Category: Copyright

Another lesson learned the hard way........

3/15/2016

I’m perturbed. I’ve been caught committing a copyright infraction and although I pleaded innocent through stupidity, I was forced to pay a fine of $178.00 for the use of a cartoon I found on Facebook to use as a picture for a blog about gardening. The blog was personal, and I wasn’t using the image to make money but apparently you can use CARTOONSTOCK images on Facebook, pass them around like canopies on a tray for all to sample and enjoy, but stick it on a blog, even a personal one and you’ve been caught with your copyright pants down.

I know about copyright, I’m in a business that knows full well what it means and it annoys the heck out of me every time I discover I’ve been ripped off, but somehow I thought this was different. I was wrong. Shane gave me a lecture about what I can and cannot use from the internet so now I know. I’m smart in some things but this totally went right over my head.

All the pictures in the internet are untouchable if they contain a company label. In my stupid brain, I believed if I used a cartoon I was advertising them. What a putz! I didn’t know you had to purchase the rights to use them on a blog. I’m angry with myself for not thinking it through and of course, I will never do it again. But…. paying $178.00 today was excessive for the use of their itty bitty drawing of two stick women discussing weeds. Perhaps these companies splash their cartoons all over the map to trap people into using them so they can then track and fine them. Really, who would pay $178.00 for such a dinky design? I can’t get that price for detailed patterns that take hours to draw, let alone a poor sketch that took five minutes!

So from now on no funny cartoons with my stories. I called the License Compliance Service company that is working on behalf of CartoonStock Ltd. today to see if I could get a reprieve for my first offense but I could tell they were well prepared. It was icy and they were firm. They said it was not to be used by Social Media. I asked why their image could be plastered all over FaceBook but not a personal story on a blog. The woman said I own my website. Apparently we don’t own our FB pages? It sure hurt to pay that money; the costly lesson is like a stab to the heart, after the blade ricocheted off my wallet.

I think wow, if I went after everyone that copied and ripped off my designs over the years, with that kind of sledge hammer attitude, and collected that kind of penalty for each, why I’d be down in the Bahamas sucking on Goombay Smashes through a big long straw. I’d be retired and sitting on a cushy bank wad.

I’m one of those people who respect copyright law in all walks of life. Others are out there ripping stuff off all over the place and get away with it….I feel sort of picked on. Like getting pregnant the first time you have sex at 15, not fair! It wasn’t like I was making money off my weed story. This wasn’t a major crime, but the heft of the fine seemed a bit over the top. I would have paid $25.00, said “oops I’m so sorry, I will never do it again” and not let it burn my arse for the rest of the evening. I just think $178.00 is excessive. Yes, I know I’m wrong and don’t have a leg to stand on….I’ll get over it…..

I’m writing this for cathartic purposes and to spread the awareness so no one else has to learn the hard way!

On a happy note, I'll finish my "Hook Nook" Pillow this evening. I'm loving how the two K's connect.

10 Comments

Copyright does not mean right as in 'okay!'

9/12/2014

7 Comments

I’m at odds over something and don’t know whether to bring it up or bury it in a mental "ick" file. This is about copyright and although it doesn’t affect me directly, someone out there, who should know better is doing it and I need to vent it out so I can file it as a cold case and move on.   It is our responsibility as shop owners, designers and craft enthusiasts, to air out the copyright blanket, shake it out a few time a year to get rid of the thieving bugs.

You would think a guild teacher and shop owner would know better but three things have happened in the last month to prove otherwise. A couple of weeks ago, a rug hooker brought a pattern in that was clearly copied. I am the only one with the permission to produce this woman's designs and I give her a percentage of the sale which is standard practice. So when one of her designs came in on white linen that I don’t stock, I was immediately curious. It was copied poorly, with shaky lines, I wouldn’t even let a messy pattern like that go out the door. The woman told me she thought she had purchased it from me but I let her know that I don’t produce that kind of workmanship and I don’t sell that linen.   Interestingly, the shop's name was written on the bottom of the pattern so the mystery was solved. I phoned the designer afterwards and she was very surprised. A one off we thought/hoped, maybe not worth making a stink over?

