Angry about copyright infringement...

[Drac]

Until my local cross stitch store closed last fall, I had never needed to look online for anything regarding cross stitching. Now, with said store closed and none others in my area, I've been forced to look online for things and I'm increasingly angry.... no downright pissed... at sites like Pinterest and Etsy, where full scans of copyrighted patterns are posted for everyone and anyone to steal.

Has anyone here ever tried to DO anything about this? Is there any moderator running these sites that I could write and inform them their posters are breaking the law? Or perhaps could I contact the artists themselves? I'm very supportive of copyright law and want to see scans like these removed. I'd be happy to send some e-mails around about it if I thought it would do any good, but I don't know if it would matter if *I* wrote, since I'm not the copyright holder.

Curious if anyone else here has experience in this area.

[Rose]

Yes we have several members that have taken the initiative to do "something" about the copyright issue that you have talked about. I have written to a couple of designers about the infringements that I have seen. Pinterest is the worst.


What I did was find a link on the web for the designer and then I send them a note of what I found. Usually with a link......if I can make it work. To the person that is sharing and from there let them battle it out. I did get 1 thank you a couple years ago and that was nice.

With the net so free and open it is hard to track them, but every little bit helps. If everyone took just 10 copyright issues and reported them I think it would make a huge difference. But there is always some one that wants to cheat.

[Fizzbw]

I think we all here get very riled by such blatant copyright fraud, especially when it's so conscienceless.

I've reported several, and sometimes eBay get rid of them. It makes me mad that they don't always do it with cross stitch patterns, but once when someone was selling DVD's of some very old videotape recorded horse racing they were stopped! it might be copyright but the original footage isn't available any were else and was hurting no one, unlike cross stitch copyright. Stomp.

Some people do it in ignorance, but many do it with evil in their hearts

Nxxx

[Allyn]

If it's a place like eBay who seems to care, I'll notify eBay and let them know one of their sellers is violating copyright. Otherwise, I notify the publisher or artist who holds the copyright and send them a link to the seller's page. That's all I can do because it's not my fight. Contacting the seller directly doesn't really carry any weight, if I'm not the copyright holder -- all I'm really saying to them is "You're a bad, bad person and I'm gonna tell on you if you don't stop it right now," which doesn't mean much to them. They ignore personal outrage because I can't do anything to them. If it's MY copyright, I send them a notice to cease. If they ignore it, I sic my lawyer on them.

[wendywombat]

I think it's done in ignorance too. I fell into that trap recently when I discovered some on-line magazines.
A person might think that once they've bought a chart/kit/magazine then they have a right to it.

No excuse there though....copyright is displayed on the charts.
Then greed is another issue.