Anyone have a contact for MLI?

I have written the seller requesting further info. Will report what she says. Looking at her previous sales, she has sold this item before. Also has a Disney chart for sale - wait until she deals with them! It won't be a happy experience.

MLI can be reached through her web site,

Pat in Illinois

Pat P wrote:

> I `m not, as you know, very fond of MLI, but don`t like to see her ripped > off like this! She should be told.>

Wow - that's gutsy. Although the auctioner clearly states it's the Butternut Road chart. Of course, MLI's charts are on that buff humongous paper - so, I'm guessing this is one of those photocopy and resell it things.

I'd bet MLI already has had someone from her group notice this.

ellice

This happens all the time with Mirabilia charts. Usually the sellers are out of eastern Europe, Russia, or Asia somewhere. Things like this get posted constantly on the Mirabilia board.

That's why I say we should attempt to clean these people out before we start picking nits over what copyright infringement might or might not really mean.

Thanks - I just sent it on to Marilyn in case they haven`t noticed it. I`m heartily sick of all the copyright infringements on ERbay lately - apart from copying designs, the blatant straight scans to charts of artwork and photos, with not the slightest hint of any further original work being done to them!

Pat

The best thing to do is to notify eBay about copyright infringement (they have and will pull auctions), but it was listed on eBay UK so I didn't know if it would make any difference if I did it.

I have just had an email from Beth Katz who handles this sort of thing for Marilyn. She says she is going to get the charts removed from ebay. Thank you, Pat, for your quick reporting! Like you, I am just so sick of this stuff! And why on earth would she advertise them as Butternut Road and then say it was her own work? I keep hoping that she just didn't bother to change her item description and really didn't mean to rip stuff off. *sigh*

Pat in Illinois

> I `m not, as you know, very fond of MLI, but don`t like to see her ripped > off like this! She should be told.

There is so much of it going on on Ebay, lately - I`m surprised that it isn`t obvious to the owners of Ebay themselves, who profess to clamp down on that sort of thing. For a long time it`s been obvious that they coulodn`t care less!

Pat

>>> I `m not, as you know, very fond of MLI, but don`t like to see her ripped >> off like this! She should be told.>

Just had a look at stuff on Ebay finishing today and there are dozens more. I spent twenty minutes trying to get past all the guff to report it to Ebay, but when I finally thought I was getting somewhere - the final link just would NOT work!

I pointed out the copyright problem to one seller of Winnie the Pooh designs who replied "But everyone does it!" (No more than I expected, but at least she was reasonable) so I just sent a reasonable email back trying to explain - a bit difficult with the limit they put on the size of email! LOL!

Maybe most of them DON`T realise they`re actually breaking the law. Maybe we could try to politely educate them when we see it?

Pat P

Good luck. Someone recently reported that a seller responded that she had personally converted a photo to a chart, and therefore, it was "her work" even if not "her design". She won't be educated until Da Mouse comes after her and takes her house, car and first-born male child.

Unfortunately, there is much misinformation about copyright out there.

They not only think it's OK to run a photo of someone else's design through PatternMaker, but that it's OK to distribute copies if you don't make money, or that leaving off a border is enough change to make it "your own design".

I lately saw a very cute Calendar with our New year. It was named The Embroidered Calendar. But m all pictures were of Crewel embroidery, thus of course i bought it. To say the truth, i wasn `t so happy when i came home and really looked at the works, as most Reminded me of things i saw somewhere before. But when i opened the November [ as the Latin word said] and the Heswan-Kislev page i was STRUCK with recognition. I KNOW THIS work ,,, looked at the side it said Embroidery Anna Perry. I knew exactly where i saw it before , I opened the 'The Family Creative Workshop" Plenary publications international 1975. The volume that has a chapter called Crewelwork Sampler , page 18, on the opposite page [19] ,, is this work . Most Stitches are exactly as the original as are most collors, some stitches are slightly different as are some of the colors , but where the colors are different the Shading is kept ,,, i immiadelly called the printer of the calendar, he said he had no clue that his wife and friend , went to this Embroideress and they picked out of her collection of works ,those works they thought were fit for a calendar. he promised to be more careful next year. mirjam

(Mirjam Bruck-Cohen), wrote in form:

Mirjam, as much as I would dearly wish to agree with your version it is a fact that you are clearly very wrong in your understanding. When you get the permission of the owner of the artwork, by whatever means, then do what you will. Until then, copy it in any form and you are toast. I agree with your message in that these matters ought to be discussed rationally with the full *correct* information being published. Opinions are not relevant as the LAW is international and transgresses all culturally based opinion.

SL

Karen You are walking here on a partly dangerous path. People here who embroider ready made patterns on cannvases also sometime reffer to it as their `creative` work, Thus why should a woman , who converted a photo to a chart not see it as her work ? When you finnish embroidering that Bought canvass , don`t you reffer to it as `your work` ? Please try and for once, discuss it in all it`s philosophical and moral points and not use this as a Flame war . Willing or not , even the most inventive, original artists and designers use some images and ideas that are already part of Our Collective Imagery Knowledge. It is the way we develope this image that is creative or makes it our own. mirjam

Sophia , nice to meet you , i don`t think we `talked` before. I do my own Artwork, thus it is my work and my creation. But when people work a ready bought painted canvass, it is still their work [of embroidery] but not their creation. That is the difference i see , in the story of Karen. Whether it was allowed or nor alowed to transform the work, from one media to another is another matter. Of course as an Artist and curator myself i am extremely careful about copyright laws. When teaching i also made it a GREAT Lesson to teach my students that they are allowed to quote a sentence here and there , if they give credit to the original writer /sayer. But if they want to have more than several sentences , they should ask permission and get it in writing. mirjam