A couple of days later, a customer came in and we were chatting about this and that and out of the blue, she mentioned that she hasn’t frequented that same shop since 1996. She said she had designed and hooked a rug, took it into that shop and was asked if they could have a picture. The woman was flattered and said yes. She later discovered the pattern was being produced and sold without her permission.

So this brings me to my experience. A woman came in with a quilt that had a cute design of teddy bears and building blocks. She asked me to put it on a backing for her and I told her sorry I wasn’t able to do that. She said it was ‘only’ a Mary Maxim pattern and I’m not sure why that brand was up for guiltless grabs, but I told her that it was someone’s design and I couldn’t touch it. She said she can’t draw so would have to find someone to do it for her. I wanted to stick my fingers in my ears so I didn’t hear that, but I did tell her that I would be terribly upset if someone did that to me so I wouldn't do it to others. So she came in on Saturday with the pattern and it was drawn by the same person, unmentioned above. That’s three patterns proven to be copied, one can assume there are more.

So what do I do with this? I’m not the rug hooking police and I wouldn’t want to get into that arena for all the wool in New Hampshire, but it’s upsetting. I’ve been chewing on it like stringy celery and it keeps popping back into my head like a ball attached to a paddle. In this day and age with all the focus on being honest in the pattern department I don’t get how anyone could do this. I can see why a new hooker would be unaware but an old timer?

I’m asked all the time to do up Disney patterns like Mickey Mouse and Goofy. Winnie the Pooh is highly desired for nursery rugs and I’ve refused copying that one more than I have fingers and toes. I always say, "no, can not do" and explain why. Truthfully, I would love to be able to produce those TM designs, I’d laugh all the way to the bank and back.   Dishonesty might fill the till, but I'd rather feel good about towing the 'right' line.

7 Comments

Copying patterns.....the bane of every shop's existence!

5/29/2014

42 Comments

Today's blog is short but not sweet. Copying patterns is not flattery it's battery!

PATCHES (Hooked for me by Susan Leslie)

Well, I guess it’s time for another copyright chat. I started the work day by seeing one of my patterns, Patches, copied. A customer brought it in to find a brown herringbone for some of the flower centers. It’s a large pattern with a scarecrow, pumpkins and sunflowers. It was very poorly copied, with layers of marker lines as the person tried to get the perspective straight. It was on a dark linen that I don’t sell. It looked as if it was drawn from the website because a red dot transfer would have been cleaner.

I don’t hide behind the door when I see an injustice, either one perpetrated on me or any designer that I am familiar with. I can spot a copy from fifty paces. I told the customer that the pattern was my design and clearly copied. A ball began to grow in the pit of my stomach and I felt sick. The money we could have made selling that pattern would have covered the labour of one of my hired girls for a day. Stealing a pattern that way hurts a small business heavily. It’s one of the reasons a lot of rug shops don’t make it. Consider that when you copy a pattern from a shop, it’s stealing as if you walked in the door and put the pattern in your purse. In this day and age, and with all the talk about copyright, one would think it’s a rare occurrence, but I hear and see things all the time. It’s very sad.

The woman said she bought it in a yard sale somewhere but didn't remember where. I tried to take a picture of the pattern for this blog but the customer got upset and said she didn’t want to get anyone in trouble and started folding the pattern. She said, "I can't let you do that". I told her spreading awareness is key to educating people to stop doing it. She said no again. I have to admit I was a bit put out, protecting someone she didn’t even know or remember shouldn’t have taken precedent over the respect for my feelings; she knew that I was upset, I was the one wronged here.

Anyway, sorry for all you honest gals out there, having to bore you with the same old rant. I'm trying not to let it ruin this fabulous, sunny day but my back teeth are grinding. One by one we need to cut down on this thievery so shops can support themselves so we continue to be available for your rug hooking needs.

