In Which the Pirate is Thankful.

Thanksgiving weekend was great! Pirate-Husband and I drove up to Queens on Thursday morning and had almost no traffic. It was amazing. Even the toll plaza at the NJ Turnpike exit for the Goethals Bridge was free and clear. I’ve never seen it so empty. The holiday was wonderful. I ate way too much food and got quite a bit of knitting time in while hanging out with family. The Trekking Ribbed Sock got plenty of ooohs and ahhhs. I’m still several inches from the toe, but happy with my progress. (Pictures later, if there’s enough sunlight for it.)

The news about the house isn’t so great. Apparently someone else came in after us and offered more money, so we’re back to hunting. I’m disappointed, but not heartbroken. That’s just the way these things go, though it would have been nice if the seller’s agent had given us the chance to match the offer. We went looking at other neighborhoods on Sunday and weren’t impressed with them. Back to the ol’ drawing board!

Pirate-Husband wrote, “You do not condone photocopying of patterns, yet you do not have the same issues sharing music… I have to ask why is one ok but not the other?” Technically and legally speaking, neither is okay. Pirate-Husband is right; I have a pretty good collection of mp3s, and I haven’t had any ethical or moral qualms about it. I’m not at all sure why not. They should be the same, yeah? Disregarding that “it’s the law, there’s no rational explanation,” I don’t understand why it’s okay to borrow a pattern book from a friend, but not make a copy of the pattern. It’s okay to make a copy for your own personal use if you bought the pattern in the first place, and it’s okay to make a copy from a library book as long as you destroy the copy when you’re done with it, but it’s not okay to make a copy and keep it.

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1 Response

  1. Janis says:

    I believe it is legally okay to borrow a pattern book from a friend or from the library because (theoretically) only one person can be using it at a time. This means a person would have to find another copy of the book to knit the pattern again. The rules cover making a copy of a pattern to modify or write notes on when knitting as well, as long as you aren’t distributing any copies.

    I think it comes down to the definition of “copyright”. The copyright holder is the person or agency that is allowed to make more copies for distribution. It isn’t exactly a money issue, although it probably helps the copyright holder receive the profit of their work, but is all about who is allowed to issue more copies.

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