telling her that she needed to remove this from her website because it was a violation of copyright. After a month or more she finally replied to me. Here's her email:

Julie, I did not take this from your site but another site that had this pattern there, second I do not sell the pattern on my site they a FREE like yours and there are plenty of people who have made this purse and sell on or something similar I was a little offended at your email to my site I did not remove your free pattern sorry

I just cut and pasted. This is exactly what she wrote. Can you believe it?

Comments

[jaya]

That's horrible! If it's your pattern, you own the copyright. Per copyright laws, she must remove it if she did not obtain permission.

Sigh... how rude! I'm sorry you have to deal with this.

[Leslie]

I am so sorry that that has happened to you. I want to let you know that I really appreciate all of your patterns. Thank you.

[Jessi]

got any lawyer friends? (or one to pretend)

A not so nice letter would probably scare her.

[Rossana]

Grrrr! That's so rude! Not to mention of most questionable legal moves. I second Jessi's idea--throw an "esquire" at him/her.

[elisa]

That just sucks. It's one thing to do something like that unintentionally and then apologize and remove the pattern, but to send you that email and tell you that YOU offended HER? That's just ridiculous.

[Emma.]

Very rude indeed.
I recently saw someone's site selling blatent copies of the Knitty Suki bag.Some people have such a nerve.
Try again,then resort to name and shame.
It's simple common curtesy to give credit where it's due,regardless of how 'free' the pattern may be.
Chin up ! :0)

[Manda]

she's offended you emailed her?! lol. i'm offended she stole your pattern, regardless of wherever she got it, and it's not even mine. :P

[Teresa]

All I can do is shake my head.

Given the construction of the email and screwy thinking, I feel sorry that you have to try to communicate with this person...clearly not the brightest bulb in the pack.

[caroline]

What Teresa said. Dumb and rude is a nasty combination.

[Dell]

The sad thing is that I believe it.

[Anne-Caroline]

I think you should get some of the lawyer knit bloggers have a go at this lady! (Claudia, Becky?)

[Stephanie]

That *so* sucks. Ya want I should straighten her out for ya? I fixed the chick selling the Harlot Poncho pattern on Ebay.

[Christina]

I love it when people do things that are obviously wrong, get called on it, respond indignantly and manage to show that they have no grammar or punctation skills.

As if we needed confirmation that they're a moron.

Whack her with the idiot stick for me, wouldya?

[carolyn]

who *are* these people?
wow. just wow.

[Julie]

The "get a lawyer" comments make me giggle! I don't think she is really worth that much effort :)

I responded to her email earlier today by saying simply:

This pattern is copyrighted. What you are doing is illegal. Please remove it from your site today.

I'm sure she won't, but at least she knows where I stand. (I just looked at what I wrote to her and thought -- "Please" remove it?!?! I'm way too nice!)

Her site looks seriously low-budget and I'm guessing that she doesn't get too much traffic, so I'm just trying to forget about her at this point.

[Liz]

As crappy as it is, I'm not surprised. Ugh. I'm sorry you're going through this crapola!

[Norma]

Crapola is right. That is just beyond "beyond," as my old friend used to say. all I can do is growl.

[Theresa]

Gotta love people. They do something wrong and it's someone else's fault. You're a good woman to be so peaceful and polite about it.

How big is that jpg? For some reason tonight I'm feeling dreadfully evil. But really you don't need a lawyer when one little Perl script would do...

[Spring]

If all else fails simply write whomever her hosting provider is. They'll either require her to remove it or do it themselves.

[Vera]

Hi Julie,

Your offender clearly doesn't understand copyright law. She's confused because you offer the pattern for free.

She may think, "Oh, what's the big deal, if I offer if for free? Julie offers the pattern for free too. I'm not making any money, no harm done."

She doesn't understand that it's your pattern and just because you offer it for free doesn't give her the right to steal it even though she is not selling it. It's not her pattern. It's your pattern and you choose how you want to distributed.

There is a nice Q and A on The Girl from Auntie's website that addresses this. Here's the link...

http://www.girlfromauntie.com/copyright/c_lite10.asp

I'd pass that on to her, and to her ISP.

[Vera]

Here's another Q and A about copywright law from the Girl from Auntie's site that addresses your offender's misundertanding better than the first one...

http://www.girlfromauntie.com/copyright/c_lite12.asp

Hope this helps too.

[Wendy]

Sigh. People are so clueless. I got an email from a woman, proudly telling me she had reproduced an article I wrote for Knitty on her website and had translated it into Dutch (she was in the Netherlands). I went to her site and there was my article, taken from the Knitty site, complete with all the photos, as well as what I supposed was her Dutch translation. I wrote her back and asked her to please remove the English version and the photos she lifted from Knitty, and to simply link to the Knitty article instead. She sent me back a pissy email. I decided to drop it because of the language barrier.

