Posts tagged: Copyright

Blog Etiquette: Giving Proper Attribution

First off, a little fan-girl squee: one of my quilts appeared on a blog run by a famous quilt historian/author/designer. Whee! That said, I was surprised to see my quilt appear on the blog, only finding out out because I subscribe to it.

Some are quick to blame Pinterest and other plug-ins and bookmarklets that make it simple to cross-post content from one part of the Web to another for muddying the waters of IP and making us bloggers turn into rude content thieves.

But, stealing content without attribution or request started long before those technologies and services came about, and I’m certain they weren’t in use in this situation.

I’ve covered asking for stolen content to be removed, but what if you don’t mind that it was taken, you just want proper attribution?

That’s a question I’ve been struggling with since I saw the post—especially since the only method of contact I could find for the author was to comment on the post—they didn’t have an email address posted or a contact page.

So, ideal world time: we, as responsible bloggers, should endeavor to always give proper attribution and get proper permission to use other’s content. And, we should provide a way for others to easily contact us so that they can do the same.

It’s the second part that’s really bothersome in this situation. My only recourse is to comment on the post—a public forum. I’m not angry that content was stolen, I just want to request—privately—that they give proper attribution.

So, what should you do in this situation?

Since the photo in question actually belongs to someone else, (it was taken by the newspaper, not me) I contacted the photographer so that they can handle it in the way that they see fit. I can’t speak for them, but I can (and should) alert them. I did leave a comment thanking the author for the mention, and gently correcting the spelling of my name.

I kept getting hung up on “this person is famous, and it’s just little old me!”. Objectively, they should be even more aware of these types of issues—to cover their own famous bums and to set an example of how they want their own IP to be treated. So, while I am completely honored to have my quilt appear, ultimately, I deserve the same respect of IP and attribution that I would give them. In other words, feeling honored doesn’t mean you shouldn’t request your due rights.

I’ve come up with a stock message in case this happens in the future, that I hope is polite but firm about adding a notice that the photo is mine. It mentions that my policy is, as clearly stated on my blog, that they’re welcome to use my images so long as I’m credited. Hopefully, it only ever needs be sent in private, but perhaps if it must be put in a comment, it will encourage others to take another step toward that ideal world of asking, attributing, and inviting contact. I say stock, because while I’ll likely modify it in each situation, it removes the temptation of fan-girl spinelessness—I have the message, I will send it in every instance.

If you haven’t already, make sure you have information about your own copyright stance somewhere on your blog, be it a separate page or in your sidebar. If it is on its own page, make sure a link appears on all pages of your blog. While you’re at it, make sure that you provide a way to contact you. Yes, we all worry about spam (and yes, there are readers who think they should give unsolicited advice about your life), but people do need to contact you on occasion, and that should outweigh your other worries. Plus, there’s a delete button in your email client.

Think about your own stock message so that a response can be automatic without you having to stew over it.

And in the end, really? It seems like a published author should know better than to take images from various places on the Web without attribution of some kind…

What would you do in this situation? Is it something you’ve dealt with before? I admit, sometimes I’m not perfect about proper attribution, but I try to make it clear where all content and images come from.

Defending a DMCA Notice (Or, make sure this doesn’t apply to you)

Posted in Learning

This is the third and last post in a series about how to handle stolen content on the web. Read Part 1: How to Get Your Stolen Content Removed; Part 2: Proving that Stolen Content is Yours.

I’ll admit that I’m an optimist and try to think the best of everyone, but let’s face it, sometimes people are willing to bend the rules so far that they break, and then they try to use duct tape and slight-of-hand to pretend they only made a little kink. Picture this: someone steals your content, pulls some tricks to make it look like they created it, and then serve you with a DMCA notice. Or, less far-fetched: you post something that you believe you have every right to repost and suddenly find yourself served with a DMCA notice.

You have recourse. You can send a counter notification that notes why you have the legal right to post the content in question.

The reasons for sending a counter notification are:

The copyright on the material has expired (i.e. it is in the public domain), therefore anyone can reproduce it.
The original material had no evidence that it was copyrighted and you have good faith belief that it is not.

This is perhaps the weakest of the excuses for recent material, because in general, your work is copyrighted as soon as it is created in a form that is copyrightable, so long as you can prove ownership.
The person who sent the original notice is not the copyright holder or their authorized agent and therefore can’t claim copyright violation.

If you are the copyright holder, this is where your proof comes in handy.
Your use of the content falls under ”fair use”.
The original complaint did not include all of the information required for a DMCA notice.

If you think any of those apply, you can send a counter notification that essentially tells your host that they cannot remove the content until the original complainant sues you.

If you are the original complainant, make sure that the offender can not easily claim any of the above. Of course, so long as you are the original creator, have a copyright notice on your site and dotted your ‘i’s and crossed your ‘t’s on the DMCA notice, the offender shouldn’t have a leg to stand on.

For a boilerplate DMCA Counter Notification, check out this form letter David S. Touretzky.

If the original filer does sue, or you receive a counter notification and decide to file suit, please contact a lawyer, because I am not one, and at that point, you need professional advice.

Proving that Stolen Content is Yours

Posted in Learning

Two weeks ago, I talked about how to request that stolen content be removed from the offending site. Using the methods provided by the DMCA, you can submit a request for removal of the stolen content to the host of the offending site. But how do you prove and protect your copyright?