42 Comments

Today is rant Monday!

4/15/2013

4 Comments

"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off" Gloria Steinem

I just found this blog in my draft folder. I'd written it awhile ago when I was still puffed like a threatened cobra. I've pared it down and cleaned it up and left just enough to get the point across without all the venom I felt when it happened. Every now and then a good rant cleans the pipes. Life is filled with ups and downs and when you're in business sometimes you see a bit more of the shadier side of life.

Two customers came into the shop and spent an hour looking at every pattern in the store. Not to buy, to copy. Once they found "the one", they wanted to get the feel for the size before they went home and copied it off the internet. I was listening to their comments and I gathered from their conversation that between them and one another partner in crime, they'd recently copied at least seven of my designs. One of the three was on her third copy of a particularly fetching pattern, hooking one each for every child and was now considering doing the same for the grand kids. I'm not some ostrich with my head in the sand, I know people are copying my designs, but how many grey cells do you have to lose before you say it in front of me like it’s perfectly natural to pass them around like a free for all?

I felt pricked, as if they stuck my soul and every bit of passion for this business drained out of me. After they left I stood in the middle of the shop deflated, wondering, why the hell am I doing this? I swear I try to think of all the wonderful customers who are honest, and I try not to let the negative ruin all the positive energy you’ve helped me build but.....and there's always that damn but....for some reason this drags me down into a pit so dark that I just want to slam the door shut and post a note that says, Closed! Good-bye! Adios! Hasta la vista baby! Sayonara! Les adieux! Au revoir! So long! Farewell! Auf Weidersehen!  And good bloody night!!

So I stomped upstairs, sat at the computer and wrote down my thoughts. Hoping for a bit of release from the lump expanding in my throat.   My fingers were like bolts of lightning, hitting the keys with contempt as I poured out my heart and anger all over the screen. Let me tell you, it was scathing! When I finished I felt as if I'd run a marathon. I was exhausted!

I read what I'd written and something said, don't post, step back, wait five minutes until the boil turns to a simmer.   Don’t be too hasty as people don’t want to hear anything negative about rug hooking.   So I walked away from the keyboard like a smoldering gun and managed to get on with the rest of my day.

You are probably wondering what I said to those women?   Well, I'd like to say I kicked them out and asked them never to return...but surprisingly I said nothing and I'll tell you why. I can read people and these weren't women to educate or mess with.   They may have been seniors and I could have taken them both with one hand behind my back, but they had a collective chip on their shoulder that I wouldn't have been able to knock off.   The one bickered over paying the price for a $2.50 scrap of burlap and the other one accused me of trying to rip her off when she asked for a yard of linen and I said it was $32.95. She eyed me suspiciously and said, "How come my friend was just in and she only paid $16.00?"   It was said like I was some kind of crook, making up prices as I went along.  I told her that it was probably burlap, not linen. She didn't apologize for her sharp tone, just said a begrudged "oh" and then hummed and hawed over paying the price for linen. Her friend said, "Linen ain't rough, ya know ya hate burlap." So she handed over her credit card and we completed the sale and she grabbed up the bag haughtily as if the entire experience offended her.

I could tell my little copyright speech would have gone in one ear and out the other, not making an ounce of impact and I also sensed I might have come out at the shitty end of the stick. They had an edge like the world was out to get them and they were ready to come out guns a blazing if someone crossed their path.    And they both acted like they could cut the head off a chicken without blinking and I was out numbered...... I think their last names might have been Hatfield and McCoy?

Anyway, I’ve been complaining for years I don’t make enough money to pay myself a salary. The business has overhead and employees to support so there was never anything leftover for me. So I can't help thinking.....if I had all the money for the patterns that have been copied from the website or duplicated and passed around off legitimately purchased ones, I might have been able to financially compensate myself for all the hard work I do. And maybe my husband wouldn’t have to bail me out at year end because I’m in the red again.  My accountant says, I always cry when I get my taxes done even though I don't have to pay in....well I would give anything to pay a crap load of taxes to the government…it would mean I'm making profit!!!!.

