There's a terrific article by Leah Day entitled "Copyright Terrorism", over at the Free Motion Quilting Project.
While we usually try to avoid the T-word over here at Question Copyright, so as not to inflate the language in an already loud debate, the substance of Day's article is right on. The growing problem she describes in quilting is the full-grown problem we already have in literature, music, and elsewhere:
Copyright issues seem to be cropping up with increasing frequency in the quilting world and I for one would like to try to stem this flow, or at least open your eyes, to the very real threat looming for our craft.
What is this threat? Where is it coming from?
It is coming from within our own ranks. Quilters with a certain penchant for copyright and legal wrangling are turning our open, creative craft into a mine field of rules, regulations, licensing, attribution, and copyright lockdown that it's enough to make anyone set down their rotary cutter and sell their sewing machine.
My favorite passage:
My question is this: is this the world we want to create?
Is this the industry we want to build, where quilters who quilt for a living must live in fear that they will be sued for the designs they use? That a blogger trying to teach and spread the love of free motion quilting can be threatened for using the wrong design? That quilters who quilt for show must credit every designer involved in their quilt, down to the fabric and thread manufacturer?
She then goes on to give an example, and points out the insidious positive feedback loop that happens once people start suing.
Read the whole thing.
Recently, I gave a 
