I'm sorry to have taken so long between blog posts. Several disturbing things happened last week, and I've debated for days whether to write about them or not. Well, here goes...
A German designer telephoned me last week to report that some of my products had been scanned and uploaded to a particular website which is notorious for what its members call "sharing" of designs. This particular site has over 25,000 members and continues to grow. Although they claim that what they do is "sharing", the site provides coaching for its member contributors to hide their identities. (Why would you need to hide your identity unless you know what you are doing is illegal?) In addition to the postings of my retail products, there is also a request on this site offering a reward, a bounty if you will, for a copy of one of my teaching pieces! Egad!
If I understand the system correctly, whenever a member downloads a chart, the person who uploaded the chart is paid a reward in credits called Gold Coins that can be used to download something else. Yes, that's right! People are using these credits like currency to facilitate the distribution of illegally copied intellectual property. Downloading a copy of a product requires the user to spend Gold Coins, and if one doesn't have enough loot from piracy to complete the transaction, Gold Coins can buy purchased from the host for a dollar apiece. It looks like typical designs are around ten Gold Coins each. Now, not only am I denied income by illegal copying and sharing, the host of this piracy site is making money through the illegal acts of the members. I know you are shaking your head in disbelief. I know I was when I first learned about this. Even sadder is that there are other websites involved in distributing pirated intellectual property.
Within a few hours of the phone call from Germany, I learned that Kirstin, editor of the on-line magazine The Gift of Stitching, has decided to quit publishing. Kirstin's sales have been steadily declining due to the combined effects of the economy and on-line piracy. Ironically, postings on the piracy site about this closure say, "That is sad, such a beautiful magazine", "I wonder why", and "What a shame".
As a designer, I am very frustrated to see my work freely "shared", and I am outraged that other people are making money by illegally distributing my work. I find it very hard to get inspired to design under these circumstances.
The number of "needlework pirates" is huge and growing. Needlework design is mostly a cottage industry, and any one designer has little or no chance to change anything. Yet the entire industry will collapse if the designers disappear: there will be no new designs, and this will harm retailers, thread and linen producers, distributors, shippers, packaging suppliers...and stitchers...and even pirates. I'm sure that most of you agree that this so-called "sharing" is totally unacceptable! Perhaps the most ironic insult to our industry is that the homepage of the piracy website mentioned previously has a copyright statement!
I wonder what we as a needlework community can do to stop this before it is too late! I'd love to hear your suggestions, please!!
Here are some other articles on the subject that you might find interesting:
Thank you to all of you who support the needlework business by buying your charts legally. Please help the needlework industry to survive and thrive by becoming actively intolerant of intellectual property piracy. Also, thank you for hearing me out with my frustration over what has become such a rampant and growing problem.
21 comments:
This is outrageous! I feel terrible that it is happening to so many designers. I ran into this on ebay too. When you purchased the pattern they email you a PDF...what? I wanted to buy a pattern. I for one will not purchase pirated patterns and wholeheartedly support the designers. We cannot let our designers disappear.
Ellen, I'm so sorry to hear that this thievery has affected you. I also belong to the Yahoo group of the German designer you referenced, so I knew that she had found her designs on this "sharing" website. It's so sad that the very designs these people covet will be gone forever if the designers leave the business because they simply can't afford to continue. My heart goes out to each and every one of you who has been harmed by "sharing".
Karen Herndon aka klmvangard
When Roger and Martina, told our groups about this I was very up-set! They are only thinging about them selves and not the designer who has to work hard to earn there money! When I buy a pattern it's mine and no one's else! Sorry this has happen to you as designers, I hope you can find a solution to the problem soon. Or get these sites taken down!
Kris
I am so sorry to hear this news Ellen. I wish I had a solution. How discouraging for designers and the industry as a whole.
Hi Ellen, you, and other designers, have every right to be angry by this outrageous insult and I, for one, don't mind a bit that you 'cry' on our shoulders.
I am a member of an online trading site here in NZ and I have purchased from 1 trader who posted photos of an original pattern but then sent me photocopies, needless to say, I, and others, do not buy from them anymore.
However, I have never seen any of your designs, or designs from others mentioned in your blog but if I do, you and other designers can be assured I will report the sellers to the auction site owners.
Regards,
Marian (NZ)
I can't believe that this is happening to you and other designers. It is a terrible shame that they do not respect your talent!
That is absolutely discusting! I felt sick reading your story. People think, oh its just my friends I'm sharing it with... but their friends copy it for their friends and their friends. Makes you sick! I'd love to know if my patterns are on that site, its about time someone took them on!
