November 27, 2005

Beading Copyright Issues

Lately there seems to have been a rash of mis-understood copyright issues in the beading world. People have made copies of beading patterns that they claim are in the public domain. These patterns have been included in and sold on CD's; copied and used as handouts for bead classes; and just plain copied and sold. The universal response has been, "I didn't know. Isn't it OK after 20 years?"

NO, it is not! Please look at

The worst part of it is that the patterns in question, that I'm aware of, have been no older than 7 years. If you own a bead shop, teach beading, or even just bead, you should be aware of the limited rights that you purchase with a pattern or book. If you like that artist's work and deprive them of their income then you may not be seeing any more of their work in the form of patterns.

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