A Real Example of Copyright Infringement

I'm a nice girl. I like to bake treats for friends, read to small children, and give directions to tourists who are lost in Seattle. I'm an honest girl. I admit when I've broken something on accident, when I've said something that I shouldn't have, and I'm open about my feelings.

Today I need to be open about my feelings of anger. It's hard to be nice when someone has done something not only blatantly unkind to me, but also illegal. Dear readers, I need to talk to you again about copyright infringement, both for my own emotional release and to give you a real life example of something that can feel abstract. Despite my efforts to go through the proper channels about this situation, nothing is being done. This leaves me with the feeling that the only thing I can do is expose them.

There is a seller on Ebay UK who is illegally selling one of my free patterns, the Strawberries and Cream Baby Set. They claim that my pattern is "out of copyright", which is obviously false. The pattern states that it's okay to distribute it ONLY if the distributor is not charging for the pattern, which this person clearly is.

It boils my blood that they are exploiting not only me but anyone who buys my pattern from them. It's free! I have several free patterns available. I provide free patterns to give potential buyers an idea of what to expect from my paid patterns, to invite readers to visit my blog, and to give back to the crochet community. How dare this person interfere with that! From comments that others have made, it seems like they are illegally photocopying other patterns and are none too kind when buyers point that out.

This is not the first time I've had to fight for my copyright and it won't be the last. I hope that the digital landscape catches up with copyright issues and starts providing more effective ways for people like me to approach meanies and get issues dealt with. Thanks for listening to me talk about this issue today and extra special thanks to all of the readers and followers who have alerted me to copyright issues regarding my patterns in the past few years.

UPDATE 12-8-15
The pattern was finally taken down! I guess messaging about it repeatedly finally worked.