Hugs Paula
I wish I had an answer for this, Ellen. It is so discouraging to see that these illegal acts are growing more and more. I can't comprehend how a cross stitch lover would jeopardize the thing we so love by infringing copyrights. I am glad you are all making it public, and I hope, these unethical people will be exposed by those of us who have integrity still.
It makes me sick just thinking about the blatant thievery that goes on.
Do you know my freebies are on that site? Really, they even steal FREE designs?
Unreal. The Web is a fantastic tool to keep in touch with friends, learn and find inspiration. It is a shame some people see it as a challenge or game to see what they can hack or steal. Their lack of morals hurts everyone, especially artist. I am so sorry for you and the handwork industry.
Ellen, I was actually invited to join this "group" and was completely floored when I found out what it was about. There has to be a way to stop this kind of thing before designers like you say enough is enough and stop designing.
Absolutely disgusting!! This is why I ONLY buy from reputable shop owners or the designer directly...you just can't trust things on the web anymore.
Sadly, the only way to stop these people is for those who are buying the stuff to QUIT...demand drives the market as we both know. I say that all needleworkers need to boycott this kind of activity...I will be the first one to sign that petition :o)
Best of luck with the fight...and you can cry on our shoulder anytime my friend!
I couldn't believe it when I saw the site and your pieces on it and that they were offering a reward for the class pieces .... just sickening really .... love mouse xxxx
This is a very sad situation and I can well understand your anger over it. Would there be some regulatory agency that could be made aware of this and perhaps stop it? Don't International Copyright Laws apply here?
I am so sorry to hear about this! I am shocked that this site is still up and running?!?! I've noticed a number of designers speaking about this issue and hope that there can be an end to the piracy. Are your patterns printed or a file? It's appalling either way if they scanned your patterns or shared the pdf file on this site. My heart goes out to you. And all the other designers.
How awful for you, I don't know what people can be thinking, when they do things like this. How they are shrinking this industry, and hurting designers like yourself. Keep reminding us of what we can do..we as stitchers cant let this continue to happen.
This is SO bad! How can people expect designers to keep coming up with great new patterns if they steal and take away income. It's outright stealing and I feel really bad about Gift of Stitching shutting down. This is the future that people can expect due to these thieves.
I asked about one of your class pieces a while ago, but it was not for sale - not for sale means NOT FOR SALE & NOT FOR THEFT! I don't imagine that anyone who takes the classes would stoop low enough to give it to this person.
Likewise, if they want something, they should buy it! Would they walk into a shop and steal it off the shelves? Because that is exactly the same thing.
I would love to be a designer one day, but this kind of thing really ruins the whole industry. I hope you can get the patterns taken down - surely something can be done?
(Sorry for the long comment - but I feel really angry about this).
Like the other comments this makes me very angry. Thank you for continuing to bring up this issue that surely will bring and end to our hobby if we as a group of like minded individuals do not act on it.
My thought is that the TNNA should have legal counsel that could stand up for the industry as a whole. Depending on where the IP is based out of may limit the ability of the US government to act. Can you contact your local senator to see if they have any advice? I don't know what to do. Wish I had uber hacking skills and could bring them down with a few keystrokes. Please let us all know if there is anything we can do to stop this theft of intellectual property!
I am so sorry! I have mentioned before that my daughter, an artist in wool felting has had the same problems. She got an order for her cute animal kits and later found them being produced in China!!Ug!
Ellen, after I read your blog entry and also the one over at Northern Expressions Needlework, I did some Googling and found the site you talked about. I am shocked and disgusted!!! Of course I know about people copying patterns and sharing but I NEVER in my wildest dreams imagined it was going on in such a massive scale. I assume some of the people oin certain foreign countries may not have as much access to purchase as we do but it doesn't excuse it and I'm thinking probably the majority of the members are U.S. anyway. Most designers don't have the financial means to pursue legal action but you would think corporations like Leisure Arts, Lanarte, Permin etc would at least try. I was bemoaning the whole situation to my husband and like Kerri commented, I wish I knew a good hacker to go after these people and bring their sites to dust! Although I have enough stash to likely keep me busy the rest of my life, I will keep buying and supporting the designers as much as possible. The honest stitchers really do appreciate all the hard work from the industry.
I really think we all need to lobby our MPs and Senators or whatever Government officials you have. This is affecting businesses which are already struggling due to the worldwide recession.
I think Nicole's example on her blog of the actual figures was staggering and should be reprinted everywhere to show the true scale.
However we need to find a better analogy that "it's the same as stealing from a shop" because it isn't. The thieves have bought the originals then sell illegal copies. They haven't taken the original item, it's still available for sale. They will use this as a defence as long as we continue to use the analogy.
Is there anyway designers could talk to people in the music industry about how they are combatting music download theft? The two really are very similar and the downloaders use the same excuses - we're providing publicity for the artist!!
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