Thoughts on Ethics and Copyright

OK. I’ve been wanting to write this for a while because I have thought a lot about it and heard different opinions. Ethics and copyright (in the beading world). What is it. What can we and can’t we do. What do people say, what is the law...

Before I start explaining my views, here’s a summary of the rules I go by and you can read on for more of my thoughts :

• Never, ever copy someone’s work and claim it’s your own creation.
• Always respect the artists’ feelings and thoughts on ethics and copyright (and if you don’t know, just don’t copy them, or else, contact them and find out !).
• Don’t make money off of someone’s work (by copying or teaching etc.) without their consent.
• Don’t do to someone what you wouldn’t want them to do to you !

From my experience I say there are two very different attitudes about it depending who you’re asking (and possibly where. I have noticed a major difference between France and the US. Or is it a difference between amateur and professional ?). I will generalize and say this : in the US you can use or copy a model (pattern, instructions...) only for your own use (that is, you make no money out of it) and if you show it somewhere you give credit to your source of inspiration). I spend some time on French forums and generally the opinion there is : you want to use my pattern ? Sure, sell the jewelry (but not the patterns), but don’t bother saying where you got it from. WHAT !!? I know it sounds insane but I’ve heard it !

So where do I stand ? Well when I first started making beadwoven jewelry, I used patterns I found in books and magazines because I had to learn the techniques. But I guess like most people I want to be different (the ego talking) and once I mastered the techniques I strayed from the patterns to create whatever came to me. And I think I’ve done pretty well doing that. The thing is though, sometimes you find something really good that someone else has done. Or you come up with something that someone else has already come up with before you (darn it !). So what do you do ? Well, my policy is that if I copy someone’s work, I’ll give full credit to my source and respect their own feelings about copyright (if I know them. If I don’t I’ll just take for granted that I can’t make money off of their work). So that is why some of my jewelry is not available. But if you see something you like that was actually copied from another artist and you really want it, then I will contact the artist and see with her/him if I can make a copy to sell. If they say yes, good for you. If they say no, well that’s that.

That being said, it doesn’t mean I completely agree with the general american ethics stand. Personally, I feel that once you make your work public you have to accept that it will be copied. That’s how it is. It worried me once, because I thought “well if I put my jewelry on my website, people might copy it and then...” And then what ? They will make me lose all my business ? Probably not. The chances that someone starts copying my work in large quantities and selling it very aggressively right under my nose are frankly almost inexistant. Maybe someone will copy a piece and sell it to a friend. Or even to several. So be it. I probably was never going to sell anything to their friend anyway. I feel that as long as it’s not taking the business away from me and that credit is given, it’s ok. Don’t sell it if you live in the same city I do though (I live in Montreal, Quebec by the way...)! But that is true only if you copy MY work.

There are several artists out there who have interesting opinions like Laura McCabe and Kate McKinnon (see my links page to go to their websites) so read up on what they say. There was a good article in the June/July 2006 issue of Beadwork on ethics (there is also a quizz you can take to see how ethical you are) also.