One of the most painful things that can happen to you as a designer is to find out that someone is making photocopies of your designs. This page is meant to be a brief summery of copyright law. There are links to the U.S. Copyright Office at the bottom of the page where you will find additional information. It is so important that it was specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.
Copyrights protect books, articles, lectures, music, and photographs.
To prepare derivative works based upon the work To distribute copies of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending To display the copyrighted work publicly The copyright owner can give permission to another individual to do any of the above things as the copyright owner sees fit. For example, they can grant one person permission to make copies of a design, but refuse permission to the next person who asks. An important point to remember is that purchasing a book or pattern does not give the purchaser any of the rights granted to the copyright holder. Another important point is that the copyright owner does not need to say anything about copyrights or copying or anything else on the printed work. The creator of the work has the same exclusive rights with or without any copyright statement.