So far I haven't found any of my free patterns reproduced elsewhere. I think I'm lucky!

[Laura]

Hmmm, knitter's e-mail blitz? That wouldn't be "nice", but it might be effective. And sometimes the only way to reach people like her is to go the "un-nice", firm, assertive route.

[kormew]

If it *really* bothers you, you could just go send an email to her web hosting company...

[Annie]

Unfortunately, the Copyright Police have about the same reputation for effectiveness as the Mattress Tag Police. I do think you should notify her ISP...but otherwise, I wouldn't lose sleep over it unless you want to.

[PJ]

Please, please, please...don't blast me, but...just a question/comment: Not everyone is familiar with the laws (I know, no excuse for many of us, but you really don't know where people are on there internet journey of learning!) If someone 'posts' their 'copyright' pattern on-line seems pretty free to me. So, is the problem that they posted it to their blog? The internet certainly makes things problematic concerning this topic. I see your gorgeous work 'everywhere' and if you sell your pattern (copyright) why would it be free on your site? Just a thought and I may be way off on this and I apologize. Love your blog and I'm sorry you had to deal with this. Keep up the beautiful work :)

[Jessica]

PJ, a copyright doesn't have anything to do with selling, it has to do with creating. Since Julie created the pattern, the copyright belongs to her. As soon as you write down a pattern, story, etc, it is automatically copyrighted. Adding the tag at the bottom is simply a technicality. As Julie is the holder of the copyright, she can decide how she wants it used and have credit for creating the pattern. Even though the person posting the pattern is not making any money, she is still stealing property.

[Beth]

How disgusting. I'm appalled. I really should stop being surprised by others' ignorance. I agree with the "lawyer" approach, but it should be legit. How much time would it take for a copyright lawyer to draft a letter notifiying her of the impending lawsuit, and isn't there a kindly knitting copyright lawyer out there willing to donate this time? I know I would. But then, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know how much time it would actually take, so maybe I wouldn't. I'm just agog and aghast. Even if I was doing something I felt to be ok, if someone requested that I stop, I would, because I'm not a belligerent idiot, and I am concerned about others' feelings. Sheesh. What is the big deal to link to it instead of posting it? What a baby. Oh yeah, and learn to proof-read! So there. Take that!

[heather]

what a knob.

First, she states that it isn't your pattern, then she admits at the end it's your pattern.

Contact her ISP. I *think* (don't hold me to that) it's usually referenced in the Terms and Conditions that we all just breeze through and click yes to when we initially join/set up our accounts...if yes, they will make her remove it or maybe even take her offline until she does.

[Niki]

She doesn't understand copyright laws OR punctuation OR spelling rules. Sad, sad.

[Melissa]

I like the lawyer idea.

I love how when its pointed out that she is wrong she pulls the 2 best defenses - the "someone else did it first" defense and the "I'm offended, so you must be wrong" defense.

Sigh. Please.

[Eklectika]

That's so annoying...

Do you think she'd understand better if you told her to remove the jpg and instead put a hyperlink to your website where the pattern "lives"? Maybe that way she doesn't feel like she's "losing" content (not that she owns it in the first place), just adjusting the format?

And I doubt the person she "took it from" was using it in the same manner, but nice try, LOL...

[Susan]

Well, pardon my French, but that's just shitty. My husband was so impressed with my Booga bag that he suggested I make some to sell and was surprised to get a little lecture on copyrights. Even if there's no Booga police out there to catch me, I still got a little thing called integrity. Sadly, that word may have too many syllables for that chick to grasp.

Thanks for the pattern, Julie, and don't let that idiot get you down. I get compliments every time I carry my bag, especially in the LYS, and tell everyone about your site. Recently, I was really amused when we were in a store, and my husband recognized a Booga bag!

P. S. Am I the only one who just likes to say Booga bag?

[Melissa G]

Gosh, I was so surprised I lost count--twice! Best of luck for resolution.

[agness]

You might like to add a link to this site, or ask if you can use that bold graphic on your pattern page.

http://www.gag.org/about/ask_first.php

[Jean]

un.believ.able Okay... you need to tell us where the site is so we can educate her! She'll get plenty of traffic then, I'm sure. I'm so sorry someone did this to you!

[Rhonda]

What a jerk. It's a shame that someone infringes on your copyright like that, and then has the nerve to blame you for allowing the public to use your pattern for free! And, hello, is spell-check not available for the masses? OH. MY. GOD.

