Have you ever been stolen from? I have. It really sucks. Theft comes in many forms, from physical items, financial assets and of course, intellectual property.
In the creative and arts world, intellectual property theft is an ongoing issue that plagues designers and artists regularly. I have on more than one occasion seen my patterns be posted without permission on websites (I do also have several patterns hosted on designer’s pages which I have given written permission to use).
If you have ever designed a crochet or knit pattern, you know the endless hours it can take to produce. From initial concept, design, testing, editing and publishing your pattern, a lot of effort is put into a single pattern! To have that then quickly copied and pasted or translated onto another page is crushing to a designer. This is also why I have copy turned off on my website. It is too easy for my work to be stolen if you can copy and paste it.
Not only is it hurtful, intellectual property theft is illegal and stealing. Laws vary in different countries, but when you steal and republish someone’s work without permission, you are most likely breaking the law. You are also probably breaking the terms and conditions agreement on whatever platform you have shared your stolen content. It does not matter if a pattern is posted for free on a website, you cannot republish it. You can follow the pattern to your heart’s content, but you cannot reproduce the pattern itself without permission.
Let’s Back Each Other Up!
While this is an ongoing problem, the arts community is very vocal and supportive when work is stolen, and are often very willing to help another designer out whose work is taken. The incredibly talented Once Upon a Cheerio recently had her pattern stolen and posted for sale on Etsy. She has a great write-up on her blog about her experience and how the crochet community went up to bat for her. Please check it out!
If you follow my Instagram stories, you probably know that I called out a profile for translating and sharing patterns on their Instagram page without permission. They contacted me and said they ‘did their job’ and had received permission for all translated works. Unfortunately for them I knew that was not the case, as I personally know several of the designers whose work had been stolen! I got several different stories from the thief as our ‘discussion’ continued before they turned to being rude and trying to insult me. Luckily I have thick skin and won’t be played with.
In the end most of the designers were contacted who had their work stolen and the posts were taken down by the end of the day! This was a group effort, thanks to my amazing crochet friends and fellow designers who helped me stop the thief.
After this concluded, I shared the writeups below on my stories. I want to share them with you now. Stealing from anyone is wrong, but when you are stealing from small businesses? That really grinds my gears. Sticking up for hard working creative and entrepreneurs will ALWAYS be worth my time.
What can you do about it?
It can be hard to tell if content is stolen sometimes. But there are some clues that can give it away, such as poor quality images (screengrabs), very clear differences in aesthetic of the pattern or the way the pattern is written, no reference to the designer or statement that it is shared with permission etc. If you think it might be stolen there are things you can do…
- Contact the designer. They’ll be able to tell you whether it’s supposed to be there or not. They may be aware of the process for getting the stolen pattern removed. Sometimes this isn’t possible but many can be taken down!
- Report it! If you know that it is stolen, report it to the hosting platform. In some cases only the person whose content is stolen can report, but not always!
- Only purchase or follow patterns from their store or website
- If people share pdf patterns with Facebook groups or link to websites that clearly are copied report it to the admin of the group
- Discourage sharing how to copy from websites (I once encountered a woman sharing on a Facebook group how to bypass measures put in place to stop copy paste from sites-literally teaching people how to steal your work).
- Be aware as a buyer that websites that sell ‘discounted’ items often are selling stolen designs. I am a pin collector and often see low quality versions of pins for sale on Wish and similar websites. My favourite pin designer regularly has counterfeit work of hers sold on Wish. I refuse to support a website that allows counterfeit sales to continue.
If you are looking to make my patterns, as of this date all of my patterns are available to follow here (some future patterns may be premium only, but whatever has been written until this date is free for you!). You can also purchase pdf versions of my patterns through my Etsy store and Ravelry.
