This time, it’s in a Facebook group known as the Worldwide Quilting Group. The administrator, Sandy Stubbs, has been scraping tutorial and pattern content from other sites, stripping it of attribution or links to the original source, and posting it. MANY of our well known designers have had their content stolen, some even had pages of books copied.

The image below is a tutorial that was stolen from Jacquie Gering’s site:

STEALING IS WRONG. We all learned this as wee kiddos, and it’s still the law of the land. Yes, this IS stealing. I know a lot of people think it isn’t because, hey, it’s all free on the internet, right? But no. If you take something that ISN’T yours, it’s stealing, plain and simple. And there is no polite euphemism for thievery. If you stole a car you’d go to jail.

So I imagine that a rationalization could be that it’s not stealing if the content was free at its original source. But here’s the thing… we post free content to be traffic drivers to our sites. WE ARE IN BUSINESS. Being in business means we aim to make a living, to earn money from our talent and skill. It’s a well-known business idea to offer tutorial content for free to bring customers to our site and hopefully get a sale out of them – it’s the loss-leader concept of internet commerce, and it operates on the similar premise of the deeply discounted stuff at a big box store on any given weekend. I know that some people think that sullying the sweet face of crafting with bold business marketing is somehow unsavory, but for heaven’s sake! All who work in quilting are businesswomen and men. We are here to earn a living.

And while our living is in jeopardy every time someone copies a pattern, or steals content like this group above, the people who really lose out are our customers. When we find out our work is stolen we get closer to quitting in disgust, and it certainly makes us pull back on our generosity. When we quit, our customers lose the ability to find great patterns to make. We are the Geese that Lay the Golden Eggs, and when our eggs are stolen, we die an inch at a time. Eventually there will be no more eggs.

EVERY SINGLE ONE of our customers is responsible for protecting the rich content we make. 

Think hard about that.

The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs, illustrated by Milo Winter in a 1919 edition of Aesop’s Fables

Just about every quilt made relies as much on the pattern as it does on the fabric. And I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard “I spent all that money on fabric, I’m not spending another $10 on a pattern too.” And all I can say to that is, “Would you buy all the trimmings for thanksgiving dinner, and then steal the turkey?” No, you wouldn’t. And if you did, you’d be arrested.

So again, please:

• Support us by paying for the things we make that inspire you.
• Don’t steal by copying. (How not to be an accidental content thief)
• Don’t let your friends copy things you’ve paid for.
• Help us by linking back and attributing the source of anything you share so we get an opportunity to market to new eyes.
• Tell us when you see our stuff being stolen.
• Don’t blame us, the victims, when we come after you with legal measures.**

**The above group blamed and attacked the content creators when they were challenged, and have since blocked anyone who brings up that this content is stolen. They have also hidden the group now. This is so very disappointing, and I hope that other members in the group continue to report their crimes outside the group. A classy group would have stayed public, apologized, deleted stolen content, and attributed/linked up free tutorials. 

And to those of you who DO pay for everything… blessings upon you and may your threads be never tangled! Thanks for hanging in with another post about stealing patterns. And yes… I’ll stop writing about theft when it stops happening.

The post Why Stealing Patterns is Like Killing the Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.

She contacted the pattern author, and found out that this is not how the patterns are produced. So somewhere along the distribution chain, it looks like this pattern might have been copied for re-sale.

Obviously, this is theft and fraud, not to mention very damaging to a designer’s livelihood and reputation as well. And just as obviously, a designer like me has no real way to police it. So I ask this favor of you: if you see a poorly produced copy of a pattern for sale, PLEASE contact the designer to let us know. If it’s getting stolen, we need to know. And if it’s a production snafu, we should know that too, so we can get a clean copy into your hands!

Many thanks to Janna Bailey for letting me tell this story, and for carrying the WASWI torch! Her original words (with her permission) are here:

Had an odd thing happen at PIQF this last October (2015). I purchased a pattern from a vendor and took it up to my room and opened it. The pattern looked like it was copied many,many times. Very grayed. I took it back down to the vendor. The owner was not there but the employee pulled out 3 more patterns and they were all just as bad. I wanted my $ back and was going to write a scathing note to the pattern maker. The employee said I had to come back the next day and talk to the owner. I went back to the vendor the next morning and she said she found a better pattern. I opened it and it was just fine. After thinking about it, I emailed the pattern maker anyway…but rather than berating her for a lousy pattern, I explained the situation and asked the question, “did you make the copies or was the vendor cheating you out of profits by making her own copies”. The pattern owner wrote back and thanked me, because she said all her patterns were clear copies. So I’d check patterns before you buy them and make sure they are clean and clear. And if not, I’d send a note to the pattern maker. It’s not fair that they should be losing their profits to a disreputable vendor. 

The post WASWI: Let designers know if you see their patterns copied appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.