by Nancy Jacobus

What you need to know about Copyright laws when entering a Quilt Show or Exhibit. Feeling confused about Copyright issues and acknowledgements requirements when entering a quilt show? Find below an informative copyright article that Nancy Jacobus has written summarizing several recent Quilt Magazine articles.

Are You Observing Copyright?

What to Include in Your Quilt Show Application?

As quilters, we are continually using patterns, sold individually or from books and magazines, to create our beautiful handwork. And since many of us will be exhibiting these fabric creations in our upcoming Quilt Show, it is important that we observe the copyright granted to the creators of these designs. Therefore, Sharla Hicks asked if I would write something on the subject for our web page. I agreed to do so but have no legal training, so this is a layman's understanding of copyright protection. Accept it as such, along with a reminder that you have an obligation to recognize your design inspiration sources in the description of your fabric art displayed at our Quilt Show.

Recently there have been several easy-to-read articles in our quilt magazines regarding copyright protection. These articles emphasize how important it is that we acknowledge the source of our inspiration and understand the exclusive rights of a designer. Sometimes you are the copyright owner of the fiber art you create. This is true when you use quilt blocks that fall in the realm of "public domain" or you design a quilt that is truly original. But few of us are that creative. Somewhere we have been inspired by a greeting card, a quilt seen at an exhibit, a commercial quilt pattern, or a quilt photo in a book or magazine. For example, you might take an idea for a center medallion from one pattern and put a border on it from another pattern. The copyright owners of those designs need to be recognized; they retain certain rights and may even require permission for you to display your quilt.

The U.S. Copyright Law, enacted in 1978, grants the copyright owner/designer protection during her/his lifetime and extends these rights for fifty years after her/his death. In her summary in Lady's Circle Patchwork Quilts (Issue 123, April,1998), Sylvia Ann Landman writes that the Copyright Law grants to the copyright owner the exclusive rights:

to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies

to prepare derivative works

to distribute the design to the public, and...

to display publicly certain works

Once you purchase a pattern, your rights to redistribute the pattern or the quilt you make from that pattern are limited. If you make copies of a purchased pattern for your own individual use--for example, to make pattern templates--that permission is usually implied. But, if you copy your pattern and give it to a friend, you have infringed the pattern publisher's copyright. Your photo copy was a substitution for purchase of the pattern, book, or magazine, thus depriving the copyright owner of compensation for her/his design. Furthermore, if you should decide to make quilts from someone else's design and to sell them for compensation, you must have written permission from the copyright owner. And don't forget, written permission applies to both the Guild and its members when they create an Opportunity Quilt or auction quilts from someone else's design.

Copyright is also an issue when displaying a quilt at a quilt show. As noted above, the copyright owner has the exclusive right to publicly display her/his work. So if you enter a show that offers monetary compensation, be sure that it is an original design!...or get written permission from the copyright owner to enter the quilt. And, be especially wary of displaying works that include recognizable characters such as Snoopy, Winnie the Pooh, Garfield, Barney, any Disney characters, and others without written permission.

Most of us place our quilts in local Guild Shows that do not include monetary prizes and in most cases pattern publishers are happy to have us show them; having others see the completed quilt may help the sale of their patterns. But technically, we need written permission to display them. So, at the very least, give the copyright owner credit. Be sure to identify the name of the designer and the source of the pattern (i.e., pattern name and book or magazine) in the description portion of the entry form. And, if another person has machine or hand quilted your entry, that too should be noted in your description. Let's observe the copyrights of our talented designers/publishers and quilters. Recognize their influence on our work by identifying them in the comments that accompany each entry in our show.

For more detailed information on copyright and references to other sources, see Lady's Circle Patchwork Quilts, Issue 123 (Apr 98) pp 70-74, for a concise summary of copyright protection and see a series of three articles in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, issues No.303 (Jun 98) pp 46-47, No. 304 (Jul/Aug 98) pp18-19, and No. 305 (Sep 98) pp 52-53, for a summary plus answers to over 24 specific questions.

Direct link to the Copyright Laws listed on the Internet.