Irish Days

My husband is Irish and we spent a wonderful vacation in Ireland a few years ago. A magical vacation in a magical land.

One of our favorite places was Tonakeera Point on the West coast, one of the world’s most beautiful secrets. Acres of green meadows overlook sandy beaches and purple hills. Even on this rare sun filled summer day we (and the sheep of course) had this story book world to ourselves.

These photographs are available in my Etsy shop as prints or cards for St. Patricks Day.

































Copyright
For those new to my blog, I began a series of discussion about copyright last week. I am a retired attorney, although intellectual property was not my area of expertise, as an artist I have done research in the area and want to share a little.
Please refer to my last post for a some basic information on what can and can't be copyrighted.

Today I thought I'd dive into a confused topic that has been endlessly discussed in Etsy forums: copyrighting patterns and the products made from those patterns. Sewing patterns, knitting patterns, crochet patterns, felting patterns etc.
There are two distinct questions - can the pattern itself be copyrighted? - can the item made from the pattern be protected by copyright?
The answer to the first is probably yes, the answer to the second is almost certainly no.

Copyrighting the Pattern
Keep in mind that as we discussed last week an idea cannot be copyrighted, only its tangible fixed form. In addition a simple list of instructions cannot be copyrighted.
The copyright law requires "minimal creativity" and a mere list of instructions may not meet this standard. There should be ''substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions'. This does not mean that you need to write like shakespeare but a little more than
1. k3, p.4. would probably be best.
And remember it is the finished written pattern that is copyrighted - how it is set out, explained, illustrated etc. not the idea or process behind it. If someone purchases one of your sweaters for example and creates their own pattern to make the same sweater they have not violated your copyright.
However, if someone purchases your pattern, they CANNOT copy and destribute copies. They can lend the original to a friend but they cannot make their friend a copy and they certainly cannot sell copies.

Copyrighting items made from a pattern.
The simple answer here is that copyright does not extend to the items made from the pattern.
Patterns are purchased for the very purpose of making the item in the pattern.
We often see on commercial dress patterns, books of patterns, and patterns sold in on line stores like Etsy statements that the items can only be used for personal use and forbidding sale of the finished product. Reference is often made to copyright.
But there is nothing in the copyright law to prevent sale of these items. This would require both the copyrighting of ideas and the copyrighting of useful objects - both clearly NOT covered by copyright law. You cannot copyright a hat, which is a useful object, so you clearly cannot copyright a hat someone else made from your pattern.
On the other hand, it may be possible to limit sale of the items made from your patterns under contract law. I don't know of any court cases where this issues has been considered (though there may of course be cases Im not familiar with) , often there is not enough money involved to bring cases like this into the courts. Copyright language should not be used in any attempt to limit the use of the pattern contractually.
Perhaps language like: By purchasing this pattern you agree xxxxxxxxxx.
For any chance of success this language must be in a place where it can be seen BEFORE purchase.

One final thought, remedies for either violation of your copyright in the pattern or your "contract" for item use are limited, so please remember that once you publish your pattern it is largely out of your control.

Scanned Flowers

The snow has melted a little and the big icicles have fallen from our windows. The icicles were so huge they shook the house as they fell sending my dog and cats into tizzies.

But the snow is still so deep I can't get leave the drive way and road.

I have been working on my botanical prints, flowers and foliage that I scan directly into the computer, photographs made without using a camera.

I have developed a technique that creats a sheer, almost x-ray effect, luminous. I especially like the transparency of the foliage in these images.

They are available on Etsy now in various sizes or as cards.
























COPYRIGHT
As some of you know I was an attorney in my prior life, art of course is a little less lucrative (hah!) but a lot more fun.
I often have a hard time reading the Etsy forums because of the all the incorrect legal advice and misinformation given there. So I think I will begin a little series on copyright and trademark - some of the basics and especially some of the issues that come up again and again like copyrighting patterns and the creations made from patterns, using licensed fabrics, etc.
First of all keep in mind that law is complicated, there are often no clear answers. Law has two main sources - written laws - the constitution and statutes and case law - the law as it is interpreted by the courts. Lawmakers cannot foresee all the complicated human situations that will arise so the courts must interpret the law on a case by case basis, creating legal precidents that are themselves reinterpreted by other courts. Anyway just keep in mind that there are rarely black and white answers.

What can be copyrighted? Any original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. For the visuals artist this includes:
paintings, photographs, prints, reproductions, maps, drawings, charts, diagrams, sculpture, models, wall reliefs, jewelry.

