Knock-off legal?
 

I think if you copy something for mass production re-sale you have to
change or modify it by 30% to make it legal (from what I recall in my
baby swimwear production days).
But, if you are just making something for yourself can you copy
something you have seen from a major designer to the best of your
ability?

What are the legalities of taking pictures in the dressing room?

Ok, ok......I have a confession. I should have never done it. I knew
it was a bad idea from the start. But, I went with a friend, just to
make a return to the "special occassions" department and have lunch at
the department store. A dress caught my eye....just a glimpse from
the corner. I shouldn't have turned to give it a second look, but
oooh when I did I fell in love. In love with a $330 dress! A dress
that seconds later, before my friend could put her return money back
in her purse, I was swanking around the dressing room in. It was bias
cut and look perfectly wonderful - with no bra mind you!
One bad idea quickly follows another and soon I had my husband at the
store....just to show him. Because I havn't spent $330 on all the
dresses I have ever owned much less on just one that I would have
absolutely no place to wear anyway (except my friend wanted me to get
it so badly that she immediately invited my husband and self to a
black tie affair). But, the dress was sold. I was just looking at it
anyway. Enjoying the fantasy of windowshopping to the max.
But, now I am visiting the dress at the designers website.

Something is terribly wrong with me and I must get that dress!
But, in a legally approved seamstress sort of a way.
So, in copying ready-made garments, what's legal and what's not?
Joy

You are not actually copying the dress. If you are gifted enough to look at
it, take pictures and go home and duplicate it, it is actually yours. There
is no way you could duplicate the dress without the pattern, fabric,
notiions,etc. I think it's great you can do something like that. Use your
gift!!
And you could still sell it as yours, after all you did not copy the design,
just created a new design from the concept.

"Joy Hardie" wrote in message
...
I think if you copy something for mass production re-sale you have to
change or modify it by 30% to make it legal (from what I recall in my
baby swimwear production days).
But, if you are just making something for yourself can you copy
something you have seen from a major designer to the best of your
ability?

What are the legalities of taking pictures in the dressing room?

Ok, ok......I have a confession. I should have never done it. I knew
it was a bad idea from the start. But, I went with a friend, just to
make a return to the "special occassions" department and have lunch at
the department store. A dress caught my eye....just a glimpse from
the corner. I shouldn't have turned to give it a second look, but
oooh when I did I fell in love. In love with a $330 dress! A dress
that seconds later, before my friend could put her return money back
in her purse, I was swanking around the dressing room in. It was bias
cut and look perfectly wonderful - with no bra mind you!
One bad idea quickly follows another and soon I had my husband at the
store....just to show him. Because I havn't spent $330 on all the
dresses I have ever owned much less on just one that I would have
absolutely no place to wear anyway (except my friend wanted me to get
it so badly that she immediately invited my husband and self to a
black tie affair). But, the dress was sold. I was just looking at it
anyway. Enjoying the fantasy of windowshopping to the max.
But, now I am visiting the dress at the designers website.

Something is terribly wrong with me and I must get that dress!
But, in a legally approved seamstress sort of a way.
So, in copying ready-made garments, what's legal and what's not?
Joy

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 12:03:53 GMT, Joy Hardie wrote:

But, if you are just making something for yourself can you copy
something you have seen from a major designer to the best of your
ability?

snip

Heck, illegal it may be but I do it all the time. There's no way I can
afford 7,000 pounds for a Charles and Patricia Lester jacket, or 2,000 for
one of their dresses, or 20,000 for a Fortuny. But what I can do is copy.
It won't be the same anyway, by the time you've changed the fabric, got
some of the details wrong and added your own touches.

I normally sketch and measure in the dressing room, very discreetly - I
think taking pix might be a bit out of order and could get you kicked out
of the shop.

I think the manufacturers only really care if you're making money out of
it. But if you're not copying it to sell or to distribute, but only to wear
yourself, I can't honestly see why they'd even care. As Monsieur Lagerfeld
says: "Those who buy the original don't buy the copy, those who buy the
copy don't buy the original..."

:) Trish

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Trishty writes:

I think the manufacturers only really care if you're making money
out of it. But if you're not copying it to sell or to distribute,
but only to wear yourself, I can't honestly see why they'd even
care. As Monsieur Lagerfeld says: "Those who buy the original don't
buy the copy, those who buy the copy don't buy the original..."

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this would fall under "reverse
engineering" sorts of precedence. (OTOH, if you were photocopying
actual patterns you'd purchased, that wouldn't be legal.) The only
exception would be if there was a patent involved; if the dress
company had a *patent* on their design, you'd be screwed (and the
above-mentioned copying would indeed be illegal).

This is why some people get so upset about software patents; companies
are getting patents on things like file formats, so that nobody may
implement code (even from scratch) which, say, reads that
file-format. (This would be like getting a patent on a dress-design or
v-neck t-shirts and hence being able to prevent anyone from making any
such dress or t-shirt...)

- --
mike [at] mike [dash] warren.com
URL:http://www.mike-warren.com
GPG: 0x579911BD :: 87F2 4D98 BDB0 0E90 EE2A 0CF9 1087 0884 5799 11BD
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.5.8 http://mailcrypt.sourceforge.net/

iEYEARECAAYFAj/GnncACgkQEIcIhFeZEb2iQQCfaxe4J/UR5YAKpmzlPD5GqEcl
+qMAoM70VCky3nOricWeOjATNdbj0ZXq
=9WTl
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

I think if you are producing the dress for yourself there is no problem,
anyway. If you were reproducing them to sell commercially, it might be
another story.

My daughter shows horses and I make all of her show clothes. They don't
just wear your run-of-the-mill western wear; it's all very fitted,
embellished, specialized and trendy. I get all the high-end horse show
clothes catalogs, and copy from them for her. We've gotten very good at it,
and we are extremely appreciative of the catalogs that give us a BACK view,
too!


"Joy Hardie" wrote in message
...
I think if you copy something for mass production re-sale you have to
change or modify it by 30% to make it legal (from what I recall in my
baby swimwear production days).
But, if you are just making something for yourself can you copy
something you have seen from a major designer to the best of your
ability?

What are the legalities of taking pictures in the dressing room?

Ok, ok......I have a confession. I should have never done it. I knew
it was a bad idea from the start. But, I went with a friend, just to
make a return to the "special occassions" department and have lunch at
the department store. A dress caught my eye....just a glimpse from
the corner. I shouldn't have turned to give it a second look, but
oooh when I did I fell in love. In love with a $330 dress! A dress
that seconds later, before my friend could put her return money back
in her purse, I was swanking around the dressing room in. It was bias
cut and look perfectly wonderful - with no bra mind you!
One bad idea quickly follows another and soon I had my husband at the
store....just to show him. Because I havn't spent $330 on all the
dresses I have ever owned much less on just one that I would have
absolutely no place to wear anyway (except my friend wanted me to get
it so badly that she immediately invited my husband and self to a
black tie affair). But, the dress was sold. I was just looking at it
anyway. Enjoying the fantasy of windowshopping to the max.
But, now I am visiting the dress at the designers website.

Something is terribly wrong with me and I must get that dress!
But, in a legally approved seamstress sort of a way.
So, in copying ready-made garments, what's legal and what's not?
Joy