Monday, October 4, 2010

The Bearded Lady!




Ok, So I'm not really a bearded lady, but it sounded pretty good. I got this idea after my younger brother called me few months ago begging me to make him a "beard beanie." My first question was, "What in the world is a beard beanie?"
He told me all about them, but he couldn't find a pattern online. So, for awhile, I toiled away on my computer searching for a pattern... to no avail!
He was saddened, and I must say, I was a little bit annoyed. I have rarely come across an idea that I found NO pattern for, but I can now say that I have.
All this is to say that this particular beard beanie is my own original design. I am playing around with the idea of publishing the pattern, and I am also playing with the idea of selling licenses that allow people to sell the items they make. This is something I have never tampered with. Usually I just sell my patterns and allow people to sell what they make, but with this particular product, I am trying to respect another seller. She is selling these things like hot cakes in her Etsy shop, and I assume if she wanted lots of other people to be able to produce them, she would have published a pattern herself.
Can anybody give me any info on selling licenses on patterns?

Otherwise, these beard beanies are available for sale in my Etsy shop, which you can find in the side bar of my blog.
Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. If it's your own design, I don't see any reason you can't sell it.

    As for licensing, that is such an odd topic. I did some research on it and can't seem to find a legal basis anywhere that says you cannot make items to sell from ANY pattern you buy (so, just because someone says "please don't make items to sell from this pattern" they have no legal grounding for this and no pattern maker has ever won a case in court with this kind of stipulation on their pattern - - because you can't sell someone something with conditions attached to it. Or something like that. Google around a bit on it and tell me if you find something different!)

    With all that being said, it seems heavily frowned on in the handmade community to do so and I will respect people's wishes if they design something and don't want it to be made for sale.

    Not sure if that helped you at all. Just to keep things above board and respectful plenty of people are willing to buy cottage licenses to use a pattern to make for sale so really, you can do whatever you want in that regard.

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  2. Hey there! I hadn't realized you were following my blog. Thank you!

    As for the licensing, I need to post a blog on allllll that I found yesterday. You are right. There is no legal grounds in licensing or preventing someone from making an item from your pattern and selling it. As an author, I have no right to the finished product of anyone's work. And that is fine with me. I have always felt that people are responsible for their finished products. This case was the only time I was concerned with people selling what they make because I didn't want to offend the other lady that makes similar items to this.

    All in all, though, a copyright, even a registered copyright, only extends protection to the actual written work and photographs in the pattern. It can't be redistributed, mass produced, or claimed as someone else's without the permission of the author. There is not one legal case that has ever made it through the doors concerning what people do with their finished projects.

    As you said, it is really just morally based. If you respect the author and wish to be respected yourself, you won't take someone else's design and sell it unless that have already said they didn't mind if you did.

    Thanks for responding!

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