I'm NOT flattered

Hi everyone,

I've been so busy with regular work and a scarf commission, it's been a while since I checked my alternate e-mail account, the one connected to my Star Wars Crochet and Knit Charts/Graphs page.

I found in there a request from someone to "enter their intarsia book contest". The "winners" give their intarsia knitting charts to these people FOR FREE , which will then be SOLD by these people in book form, i.e., they want to make money from my work and the work of others. The fine print states that I would also be giving them the copyright on any charts submitted for the term of the copyright, which I believe is now 70 years.

HUH? I give my Star Wars craft charts away for free on the net. They were a labor of love, since I love Star Wars. They are free, because they are something I would have dearly loved to have available to me to use years ago and could not have afforded to pay for, and I know there are people like I used to be who can use them but maybe not afford to pay to have access.

I told them that I have no intention of giving up my copyright on any of my charts so they can charge people for them! So if anyone sees any of my charts being sold, PLEASE let me know. I'd hate to think they were being duped by people stealing my work for a profit when they have been available free for several years and will continue to be free.

Leah Always free Star Wars Crochet and Knit Charts/Graphs

Without payment of royalties, anyway... many good anthologies and some good knitting books are collections of works by different people.

Technically, I believe that if you can show that all the others had it, that qualifies as a misprint. The really important part is to register the copyright with the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress (in the USA). I believe you can register a group all at once for one fee, but they will be happy to tell you all about it. The registration isn't technically necessary, as copyright rests in you from the moment you create it, but it does give you the legal right to claim damages if somene does try to infringe. (You can make them stop anyway, but the registration means you can claim a damage payment.) It also gives you a proven date to demonstrate "did it first" claims.

Mind you, some popular patterns have been around for literally centuries and have been included in every large knitting collection. For those, you could only claim your personal version of how you described them; the pattern is public domain.

=Tamar

Ugggh, I HATE people who do that. There are always people who are writing the homeschool list I help run for working parents who want to ask the list members for their best suggestions so they can compile an ebook. Unfortunately, there are too many "work from home" places that suggest people do exactly this, but I think it's awful.

I was quoted in a book about my first employer once. The author offered me full control over how my words or anything that referred to me was expressed, and I got a free autographed first-edition copy. I felt that was reasonable.

These unprintable adjectives who want people to give them something for nothing so they can make money from it, whether it's dweebs like this or people on Craigslist or Freecycle who lie about why they want something for free just make me really mad -- if they are making money, they ought to be willing to also compensate the people who are giving them the fodder to make money.

Well done!

Mary

At least they asked! ;-) Other people would have just taken your designs and published them as their own, or at least not given proper credit.

Thanks for the input. I have only the 1 page right now, which is the only place the images have been put in the public's eye by me and the copyright is clearly listed on it. I'll make sure I keep that in mind when I finally get some time to split my pages into Empire and Rebel so the images will hopefully load faster. I did look up copyright in regards to derivative works and stated on the page that no one can copyright the images that are derived from another crafter's Star Wars images, i.e., the small rebel insignia and the X-wing. At least, that's my understanding, since they gave me a starting point in producing those images.

Leah

One book publisher has, several times, inserted a CD in the first printing of a novel, the CD containing all the other books so far in the series and a couple other books from that publisher that might be of interest to the purchaser. The label on the CD says that it may copied and shared with others but not sold. The same publisher runs an e-library where an author can put up his own books that have gone out of print -- or are still in print, but that he has e-rights to. Both of these are marketing strategies -- read a one or more free, buy the rest. Not long after these strategies started, though, someone noticed CDs containing these books for sale on eBay! He notified the book publisher, who notified eBay -- and the offering went away.

If someone offers your stuff for sale without your permission, and won't stop doing so, tell the ISP (is that the right term? the operator of the system that the website exists on), who should take the whole website down until things are settled.

Cece

Yes, they did ask instead of stealing. I do keep tabs on my images by searching every couple of months, especially if I see the hit counter jumping up, since links to my site are multiplying as more fans pass on the info that they are out there for free. I intend to keep them free by making sure no one else tries to charge anyone for them, hence the regular searches. I also printed out the e-mail asking me to give up my rights by simply submitting designs for consideration, which was very strangely worded in the fine print, probably to confuse all entrants, whose work will probably end up in subsequent publications, and I printed out my e-mailed reply stating I have no intention of giving up my copyright.

Leah