Image from Bewitching Cross Stitch © Joan A. Elliott ©David & Charles, Ltd
Dearest Friends-
The past few weeks have been very interesting in terms of my designs. Maybe I should be more specific and say they have been quite disturbing. As you can imagine, with the dawn of the internet, musicians, designers and artists of all sorts are particularly concerned with copyright issues. I have thanked many of you personally for being vigilant and kind enough to let me know when you think you see any infringements of my work and I have been successful many times in stopping the offenders. I hope that you know what an incredible help you have all been. I am forever grateful!
Now, I would like to ask for your help again. Recently I found three of my books on various blogs. They were completely scanned page by page and I was able to print out clear, workable charts. I wanted to tell you about this so that you can let others in the stitching community know that it is a violation of international copyright laws to reproduce a designer’s work in any form. It is one thing to share photos of completed projects and WIP, to show a magazine cover, or to sell old stash or books, but posting, emailing, scanning and photocopying charts is off limits and it does not matter whether or not there is money exchanged. The fact is that each time someone does this, a designer’s livelihood suffers for it. I know that some folks unknowingly think designs become public domain once they are published but it is simply not true.
I spend long hours and all of my creative effort putting books and magazine commissions together so that they will bring the best of my designs and many hours of pleasurable stitching to my readers. I love what I do for a living and feel blessed to have connected with all of you. Thanks for spreading the word!
In Friendship-
Joan
