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."

Comments

Re:How is this piracy?

[Zathrus]

I suspect that what's occurred here is the hobby store (Jo-Ann's in this case it seems) wants to send the merchandise back to the manufacturer for a refund. The manufacturer issues the refund but tells the store to discard the excess material -- they don't want to store it either afterall.

It's kinda similar to books with the covers ripped off, which are not supposed to be sold since they were written off by the publisher. But it still happens. And McCall is out on a weak limb here -- if they wanted to sue someone, they should go after the store for not properly discarding the material. Or maybe they should've had it shipped back to them (at their expense) so they could discard it properly (at their expense). Once it's in the trash, it's usually considered fair game.

It really is another horrible example of the DMCA though. Yeah, I couldn't care less about the patterns, but as you said it's a law that assumes guilt (and while, admittedly, this would be a civil case where the burdon of proof is not as strong as in a criminal case, it's still a very wrong methodology).

Re:How is this piracy?

[deadsaijinx*]

If that were the case, then you couldn't sell your old movie collection at a yard sale.

Okay, let's get the story RIGHT, shall we?

[M. Silver]

Ah ha. Doing a little more homework...

McCall's isn't saying the patterns can't be sold. Wait. Let me say that a little louder.

MCCALL'S ISN'T SAYING THE PATTERNS CAN'T BE SOLD.

Their gripe is with Monsterpatterns putting pictures of the patterns on the website. You know: reproducing (as in making a COPY of) the copyrighted art/photographs on the cover of the patterns.

It's still a bit underhanded, but it makes a certain sort of sense, far more than "you can't resell the physical pattern."

Here's the forum message where the rep (owner?) says "Today The Mccall pattern company through their attorneys have told our web host company that we are 'infringing on their copyrights' by displaying pictures of patterns that we own."