The rug hooking business might look glamorous and pardon my bias, my shop is beautiful beyond words, but in thirteen years it hasn't afforded me any kind of monetary gain. It’s a craft business in a small population based area, not a large center with unlimited people crossing the threshold. If I wanted to work 24 hours a day and do everything myself maybe I could draw a pay cheque but I can’t physically do it all so I work for the occasional slap on the back and please know I'm not bitching about this, it is what it is and I love my shop and what I do!

Anyway, this is the scaled down version, edited until unrecognizable from the initial, internal explosion.   I couldn’t let the incident go by without ranting a bit but I tamed it for those who still believe the glass is half full.  I'm in retail so I'm on the slightly jaded side of things after thirteen years in business witnessing curl your toes moments......maybe I'll slip a story out every now and then just to be scandalous but not mentioned any names to protect the guilty and least deserving. I always tell it like it is and can’t stop now and even though I get upset when something happens I still like to make it into a humorous story because that's the way I compartmentalize stress. Isn't that how most comedians get their shtick?

So I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to anyone who has done this, plans to do this or knows someone who does this....please, please, please…if you are copying my patterns or anyone's for that matter, please stop!  The shops can only survive in this business if they are supported.  Every pattern copied is a shovel of dirt on their company's grave.    To those of you who come by patterns legitimately,  every rug hooking shop and designer salutes you!

And then low and behold, a gentlemen emailed me the other day to ask what I would charge if they copied some elements of one of my designs and incorporated their changes.   I almost fell off my chair!!! This was the first time anyone in thirteen years had asked the question. I was floored and didn't respond for two days because I had to get my head around his complete and utter honesty.  We chatted and settled on an arrangement, and then believe it or not, two days later someone else contacted me with a similar question. Maybe being on Facebook and writing these blogs is making me more of person than a faceless retailer.......maybe in this case familiarity breeds respect.

4 Comments

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

11/18/2012

8 Comments

Into every rug hooker's life a little chat about copyright must come. I so appreciate all you honest rug hookers out there, it keeps the shops in business. Anyone who sells their artistic goods to the public will understand that it can be a very tricky. Some people are of the assumption that if they buy a pattern they have the right to make peronsal copies of it, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Basically it is stealing, no different than if you came into the shop, stuffed a pattern in your purse and walked out the door. Our Nova Scotia Rug Hooking Guild promotes honesty in the hooking fold which is a huge help but copying still goes on more than most might think. I could tell you dozens and dozens of stories of things I've heard and seen with my own eyes. If you add up all those "extra copies" floating around out there it is clearly a detriment to my business. And another important point; patterns are usually the bread and butter of the rug hooking businesses, the one item you are able to make some profit on, as let's face it wholesale discounts today are a bit of a joke. The 100% of yesteryear is but a faded memory, today you are luck to get 15%-20% and once the high rates of shipping are added to get those items to your door, the percentage of profit is hacked even lower.   Impossible figures to live on.

I do my part to educate new rug hookers by incorporating the copyright chat to those I teach.  Sometimes customers tell me right to my face they plan on making copies for family members or friends and I very diplomatically explain why they shouldn't and sometime I feel they appreciate being told while other times, I know it didn't make a difference. Over the years I've talked to other shop owners and they also tell tales of the struggle to keep in the black and many have had to close their doors due to customers copying their designs. I'm sure the average shopper doesn't realise how much copying patterns hurt when they can't see the bigger picture.

