ah, the issues of copyrights & selling FO's...

So, I suppose this is more my venting than anything, but bear with me nonetheless.



I've a few patterns that I've designed, most of which are available for free but still my designs nonetheless, to which I specifiy that they're for personal use only and not for resale. This does mean, on my end, that I tend to search etsy, zibbet etc to see if that's actually happening, that there aren't people selling my designs.

On occasion, there will be someone selling an FO from one of my designs, and I politely let them know what's what and the item(s) are usually taken down with no issue. That's fine.

But, recently, I did find an item in question, wrote to the seller, and even though she did take it down, her defense to allowing it for sale was a) she designs patterns herself and doesn't care if people sell the FO's, and b) "It's not like you are selling on Etsy." (her words.)
 
REALLY? What difference does any of that make?
 
First of all, whether you allow people to sell finished items from your own designs (free or purchased) is your decision as a designer, since you hold the rights to that pattern. Each designer does. Just because you allow sales from your patterns doesn't mean all designers do.



Secondly, whether I have an active shop on a site or not, doesn't matter. If you don't have the right to distribute something, then you don't have the right to distribute it! A designer does not need to have an active store on every single selling site to enforce their policies on their designs.
 
If you wind up selling something made from someone else's design, and you honestly didn't believe you were doing something wrong, it's ok to admit that and just take the item down when the designer specifies it. But, to respond to a designer and not only admit that they've done something wrong, but to also try to justify it by suggesting they can do what they want because the designer doesn't sell there, well, that just doesn't hold water.
 
Anyway, vent over. Hopefully there's some clarity seen by this particular seller, and she'll rethink when trying to infringe on other people's original ideas.