AG Patterns Getting Harder to Find?

[joelanddeborah]

Isn't there something in the copyright laws to allow for copying if something has been out of print for a certain number of years? If that is the case, (and I could be way off-base), then you could go to a place that does professional contracting, architectural design, or engineering and see if they could make you copies. They are on huge pieces of paper like house plans are.

[auri]

Originally posted by Deborah and Girls:
Isn't there something in the copyright laws to allow for copying if something has been out of print for a certain number of years? If that is the case, (and I could be way off-base), then you could go to a place that does professional contracting, architectural design, or engineering and see if they could make you copies. They are on huge pieces of paper like house plans are.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't believe copyright has any link to whether something is in print. Copyright is for the length of the author's life plus seventy years and very few books or anything else holding copyright remain in print that long.

I know it can be frustrating to not be able to copy something, especially nowadays when we're accustomed to being able to access all information all the time, but if copyright laws are ignored, the whole structure by which people are repaid for investing their time and talent creating things starts to crumble.

[joelanddeborah]

Thanks for helping me clear up my "urban legend." [img]redface.gif[/img] One thing we would discourage at all costs is breaking the law.

[LindaL]

Deborah -

I think you are referring to the way it "used to be," before they changed the law in 1978 I believe. It used to be 28 years, with a renewal possible.

That is why you see copies of old patterns (such as those for Chatty Cathy) for sale all the time on ebay. The copyright protection for those, since they were published way before 1978, has expired.

Linda