How to Get Your Stolen Content Removed

Posted in Learning

To my knowledge¹, my content has never been stolen and posted with attribution to someone else. However, a Twitter friend recently retweeted a message from another crafty blogger who found her tutorial and photos copied in their entirety on a blog full of egregious violations of copyright.

Luckily, thanks to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), US bloggers have a clear recourse to having their stolen content removed. Unluckily, DMCA claims can be made only by the copyright holder² and relies on the copyright holder knowing that their content has been stolen. Bloggers in other countries may have some recourse as well (such as the EU’s EUCD), but you’ll need to research your own laws.

Copyright, IP and… Fabric? Oh My!

Posted in Learning

My various projects in the world of sewing, web, and life are legion, but I’ve now got it in my head to start quilting. We’ll see how that goes considering I’m 48 hours into this plan, and I’m already being surprised. Not by the process of quilting but by something I found as I quested into the rarely-explored (by me) section of quilting fabrics at the local JoAnn Fabrics: non-commercial, home use-only fabrics. What?

Sold for non-commercial home use only is printed on the selvage — It’s a good thing I happened to get that particular quarter yard, otherwise I might have never known!

No, my eyes aren’t deceiving me, right?: that bit of fabric selvage clearly states Sold for non-
commercial home use only.

Intellectual property (IP) and copyright isn’t something I’ve ever considered to have ramifications on the sewing world. Considering that most of my sewing experience deals with basic, mostly non-patterned fabrics, there’s been little call for me to consider the implications of copyright on my creations. I learned not too long ago that clothing can’t be copyrighted, even though patterns can be, so that was the end of my thoughts on the matter.

Serendipitously enough, Katherine, the author of a blog I follow (and college friend) is the daughter of a patent/IP lawyer, and she—with answers from her mom—just authored a post about how IP has (or doesn’t have) an effect on Etsy products. Her article is where I’m sourcing most of this from, with a little help from my years of awareness with Instructional Technology work (although digital media is its own beast when it comes to copyright).

Define IP and copyright

People have spent entire law careers focused solely on IP: a good indication that there’s no clear-cut, always-followed definition. A good working one however is that Intellectual Property is a copyrightable, trademark-able or patentable product of someone’s creativity or intellectual activity.

For a definition of copyright, we’ll look to Wikipedia:

Copyright is the set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. These rights can be licensed, transferred and/or assigned. … Copyright applies to a wide range of works that are substantive and fixed in a medium.

So, how is fabric IP?

Let’s get semantic here: if we consider that copyright applies only to works that are fixed in a medium, fabric can’t be copyrighted. While it is itself a medium, it becomes other media, such as quilts, clothes, decorations. It can be affixed to artworks, etc. It is not fixed to any specific medium. Not to mention, if the method used to weave plain-weave cotton fabric could be patented, it’s fallen into public domain by now, surely.

But in this case, the fabric isn’t just defined by its method of construction, but by the design printed on it. That design is fixed to a medium: the fabric it’s printed on. Additionally, the visual design was created by someone—in this case Susan Winget—and is therefore a copyrightable piece of “art”.

Does it really mean “I can’t sell a product made with this fabric?”

Because IP and copyright are both so debatable and have a variety of gray-areas, it’s hard to just say “yes” or “no” here. So, let’s discussed a couple different types of selling:

I’m a clothier who intends to make objects of clothing out of this with the sole intention to profit. No. From start to finish, the intent here is commercial.

I’m a hobbyist that sews clothing, quilts and craft things for my [children/grandchildren/friends] and those items are occasionally resold once they’ve been outgrown. Probably ok. This is a gray area. The item created from the fabric was not made with the intention of commercial profit. If you were to post an item for sale it may be within the artist’s rights to request that you remove listings of the item, but you should contact a lawyer only if that happens. Chances are, the artist won’t care in this situation. Your intent was not to profit, you’re merely (re)selling a used item.

When I talked to Katherine about this, she had another good point: “Commercial use” also applies to things used in for-profit plays, television shows, advertisements, etc. So, if you’re making an article of clothing or craft item for display in say, your pattern company’s catalogue, as a project made from your pattern, you’re violating copyright if you use this fabric. Or, if you’ve sewn a quilt using this material for non-profit purposes but use an image of that quilt in the advertisement for your quilt-making company, you’re probably violating copyright with that advertisement.

So, this all really makes me think twice about ever buying fabric from that designer again. The project I purchased this for is most likely going to be presented to a friend’s baby, but as she gets further along and finds out the gender, I may start a new, more-gender-specific quilt. If that were to happen, my thoughts were to possibly sell the currently in-progress project. That makes me wonder if I should even bother using the fabric in it at all. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there with that choice to make. That’s not to say that I don’t think fabric designers deserve to profit and have rights to their designs, but as a craftswoman trying to navigate the big bad world of commercial endeavors, this is one more thing I have to be aware of—and worried about—when plying my hobby/trade. In my world, it’s simpler to just deal with fabrics that don’t have copyright strings attached.

Do you think fabric should be able to be given this sort of terms of use? Have you encountered issues with this in your own sewing? One thing’s for sure: I’m definitely going to be more cognizant of what I’m buying in the future.