The copyright rant

Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on September 20, 1999 at 14:40:57:

In Reply to: Re: I saw a beautiful henna gallery and wanted to recommentd it. posted by Shanon Lavender on September 20, 1999 at 06:39:52:

In handcrafts...if an artist puts out henna patterns, (knitting
patterns, flash, all the thousand sorts of "idea books" that are out
there) .... they are there to be used. You can't reprint another
person's flash and pretend you designed it, the original design is
protected by copyright.

But, if you use someone elses flash as a starting point to henna
someone, no problem, no copyright infringment, no hassle. Anyone is
going to make enough changes just getting the pattern from paper to
hand to make the legal copyright thing fall apart.

I've sent out one or two sheets of henna patterns.....and I expect
them to get used! I don't expect credit. If anyone publishes those
patterns, without substantial changes, and claims to have originated
them, they're in trouble, but they can henna away in perfect freedom.

The lady does good work. I wouldn't sweat her pattern sources. If you
don't want people to use your patterns, don't share. In my experience
over 30 years of being a professional illustrator....I was always a
bit pleased to see people copying my stuff...it sort of kept me hungry
to keep moving forward! They'd be copying my old designs while I'd
gone miles ahead with new ideas.

Follow-ups:

• The Deception is what's wrong... MyST 19:09:25 9/21/99 (3)
  • Re: The Deception is what's wrong... El 08:43:39 10/11/99 (0)
  • That's what I was talking about! (thanks MyST) Eve 16:05:07 9/23/99 (0)
  • Re: The Deception is what's wrong...I agree Shanon Lavender 02:58:12 9/22/99 (0)