On Copyright
I think that it’s important to talk about inspiration and its head-on collision with copyright laws. I am only interested in publishing patterns on Popknits that are originals which means that you must not have taken an old pattern and just changed the yarn and re-tooled it. When i talk about the old Vogue Knitting magazines i have around, I’m most influenced and inspired by their silhouettes or colors or construction. I would never take these patterns and plagiarize them and neither should any designer who submits to Popknits. I’m not a huge fan of copyright, actually. I think that it mainly restricts people from thinking freely, but that doesn’t mean that i don’t respect it. If the pattern or item that you gain inspiration from is copyrighted, please do not knock it off and send it in for submission. My main advice is to watch films, go to a museum or two, read some old books or magazines, take a walk in your neighborhood and look at vintage motifs that speak to you and use that to design something that’s vintage-inspired.
It’s also important to note that copyright exists on items newer than 1923 (see this copyright information page for more information.) If you see a very old pattern from before this time and want to use it as inspiration for a modern take on the garment, then I’m more apt to consider it for publication if you can provide the original pattern (so that we can see what the copyright implications would be) and it’s different enough from the original. I’ll speak to designers individually about this upon pattern submission. Thanks!
Posted by gleek on 04/23 at 06:37 PM in Pre-Launch Information
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