THE QUILTING INDUSTRY: We are in hopes that many of you will read this and share it with other quilters as it is a serious situation. Posting it in your groups and chat rooms also needs to be done. The Pams Club Team receive this email from a Club member this morning. We are posting the letter, without the persons name and our reply. We hope this is taken very seriously as we deal with it continually. From A Club Member: I saw your quilt instructions, the one you were going to give as a wedding gift, a few weeks ago and decided to use it for a signature block for our retreat that is in September. I have misplaced the instructions for completing it and was wondering could you send it to me again? I have looked everywhere and after I got the materials needed and the cutting instructions I passed it on to everyone but I wanted to give them the pattern to finish it. I feel so stupid for misplacing it. OUR REPLY: We are not sure what quilt you are referring to. The only one of Facebook that mentions Wedding gift is Delft Tile, which is a Free To Member pattern, however what you have written below is an issue we deal with every single day. We earn our living by creating beautiful designs for people to purchase and download or buy as printed patterns. It takes hundreds of hours for Pam and her team to create the designs with very precise instructions to help quilters learn. Unless you ask for specific permission to distribute a FREE MEMBER PATTERN, distribution to friends is prohibited. Pam has always been very liberal for quilting groups such as yours when permission is asked. You did not ask permission. We even deal with this issue with Club members who own fabric shops. Our patterns are downloaded, printed off and sold in their shops without contacting us or purchasing them at wholesale prices. We are aware of this. If these people are caught, they will be prosecuted. What you have written below is blatant copyright infringement and it happens all of the time, which is basically stealing. One person purchases a pattern and then copies it and passes it around to friends at guild meetings or retreats. Because of this kind of thing we lose thousands of sales. The only patterns that we provide that are Free For Everyone are under that category on our website. Although you are a member of Pams Club, our Terms Of Use are clearly stated when you join the Club and are also on the menu on our website. This applies to quilters who are not Club members as well. They are: • Copyright© 2011 by Pam Bono Designs, Inc. All rights reserved. Our patterns and workshops are protected under federal copyright laws. Reproduction or distribution of them is prohibited unless specifically authorized. This includes, but is not limited to, any form of reproduction or distribution on or through the Internet, including posting, scanning, or e-mail transmission. The special FREE contents of this website are meant for members only. Please respect our desire to remain exclusive and do not post our patterns on any other site or share them with your friends. Copyright infringement will be taken seriously, and legal action will take place. What quilters do not think about are the designers who put many hard hours into preparing patterns for you and your friends to enjoy. Pam discussed the problem a few weeks ago with a friend and the editor of one of the largest quilt magazines in the U.S. She was told that 10 pattern companies have gone out of business since the beginning of 2014 because people are doing more copying than purchasing, and the industry, as a whole is in trouble. This is a sad situation for everyone. Although many people are living on a budget, and that is understood, when you take money out of the pockets of your designers you are taking away their income. When that happens, you lose high quality designers such as Pam Bono and her team. Multiply your group by thousands just like yours, and you lose your designers. Two years ago, Pam and her husband gave a beautiful trunk show and workshop at a guild. Several ladies joined the Club the night of the trunk show. The next day at the workshop, the President of the guild got up in front of the class, spoke to one of the ladies who had joined the Club stating, quote: Now you can download the patterns and print them off for all of us! Pam and Robert have not given a trunk show or workshop since. The Pams Club Team
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 16:16:57 +0000
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