BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Crochet Ebay

Hello everyone!
I just have a quick question, I was hoping you all could help me with.
I was going through patterns on ebay for sale, and came across patterns that I have in books that are copy righted. Is it legal to copy these patterns and then sell them individually?
I always thought they were for personal use .
Boy, I could be rich. I have thousands of books with great patterns!
One of the patterns on ebay even claimed to be an original.
Thanks for the help! Pat

Sometimes what people do is cut the patterns out of the books and sell them individually on eBay. I've seen this several times.

Susan

You can't photo copy a pattern and sell it, this is illegal. Some people do this and they are thieves.

Eva is a victim of this! Someone sold her patterns on ebay. The Conniving Crochet Crooks!

please see my article http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art17274.asp and remember what your Mom use to say (ok my Mom said it) "If everyone else jumped off a bridge would you do it too"? hehehehehe. Ok seriously now you would not honestly believe what people THINK they know about copyrights. One of the best things you can do is go to www.nolopress.com and purchase one of their books (they have several) about copyrights, remember knowledge is power.

I've often thought it was kinda "cheesy and unethical" to cut the magazines up and sell the patterns individually like that. i saw one the other night on ebay for a bernat poncho pattern book. It sold for $15, and you can go to the website and buy it all day long for $7 + shipping.
I would never cut up my pattern mags! its like violating them <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks Everyone!
I thought it was illegal. I just wanted to see if maybe something changed? It's crazy how crooked people can be.
And I am the same way about cutting up my magazines and books! My crochet patterns are to precious to me.- - -Now selling one of my kids well....... Just kidding all 4 are my angels!
Thanks for helping me out. Pat

kids+angels = "Oxymoron" lolololol!!!!

Hey, I'm jumping in on this thread as it's a worry of mine.

Slightly off-topic, but related in some way: a few weeks ago, I came across someone selling a crochet pattern on Ebay that they had taken from a WalMart store. It was one of those free Red Heart patterns that you can take, even if you don't buy any of their yarn. You know the ones I mean, the ones that hang by the yarn and are pull-off's? I couldn't believe it. If I'm not mistaken, they were getting over $5.00 for it. You can just bet that they received some very bad feedback from the buyer. But to make it worse, the seller of the auction gave neg. feedback to the buyer and said, "The ad clearly states it was a pattern from WalMart." Can you believe the NERVE?

And about 3 months before that, there was a thread on Craftster about a woman selling links to other people's FREE websites for crochet patterns. I KNOW, can you BELIEVE THAT? Her scam was to sell the links as one auction. The buyer would pay about $10 for the links. Then, after buying, she'd send them a list of the links, which any fool could go GOOGLE or DOGPILE and find for FREEEEee! I checked her feedback and she was doing well enough. That one I had to report. It wasn't as though she was giving kick-backs to the sites she was making money from.

I've done copyright research (loads of it) and even though the patterns are sold in a book (or a pamplet..same difference) you can't break them up and sell them individually as copies.

At some point, those selling illegally will get caught.

I check out ebay often and now know who is buying up patterns in lots, cheap. Then, a few days later find them selling cut outs often, this to me is sad because they ruin the books just to make fast money, I try to stay away from them, also I try not to bid against these people because, they are willing to bid sky high on certian items. I have often wondered if thi is legal,too. I also saw the scam on selling free-links, so I emailed ebay, and they were taken off but I don't know how many people got scamed before they got caught, or how ebay deals with these greedy people.
It is scary out there when you think of it, to many greedy people.

You could just take a picture of the completed project in the book (or your completed project), then type up the directions to it and print it out. Then list it as such...'a copy of pattern instructions with picture' *from whatever publication*
I dont know if this is illegal but its an idea.

I believe this would fall under copyright violations. It is one thing to make the item and sell the item but it is a violation to copy the instructions with the pic and sell it that way. You must sell the original pic and instructions.

"I've done copyright research (loads of it) and even though the patterns are sold in a book (or a pamplet..same difference) you can't break them up and sell them individually as copies."

Can you tell me just where you found your information (government section please, not some user website making statements, most vary in interpertations). I want to read this as in all the research I have done there has not been one mention, that I can find, that says you cannot break up the sections of a book for resale. I want to see the actual information so that I can varify the correctness of this. I am always having people with questions and do not want to pass on anything that I can not point them to in law. That just causes to much "he said, she said" and not enough the government says.

Thanks for your help. To this point is has been my understanding that the patterns could not be copied for resale but that the actual pattern as owned by you (the physical item not copyright, you don't own that copyright) could be put up for sale. Disposal of the book in whatever form is your right but only as long as you do not make or keep copies for yourself or others. So I want to see this section of law that say you cannot seperate the patterns from the work for resale.

Mary