I received a great question from a reader yesterday and I think it is probably on many minds. The concern is about how can you sell your crafts safely if you see other crafts with similar ideas on online sites.
First of all, I am not an attorney so this is not to be considered legal advice. Basically, I recommend registering your designs with the copyright office (linked to from this page on copyright infringement). If an infringement issue ever did arise, at least you will (hopefully) have the earliest registered copyright.
Unfortunately, copyright issues are not always black and white. I spoke with a copyright attorney once about the problem and she said that every copyright infringement case she had seen differs according to the particulars.
See the videos and read the article about copyright infringement for an overview. You may also want to follow the issue concerning piracy of designs going on now with a craft artist which I blogged about earlier.
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- Copyright Litigation Threatens Craft Business Owner You have made your original crafts for years and suddenly...
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