[Renee]

Well, people are crazy, no? I just started knitting last summer and I made a page just for listing the links and patterns I like. But to actually list the pattern? What's funny about that is not only is she being ethically foolish, it probably didn't occur to her that she'd use less bandwidth to just list the link to YOUR site. ;)

But back to the booga bag, I've already made 2 of them and am knitting a variation of it now with a diamond pattern. Thanks, thanks, thanks for posting this pattern!

[Maria]

Disbelief at the whole scene....
However, I am somewhat more upset about the awful sentence structure and lack of proper grammar, never mind her rude attitude given the circumstances.
Maybe you should ask her if she would like some grammatical help with future emails.
"snarf"
Maria

[Sandra]

Mystery girl, you need to write the "pattern" out yourself. The words as written are copyright protected, so you just need to redo them. The pattern is very basic. Make a garter stitch rectangle, pick up around the edges, knit up. Hardly worth all this trouble! Knitters! Some think they are the only ones capable of turning a giant beanie into a bag!

[rachel]

I saw your bag at a shop and was directed to your web site. Perhaps I am an old fashion knitter, but does anyone really understand guage and what it means? I would like to knit this bag for my daughter, however, I do not wish to use the specified yarn. A simple guage would allow me to knit it out of yarn of my choice.

[Bonne Marie]

THIS is a notorious problem - I walked into an almost local yarn shop and they were selling one of my free patterns. I introduced myself...

The key word is DISTRIBUTION. Copyright means I hold the decision on WHERE, WHEN and HOW to distribute my unique created content. This means your website, newsletter, sales rack, etc. are covered by my permission or lack of to distribute. FREE means I'm giving it to you for personal use as a *goodie* not a product for you to then distribute as you see fit.

BTW - Sandra - although what you say is partially true, you cannot take one of my patterns, slightly rewrite it and offer it as your own. Bad form; worse manners...

[Eilene]

What nerve!!! What are you going to do about it? That would really piss me off!!!

[Prudent Purl]

I'm sorry for your situation. I do hope you get it worked out. It gets me to wondering if I should take down a link I have on my blog that goes to a free pattern site? Do you think I should take it down? I'm asking in all sincerity. I don't want to do anything wrong or illegal. The freepattern blog that I have linked on my blog has all kinds of free patterns that I've seen all over the internet. Oh dear something else now for me to fret over. I think I should take it down now.

[Sandra]

Define unique? Is it http://yarnharlot.ca/gallery/FOs/bluetank or http://www.chicknits.com/mondocable.html or http://www.knitrowan.com/html/magazines_slide_show.asp?productCode=ZM33&serial=34&slideSerial=279 ?

The net abounds with patterns for various bags, hats, garments - free and for sale. Many of which are variations on the same theme. Knitters need to get over the "only I can design a garter stitch scarf" mentality. How many knitters have rip-offs of designer clothes in their wardrobes?

[Bonne Marie]

Variations of a theme does NOT equate with taking someone else's published work and re-wording it a little then republishing! Most designers start from the ground up with sketches, pen, computer or calculator and if their pattern vaporized, they could re-produce it from scratch. That is what makes it UNIQUE :)

Your use of the word ripoff is quite appropriate to describe what you are encouraging...

[Gaile]

Stupid is as stupid does? Some people never get it. These are the same people that never have an original thought in their heads. I'm sorry it's happened to you.

[MJ]

This link (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/) takes you to the creative commons license, which you can attach to your pattern. While duplicating a free pattern is always a grey area, this license at least tells people to give credit where credit is due. There is enough uniqueness between yours and other bags, and people who do care will credit you. And if you see your pattern being duplicated elsewhere, you can always point those people to the license.

Sorry this had to happen!

[Julia]

Copyright is a terribly tricky area, so I think it's very helpful to educate others on what each of us does know. Here are some things I can share:

First, although it may be true that many knitters can create a rectangular bag, creating one is not the same thing as seeing one that you like somewhere else and using it as your own. If the "new" bag can be traced to the source, it's not "new" and there's nothing creative about it.

Second, it is perfectly fine to replicate a pattern by a designer for personal use. Purely personal use is an exception to copyright. (You cannot do this for recognition or financial gain, etc. etc. etc.) It is not fine to post that pattern or distribute it or claim that it is your own original creative work. (Those of you who have worn out your favorite designer sweater and managed to knit another just like it for wear can rest easy - it's not a crime.)

Third, you can say whatever you like about the originality of the Booga Bag, but the fact is that it has been made by more people and is more easily recognizable (and loved!) than almost any other internet pattern I can think of. Although others may have been able to come up with this particular design, they haven't, and it's pretty easy to recognize that it has uniqueness and value. The fact that a blogger reproduced the bag alone tells you that it had uniqueness and value to him or her. (Okay, that wasn't copyright law, but it's important nonetheless.)