Answers to your troubling and tricky legal questions.

Printer Version

Copyright Violations and Scrapbooking

The situation is getting worse. Does anyone care? 

By Anonymous (November 15, 2004)

(Note: We received the following from a subscriber. TwoPeasinaBucket.com is a website for hard-core scrapbookers and lately the message boards have been filled with instances of consumers, teachers, retailers, and publishers using copyrighted material.)

I've been reading your column for awhile now and I want to pass on a message that I posted on TwoPeasinaBucket recently. I've been working in this industry since 2000 and I'm appalled at the stories I have been reading about lately. Here's what I posted:

There have been quite a few things that have come up in the last year that are really bothering me. With all the talk about copyright protection and all of the ideas, fonts, articles, and layouts out there, how should we, as consumers and designers, react when we find out someone is doing something unethical, dishonest, or illegal?

Let's say that someone steals another person's words and uses them for an article and/or class handouts. This person is working with a company doing design work. The person gets caught, the company finds out, and then nothing is done. A new book comes out with this person all over it. Is this okay? Would you buy this book because it is a great book and the other artists are wonderful? Or would you refuse to buy any of their products based on the integrity (or lack thereof) of the company and the people who design for them?

What about if the same thing happens with a stolen font made into a stamp set? Or a copied layout goes into a magazine? Or a personal photo taken to promote items on eBay?

Is the parent company responsible for the actions of their design team members and employees?

I'm just seeing these things happen more and more often. A person steals, cheats, and/or lies and gets caught. Then the person maybe gives an apology and continues to work for a major company and gets paid to do so. Everyone on the message boards reads about the fiasco and agrees that it is wrong. Then everyone posts about how great the latest book is, how wonderful the products are, or how beautiful the person's layouts look.

Doesn't this just seem wrong? Am I way off base here? I just think that the consumers and designers need to let the companies know that we think this is wrong and not support them. Or is there a better way to handle this type of behavior in our industry? A~

Editor's note: Cross stitch chart publishers and retailers have been devastated by the consumers and others lack of concern about copyright laws. First cross-stitchers would photocopy charts and pass them along to their friends. Now the Internet has made things worse. Consumers are scanning charts and uploading them onto the web for the entire world to use.

If scrapbookers, designers, retailers, and publishers ignore copyright laws, the same thing will happen.

Most retailers, especially independents, have a small margin of error; losing even a few sales to consumers who don't know – or don't care – about copyright laws can turn a profitable store into a loser. The very least retailers can do is to be a positive role model.

To read previous Legal Q. & A. columns, click on the titles in the right-hand column.

[ Home ] [ Business-Wise ] [ Kate's Collage ] [ "Vinny Da Vendor" ] [ "Benny Da Buyer" ] [ Newsbriefs ] [ Memory, Paper & Stamps ] [ Category Reports ] [ Designing Perspectives ] [ Subscribe to CLN ] [ Legal Q & A ] [ Scene & Heard ] [ Jobs ] [ Tech Topics ] [ Industry Research ] [ Store Layout/Design Tips ]

©Copyright 2008 by Creative Leisure Communications
(Reproduction or re-transmission without permission is prohibited.)