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DMCA Vs. The Sewing Underground
Roundeye writes "So the folks at monsterpatterns.com dumpster-dive to get envelopes containing discontinued sewing patterns and sell the envelopes via their website. The sewing pattern company McCall invoked the DMCA to get the site shut down. Monsterpatterns is now suing to protect their 'fair use rights' to advertise and sell the discarded patterns. You might recall that this isn't the first time the sewing industry has cracked down on bootlegging grandmas and their suppliers."
Good news!
The domain, patterse.cx, is available for registration!
~~~
Good grief....my underwear may be next..
Damn midwestern grandmothers with their sewing circles. Up to no good! Oughta lock the whole lot of them up. Whole generation's going to hell in a handbasket.
bodes ill for those of us who dumpster dive for fun. Screw the piracy and patent issues, I'm concerned about the negative image us dumpster diver enthusiasts will receive
YOU SUCK BALLS!
Wow, those Taiwanese can bootleg anything!
Sew, it's come to this, has it?
Sigs are bad for your health.
That if you put "DMCA" in it, you automatically have something that will get posted by the editors of Slashdot.
-JT
1.) They can't count past one, and therefore are confused by the instructions...
No profit. :'(
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
I cannot stop laughing, I can imagine my grandma sitting in front of her Mac, "New Angel Pattern, SCORE, 3l33t" LMAO
If there is nothing left worth living, what are you willing to die for?
"asking a judge to declare his dumpster diving, and the selling of his treasures, legal."
I think for international open-sea salvage laws to apply, they'd need to demonstrate dumpster diving was in fact some form of underwater diving.
Any reference to treasures and pirates as in "Pirated sewing patterns" can only help Mosterpatterns demonstrate the applicability of sea-faring rules. Was there a captain in the dumpster at the time of the escapade?
Esteem isn't a zero sum game
dumpster millenium contorl act
good god, i slay me.
2 1337 4 u!
All this time I have pictured my Grandmom sitting home and sewing stuff for her grandkids, a fine upstanind citizen.
Now, sitting here wearing a shirt she made me, I wonder: is this covered under fair use or are they going to take the shirt off my back? How does one check if a garment was reproduced from a licensed patern? You have to wonder how many copywritable permutations of the shirt there really are.
Maybe this is why Granny wanted Kazaa loaded and that 120GB hard drive for Mother's Day?
"To Do Is To Be" - Socrates, "To Be Is To Do" - Sartre, "Do Be Do Be Do" - Sinatra
;)
If she can find it cheaper on MonsterPatterns.com then maybe she can afford to give me two shiney quarters for cleaning out her gutters!
- Who'll be the first to get Mom's Singer to boot Linux?
- Who'll write the first sewing machine virus, which copies the contents of the pattern directory and sends it to a IRC bot in #SeW1NGH@CkOrZ
- WHo'll be the first overclocker to break the 200Msz barrier (200 Million Stiches)? And will the machine be water cooled?
- And, of course, the mandatory case mods so the lady next door's sewing machine is also her fishtank
Hmm...this could almost be cooler than I thought at first...DMCA... YMCA... They may have changed a letter but it's still gay.
I disagree. To use your book example, who would buy (at full price, or even half off) a new book without the cover? Nobody would, that's why the practice works to a large part.
If the pattern industry were going to do something similar, they'd require that the patterns be ripped in half.
Regardless, if I have the physical material, I can sell it for whatever I can get. That's why it's called "owning" something.
Also, once you stick it in the dumpster, it's fair game. You might be able to do the "trespassing" thing if you caught me dumpster diving, but that's not what this lawsuit is about.
OBSCOComment: I wonder what SCO has done with their "trade secret" source code printouts and tapes over the years...
Karma: Food Fight (Mostly affected by Date Plate).
I would assume he used his digits(fingers) to open the lid.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
I just can't wait for McCall to take their lead from Madonna and put on the Internet some of their own "designs" to help thwart pirating of their intellectual property.
The whole pattern pirating industry would be shut down in an instant as soon as some grandmother that downloaded a pattern called "Playful Kittens" and spent hours stitching it out, ended up with a pillow that says "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?"
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Can I sue everybody everywhere who has ever made a profit just by claiming that I made the product originally, but threw it away? I've never really thought about it; I just kinda assumed that I was giving up rights to my trash. I'm generally more than happy to turn it over to the nice men who come twice a week to take it away. Are those sons-of-bitches getting rich at my expense?!
I'm suing!