Another copyright quagmire was the service I offered of custom designing for customers. I've been blessed with the ability to draw so I thought it might be nice to offer rug hookers who weren't so fortunate, the opportunity to work on custom designs that really meant something to their lives.  Probably 85% walked away thrilled with their designs, but there was that pesky 15%, not so much. After being threatened with lawyers and accused of stealing designs I’ve had to take the service off the table, it just isn't worth the angst I've had to go through. A quick comparison...a photographer can take your picture but you don't have any rights to the photograph even though it's an image of your own face, unless of course you’ve paid the high fee for exclusive rights. The same goes with my custom designing, I did not sell the rights to the design, only a burlap or linen copy, but for some reason people think I'm a thief if I make another copy and hang it on the rack in the shop.

All artwork comes with an automatic copyright. You can come into the shop with a photo of your beloved pooch and ask that I make it into a pattern and as soon as I’ve laid pencil to paper that sketch of your pooch is mine. I spend hours on every design I do and add that to the burlap or linen cost and Bonnie's wage to put the pattern on the backing and I'm the hole. That is why I try to design patterns that appeal to the masses to make the effort worthwhile. I’ve done the odd baby or two, (now I don’t mean the babies were odd…) and homes that can’t be sold as a general design because when I really like the person, the subject or if the work challengers me, I go the extra mile to give the customer a pattern they love and not worry about the hours that took me to do the work.  Sadly, that service has been stripped from the table and I only help the women in my rug hooking group as I know there won't be any backlash down the road.   My group is well versed in the dos and don't of copyright after hearing my rants!

These two stories are not meant to be negative, just two examples of copyright issues that got out of hand. No business is without problems but overall the good far outweighs the bad and these are just learning cuves of dealing with the public.

A woman who had asked me to design a pattern of her dog the year before, came into the shop to browse through my patterns. We were having a lovely conversation until she came across the pattern of her dog on the rack and went from one to one hundred in the pissed off lane. She turned black with rage, accusing me of stealing the design and then threatened to sic her lawyer on me. Nothing I could say convinced her I had the right to that drawing and she left in a royal huff, probably bad mouthing me to anyone and everyone who would listen that Christine Little was a thief.  This was the straw that broke the camel's back; it was time to take that service off the table. Being represented as a thief is never good for business nor did I want to deal with that kind of abuse again. Several things had previously happened to prove it just wasn't worth the hassle. Words hurt; I’m made of flesh and bone, not deflecting armour, and whether you think you have a case or not, that is no way to a person.

Over the years, I’ve designed quite a few patterns for people that have gone on to win 1st prize ribbons and honourable mentions. I’ve proudly discovered my creations in Rug Hooking Magazine but was instantly deflated when the captions don't mention my name but listed the rug hooker as the designer.  The local newspapers have featured articles of hooked rugs I’ve created but time and again the hooker took all the credit. Sometimes I think I can’t win, so much so that it is a running joke at the shop when we see one of my designs featured in some publication and my name is a no-show, we say, “typical, wouldn’t expect anything else”. The very first custom pattern I ever designed was featured in a local newspaper and the customer took full credit for
designing it. Hungry for any kind of advertising, this would have sent the locals to my door but no, I was passed over like a beggar in the street! Sometimes the lack of words can hurt just as much as a slew of them.

The worst story by far was a design I created for a woman who entered a prestigious, juried show. She came into the shop with a stickman drawing in front of a box that represented a piano. I listened to her concept of what she had in mind, took it further by adding elements I thought were relevant and produced a design of Beethoven sitting behind his piano, with candelabras hanging from the ceiling, velvet draped curtains framing the stage, a marble floor and an audience. White music notes were coming out of his ears representing his deafness while black notes carried the music out into the audience. I made sure those notes were the actual music for Ode To Joy which surprised the customer with great delight, so much so that she hugged me.

She left the shop all eager to get started while I floated around on a design high. At the end of the day the woman phoned me to ask why the copyright symbol and my name was on the bottom of the pattern.  I told her it was my artwork so therefore I owned the rights to the design. I told her if she had wanted an exclusive design she would have paid far more than $50.00. I had worked on that pattern several days and well into the nights.  She said “oh” and that was the last I heard of it. She came back to the shop a couple of times to show me the progress in her hooking and she ws doing a fantastic job.  Ecstatic over the project and always thanked me for such a lovely pattern.