What cannot be copyrighted?
1. Ideas or other intangibles. An idea cannot be copyrighted only its expression.
For example, you are a photographer and you come up with the original idea of photographing a sunset (let us assume this has never been done before). You can copyright the actual photo you took but not the idea of photographing sunsets. All the other photographers in the world are free to steal your idea and photograph a million sunsets, and then copyright their photos.
2. Useful objects, anything that is primarily utilitarian.
You CANNOT copyright, hats, glove, clothing, toys, toasters, pencils, purses etc.
There are sometimes other legal issues with knock offs of clothing, purses etc. but they are not copyright issus.
There is a major exception - if the useful object has art work on it, that art work is protected by copyright. So if you put your painting on a t-shirt, the t-shirt design cannot be copyrighted but your painting is protected.

Spring Chickens

Everyone seems to be talking about spring but we still have four feet of snow on the ground and icicles hanging over all the windows.

While I wait for my crocus to bloom I've been knitting little chicks, blue birds and cardinals. They bring me a touch of spring.
A lovely woman in upstate New York bought four of the cardinals and shared a wonderful story.
She has had a pair of cardinals living in her yard for two years. The female has a broken beak so the male cracks open the seeds in the bird feeder and feeds her. That is my idea of a great marriage!

Dreaming of Parrots

There is nothing but white outside my windows, though I can barely see the snow through the 6 and 7 foot icicles hanging in front of my windows. So much snow, its been at least 10 years since we've had so much. Plus the weather people are calling for bitter cold over the next few days. At least my road (dirt) won't start to thaw into a soupy, slidy mess.
I am keeping busy knitting and crocheting for Beadedwire and have begun a project photographing sea shells.
But mostly I dream of spring. In October I planted 150 parrot tulips bulbs. And began dreaming about them and spring.
I have a hard time with tulips here, they make delicious food for all the little creatures. Usually I plant them in big pots (the big rubber ones that shrubs come in.) But this year I bought little plastic pots that are supposed to be used for hydroponic gardening and planted each bulb in its own little pot. I am going to be broken hearted if this plan isn't successful.
Parrot tulips are my favorite, they rank with peonies and irises as one of the great garden flowers. Flamboyant, almost decadent, over the top - it is a pleasure to think of them under the snow waiting to fill the world with their extreme beauty.

Summer in Spring

We discovered a possible tragedy in the garden yesterday. I mentioned that many perennials that had emerged too early had been damaged by last weeks frosts.
We have a beautiful red Japanese maple right behind the house in front of the garden. It is a lovely litle tree that my husband has lightly pruned to a bonsai shape, though much larger.
But all of the foliage is dead, another victim of the early warm spring and later frosts. The tree is alive and we are crossing our fingers that it will recover. The loss of this tree would be devasting.
Meanwhile the peonies, iris and poppies are beginning to bloom, again at least a week early. The bloom will be brief if we get the record heat predicted for mid week. I'm planning to cut them quickly for big bouquets to photograph.

Spring Hazards

I think all gardeners enjoy complaining about the weather but this spring has been particularly difficult. Here in Northern New England we generally have a spring that lasts from five minutes to a few days between the long winter and summer. But this year the spring came very early and it has lasted for months. This should be a joy but there is always a price. The warm weather brought early and lush growth. Then last week we had night after night of killing frost and many of my perennials were hit hard. Hostas, Japanese anemones, some of the heucheras normally don't emerge til late in the season and grow slowly in our cool springs. But this year they came up weeks early and grew fast.
My anemones, a favorite and very special Autumn treat were killed to the ground though there are a few new shoots which should save the plants. I am not going to have much of a show this fall however. The hostas are a mess, big soggy piles of dying flesh. I will cut then back when all danger of frost has passed.
Now we are back to hot weather with even hotter predicted for later in the week. Global warming or merely New England weather?

Meanwhile I am scanning flowers as they open. Here is the iris cristata again. I love the way it looks like it has been x-rayed. And a double tulip scanned front and back.

I call this mohair scarf Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. It is like wispy gossamer lace, soft shades of grey and gold. I am offering it for sale on Beadedwire though it will be hard to part with it.

Spring flowers

Iris cristata is a favorite spring flower. It is a tiny iris, only a few inches tall with a fleeting bloom but it spreads prolifically even in shade. And the flowers are so beautiful. It is also a trouble free ground cover.
In the evening I have been beading rings. I use Delica beads in a simple peyote stitch and then embellish with larger seed beads, triangle beads and crystals.