Who'll write the first sewing machine virus, which copies the contents of the pattern directory and sends it to a IRC bot in #SeW1NGH@CkOrZ
... or that takes over the machine and sews "ur sw34t3r 1s 0wnz0r3d" into whatever you're sewing.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
I think what they are saying is that the trashcan was being used as something to protect their copyright. And by removing the item from their trashcan they broke their copy protection and thus the DMCA.
Same thing as copying the DVD you purchased. You're removing the movie from some invisible trashcan stored on the DVD.
Laws were meant to be broken.
I wish their investigation would have played out something more like this:
CLARICE Good afternoon... I wonder if you could help me. I'm looking for MacCall, the sewing pattern company?
MR. GUMB They don't live here anymore.
Mr. Gumb starts to close the door, only to have Clarice push back against it, politely but firmly. She holds up her ID.
CLARICE Excuse me, but I really do need to talk to you. This was MacCall sewing pattern company. Did you know them?
MR. GUMB Just briefly. What's the problem, Officer?
Clarice and Mr. Gumb, still eyeing each other through the door crack...
CLARICE I'm investigating a violation of the DMCA. Who are you, please?
MR. GUMB Jack Gordon.
CLARICE Mr. Gordon, do you know anything about MacCall dumpster-diving for sewing patterns?
MR. GUMB No. Wait... Was it those stupid little drawings made up of broken lines? I may have seen them, I'm not sure...
Mr. Gumb glances briefly over his shoulder, towards his kitchen, then turns back to Clarice with a smile.
MR. GUMB MacCall had some employees, maybe they could help you. I have some cards somewhere. Do you mind stepping inside, while I looks for it?
CLARICE Thanks.
Moments later...
CLARICE - looking up from the bottom of a hole in the basement.
MR. GUMB It rubs the DMCA on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it is told.
Well, assume the lid has two states, closed (0), and open (1). 0 and 1! Digital! Bingo!
It could be argued that the lid has infinite intermediate states between open and closed, but a true digital signal doesn't really switch back and forth without being in between either, it's just a relatively short amount of time. Allow me to elaborate.
1) Dumpster diver sees dumpster. Lid is at closed state, and has been for an hour.
2) In a relatively short amount of time (3 seconds), the dumpster diver changes the dumpster lid to open state.
3) The dumpster lid state stays open for a half an hour while the dumpster diver rummages about.
4) Whether or not the dumpster diver finds what he is looking for, he will eventually remove himself from the dumpster. Hopefully he returns the lid to it's closed state, as to leave little evidence of his diving. It takes three seconds to close it.
5) An hour later, his presence is noted, and the dumpster is in opened state for investigation.
So, in summary, because the change in state happens quickly, the signal shown by the opening and closing of the dumpster lid would resemble a digital signal.
Qualitas edurus commercium, nullus penitus net rimor, nullus deus beneficium
1) Would have to be digital.
2) Have a copy protection mechanism in place. My favorite dumpster copy protection mechanism consists of broken glass, rusty razor blades and animal dung. This will protect the contents of your dumpster from copying by all except the most dedicated of dumpster divers. It also really cuts down on the repeat offenders.
IANAL yadda yadda.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Is the DMCA becoming a multi-purpose law to use against people who are doing things you don't like?
"Don't cut me off on the freeway or I'll DMCA you!"
"You're tresspassing on my property. I'm giving you 30 seconds before I DMCA your ass!"
Will it enter common usage?
"The Laker's totally DMCA'd the Bulls last night."
"I had to take a wicked DMCA last night after eating all those burritos."
...are crocheting their own eye patches.
Digital (as we were taught in school) just meant that is had two defined states, on or off. It didn't only mean a computer. So by that reasoning, a dumpster's lid also has a digital state, open and closed. So the lid is also a digital device. Huzzah, now you have a DCMA violation! Go on, try it with your friends today!
"To Do Is To Be" - Socrates, "To Be Is To Do" - Sartre, "Do Be Do Be Do" - Sinatra
Yesterday I was at my grandma's and she was downloading some patterns off the internet... I asked her, "Grandma, isn't that illegal?" She shrugged stating, "I wouldn't have bought it anyway. Plus I don't like those top 40 patterns of old ladies with pineapples on their heads. When I stitch I like to stitch indie stuff anyhow which I can't find at the local needlpoint store." I thought it made sense but somehow... I dunno... it seems like I've seen that argument elsewhere... hmmmm...
Anyhow to all you grandma's that read slashdot out there... don't buy McAll's patterns! Buy from your local neighborhood needlepoint store!
Imagine a beo... naah, I don't dare. Sean
Cheers,
Ian (McCall)