So you can imagine my surprise when I opened Rug hooking magazine and saw the rug featured as a winner in the show. It clearly stated that the woman designed the pattern.  I was confused wrought with dissappointment. Once again, passed over for the credit that should have been mine and loosing a perfect opportunity to show all of North America what I could do. Only two years in business, that kind of press could have opened doors for me and at the bare minimum provided a plug for my shop.   Now I know not all things are as they appear and there was a chance that this was an oversite of the magazine so I kept that in mind as I carefully worded an email to the woman.  I congratulated her on the win and then simply asked why she hadn’t listed me as the designer.

This all happened quite a few years ago but I will never forget the response and I actually still have a copy of her email which I came across it the otherday. I have never been so screamed at with written words. Big black words, bold with large fonts mixed with regular fonts, exclamation marks all over the place, hit after hit on my person, word after word of insult, several paragraphs long.  She came right out and called me a thief among other things.  She told me that it was her design, not mine and how dare I say otherwise. Her closing words, "if I wanted to steal the credit to go ahead if it makes me feel better!” It was abundantly clear that she valued me somewhere lower than a snake in the grass.    I read the email over and over, each time thinking I must be mistaken but each time I slumped lower in my seat, running a gammot of emotions that literally ended in tears. I was beaten down by words, crushed by the weight of them. They even caused me to question why I was in this business.  It sucked all the joy from my world and I'm not proud of it, but I settled into a dark place for a bit. No one wants anyone to hate them, its against our nature, but back then I hadn't formed my thick retail skin so my shields were down and she got in.

Well, it took a few days to recover from the attack and then a few more to prepare a response.
I would have phoned her but anticipated more of the same, although this time in my ear instead of my eye. In the note, I carefully outlined what copyright was all about. She brought an idea to me, no one was taking credit for that, but once I produced that drawing; the artwork belonged to me. I told her that I sold her a “copy”of the original drawing…the reason why she didn’t get the signed and dated artwork, only a burlap copy.  I also reminded her of our phone conversation all those many months before when I had explained what the copyright symbol had meant. I said I had emailed her to ask a simple question as to why she didn’t give me credit for the design and didn’t deserve the tirade that followed. Her words had wounded me. I thought I was doing her a favour to give her a design worthy of the show… a stick man and a box for a piano would not have cut it. After all these years I still have the design; I just never had the heart to put it out on the rack because every time I looked at it I felt ill, breathing life back into that distasteful memory unsettled my stomach.    Maybe writing this will change that; give me some closure. Maybe tomorrow I’ll dig out the drawing and think about it......

A few days later the woman replied with normal type but not exactly an apology. She just said she wished it hadn’t come to this and that she had forgotten our phone conversation about copyright.   Someone else must have enlightened her on the topic and you know what they say, if two people say it's a chicken the chances are good that it is. I’ve not heard from her since and up until then she had been a welcomed regular in my shop. Sticks and stones can break your bones but names will never hurt you is crapola.  Words can hurt, in the heart and the pocket book. I’ve lost business and I’ve since heard someone comment that I steal designs so I can only wonder who else might be avoiding me because of my evil, pattern stealing warts. The rug hooking community is small so things get around faster than Purolator, and the negative comments seem to go priority overnight.

8 Comments

Another lesson learned the hard way........

Copyright does not mean right as in 'okay!'

Copying patterns.....the bane of every shop's existence!

Today is rant Monday!

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Archives

Categories
(Click on the categories for past blogs)

Another lesson learned the hard way........

Copyright does not mean right as in 'okay!'

Copying patterns.....the bane of every shop's existence!

Today is rant Monday!

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Archives

Categories(Click on the categories for past blogs)

Categories
(Click on the categories for past blogs)