I'm NOT flattered

Good for you! I don't like the idea of anybody gathering original
works of others and then selling them in a collection.

One thing, though -- when you publish any of your patterns, to
preserve your copyright you absolutely MUST have your copyright notice
on the pattern. To issue even one copy without the notice is to lose
the copyright forever.

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
http://www.angelfire.com/space2/swcharts/

In article ,
Mary wrote:
Good for you! I don't like the idea of anybody gathering original
works of others and then selling them in a collection.

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

One thing, though -- when you publish any of your patterns, to
preserve your copyright you absolutely MUST have your copyright notice
on the pattern. To issue even one copy without the notice is to lose
the copyright forever.

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

Leah wrote:

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.

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.
--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.

"Leah" wrote in message
...
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

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.

On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:21:57 -0800 (PST), Mary
wrote:

One thing, though -- when you publish any of your patterns, to
preserve your copyright you absolutely MUST have your copyright notice
on the pattern. To issue even one copy without the notice is to lose
the copyright forever.

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

On Dec 11, 2:05 pm, Leah wrote:
On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:21:57 -0800 (PST), Mary
wrote:

One thing, though -- when you publish any of your patterns, to
preserve your copyright you absolutely MUST have your copyright notice
on the pattern. To issue even one copy without the notice is to lose
the copyright forever.

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

On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:57:28 -0800 (PST), Alan
wrote:

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.

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