Plarn, Patterns & Plagiarism
I love to create and craft with plastic bags (plarn) and other recycled materials. I love to share my ideas and post my free patterns on My Recycled Bags.com. I take pleasure in writing my craft patterns and posting my picture tutorials for everyone to use freely. I love to assist anyone who asks for help with my pattern directions or needs advice while working on a craft project.
But I despise plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as the act of stealing somebody’s work or idea: the process of copying another person’s idea or written work and claiming it as original.
I am just amazed that someone would cut and paste one of my recycled bag patterns from my blog and claim it’s theirs. Some people must not have a conscience. Not only did a person recently copy a free crochet pattern of mine, but they profited by claiming it was their pattern and posting it on a major craft site.
This isn’t the first time someone has taken my work and claimed it was theirs. And I am sure it will not be the last time. But let me be very clear here. I maybe a small town country girl but no one steals from me and takes credit for my work. I will not tolerate the theft of my patterns and copyright infringement of blog content.
I know how and have filed DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notices against websites, hosting companies, and Google. I will not ignore the theft of my patterns or the illegal use of my content. I will have the compromised material of mine removed and I will pursue my legal rights up to and including litigation if necessary to stop the misuse of any of my intellectual property.
Okay with all that being said, if you are a splogger, scrapper, or thief of my property, you have been given notice. Do not copy my patterns onto other blog sites or post my patterns on Internet sites. I do not allow my patterns to be republished without expressed written permission. Posting of my patterns, without written permission is in violation of my copyrights and is content theft.
If you are a crafter using my patterns for personal use, that is just fine. If you are printing out my patterns for personal or charity use, this is fine too. I don’t mind people using my patterns to make things for sale, please just provide credit that the design or project was made from a pattern of my creation.
Now let’s all get back to having fun and creating things with recycled materials which I just love to do. Let’s put all this ugly stuff behind us and pull out the plarn and make something useful and wonderful.
Tags: copyright, copyright-infringement, copyrights, Plagiarism
Feb 05, 2014
I can’t believe the nerve of some people! You provide a great service and should get the credit for doing so. I’m glad that you are able to take action against these thieves.
Feb 06, 2014
plagiarism is crime !
Feb 07, 2014
Very well stated. I’m apalled that people do this, and applaud you for protecting your intellectual
property. It’s unfortunate that they are also stealing your TIME that you’ll need to spend pursuing them. Grrrrrrrrrr! Hoping that the right Karma will come to both the thief and you!
Feb 07, 2014
Plagiarism is bad. It is eating the value of original content. Most of the time, we cannot distinguish between an original and duplicate content. Google authorship is a great tool to deal with this thing.
Feb 18, 2014
Many people think of plagiarism as copying another’s work or borrowing someone else’s original ideas. But terms like “copying” and “borrowing” can disguise the seriousness of the offense.
Apr 25, 2014
Plagiarism is bad.
You provide a great service and should get the credit for doing so.
May 17, 2014
This is why I won’t “purchase” patterns. If I find one I like, I can find a free one similar and I don’t have to worry about supporting someone who may have committed theft.
Apr 08, 2015
I will always give you a linkback when I post a picture of an item on facebook, and I never post patterns. š Keep up the good work!
Are you on facebook at all? I’d love to friend you there.
Feb 07, 2017
Do you include pinterest a breqch of copyright? It links back to your blog, but some artists in particular are uncomfortable with the image being reproduced. Just curious because I pinned one of your patterns so I can find it later but I will delete it if you are unhappy.
Feb 18, 2017
I am not sure about Pinterest and just hope they provide link backs to a person’s original post for credit. I am not a member but do know that many of my patterns and images are on Pinterest. I do think it is an excellent way to bookmark favorite things for people and am encouraged by all interest in my recycled patterns and my blog. Thanks so much for your interest in my patterns and hope you come to visit my site again soon.