COOL ! Thank you, Rose. I just was wondering (I figured that since it's all for the one piece I'm makeing & NO, I'm not going to sell it at all).

I know I haven't been around in a while, but today I had a bit of time so was taking a look around and seeing how people are doing. I noticed this topic had some replies so started reading. I got to this post from Joey (quoted just a bit above) and wanted to reply directly to the bit about China.

China is one of the worst countries when it comes to copyright infringement. They copy everything and sell those copies. They finally have copyright laws but do not enforce them much at all. The sites I mentioned in my last post that have thousands and thousands of PAYING members who upload and download charts, that are costing HAED, LHN, CCN and more thousands per month are Chinese servers, owned by people who live in China. People who know what they are doing is illegal and don't care.

What kills me is on those the largest infringers uploading their entire needlework stash of charts are from countries who KNOW about copyright laws. They do it deliberately and are well aware it is illegal. Their defense is "Art should be free to all" and "Sharing doesn't hurt, in fact it gives designers new customers because once I see the chart I go buy an original". Okay maybe 1 or 2 people do go buy the original, but the VAST majority do not. THey download, print, stitch, and then upload the chart to other sites they are members of.

Once the digital copy is on the net, there is no erasing it because literally within an hour it is on 20 or more sites.

We've tried for years to get one of these sites closed, and have had no success. Despite people knowing it is illegal, more and more people are joining and "sharing" on these sites every day. It is disgusting.

For those who don't know, it is one of these sites that caused The Gift Of Stitching Magazine to close. Each new issue literally appeared on two of the biggest sites within an hour of its release. Each new issue was downloaded hundreds of times each day. Result: the magazine lost all profit and had to close.

Anyway, China is the worst. I don't know about Korea, Japan etc. but I do know from seeing it with my own eyes, China is the worst.

Raven

There is a group, made up of designers and groups, who are fighting copyright. They have an email address to receive notifications of copyright infringement. However, the copyright owners of Tatty Ted, Pooh Bear (for example) are major corporations (Anchor for Tatty Ted and DIsney for Pooh Bear) and I've sent notifications to them before and not gotten a response, but I continue to send them. Anyway, for the group of designers the email address is: needleworkdesigners@gmail.com

Their blog is here: http://needleworkcopyright.blogspot.com/ with a list of people included in the group.

Raven

Raven, thank you for bringing this to the front of the queue -- especially this time of year when expectations and costs often exceed one's ability to pay. Theft online is an easy option, it seems. I didn't know Gift of Stitching was lost due to piracy, although I guess I'm not surprised, but I'm sorry because it was an excellent publication.

I think copyright laws need revision, particularly in regard to publishing, but this issue -- selling designs that don't belong to you -- is theft.

You're welcome Serinde.

Kirsten, the owner and creator of TGOS, sent a message through the magazine's mailing list as well as the news-letter and it was in the last issue in the letter from the editor that the magazine was having to close because subscriptions were decreasing while piracy increased.

From Kirsten, Issue 72 (last issue) Letter From The Editor "I know many readers will miss this publication because you've written and told me so. It would be good to continue, I would love to, but the unending battle against Internet piracy has taken it’s toll and our only choice left is to close and move on. "

I was real sad when this magazine closed, I really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it.

Raven

I found this discussion very helpful. I will pass on what I learned here to my 40-member group. Now I know I can legally lend a chart to or borrtow one from a friend!
Thanks