I learned to cook by technique, not by recipe. I apply the same thing to knitting. Or programming. Or… well, anything. So if anybody gives you and grief over mix-and-match patterns, you can always tell them that you developed it based on commonly used techniques that are universally used by everyone who sews/knits/crochets/whathaveyous.
I’d challenge anyone to prove differently.
SO glad you got it! You’ll treasure it forever - and it won’t be lost - have no doubt you’ll see to that! Wtg, have a great time with it!
I just searched for a copyright on a pattern I just acquired. Copyright emblem is on the pattern along with “all rights reserved” by the designer. I searched pattern name and designer’s name and found neither.
Judy
The 64-pg booklet arrived today! Sixty-five baby things to knit, crochet, and sew. Bibs, toys, blankets, and clothing galore. It’s amazing how relevant they are even for our 21st Century.
Anyway, my coveted baby hoodie is in there!
On the bottom of page 2, the Forward and Contents page, there are 4 lines of copyright language.
[B] Copyright©1959, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 by The McCall Pattern Company. All rights reserved. Printed and published in the U.S.A. by the McCall Pattern Company, 230 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017 [/B]
So that’s it.
I think perhaps this booklet began publication in 1959, or parts of it. This particular booklet was published in 1973, which renews all the designs copyright, I believe.
Not one single [B]individual designer[/B] is named on any of the designs.
Therefore, whereas I would loan my booklet to my BFF who lives down the lane, I wouldn’t make copies of a particular design/pattern for anyone else. If my BFF wanted to scan and print a copy of a design, and leave the booklet in my possession, I’d allow it.
And of course, I certainly wouldn’t scan a pattern to a pdf doc and email it to anyone, not even my local friends. Too easy for pdf’s to be widely distributed.
Anyone have anything to add?
Just to cover all bases thoroughly I’d email McCalls with the pertinent info and question just for your own peace of mind.
:happydance:
Good idea…if I ever want to share a copy with my BFF? or another person? An KH or Rav person you mean?
Yeah. Plus they kind of left you hanging with no answer!
[SIZE=“5”][CENTER][B][COLOR=“Purple”]:balloons: Congratulations on your acquisition! :balloons:[/COLOR][/B][/CENTER][/SIZE]
That’s worth celebrating!
I’m just glad that if your back were turned and someone copied something from it w/o your knowledge you wouldn’t be held responsible. Good grief! It really is a shame to have such a cute baby sweater pattern fade off into oblivion. They should make such patterns available online, free or for a small fee.
I totally agree!
And thanks for celebrating with me!
That’s a great idea, GG! If they just charged $2 they’d make more than they are now! And think how good for McCalls it would be if they were known to put out of print patterns online for everyone to enjoy. 
I love GrumpyGramma - she’s very often the voice of reason in a very murky pond.
Here’s a copy/paste from an informative post in the “Copyright Matters” group over at Ravelry, in response to my post about the McCall’s copyright issue:
"The McCalls of today is not the same company that published the knitting patterns of the 70’s. McCalls sewing sold their knitting magazine division to another company. I happen to know that company destroyed all the patterns they had in the archives and have no interest whatsoever in the copyrights to those patterns. So, no, McCalls isn’t going to come after anyone about that cuz they don’t own those copyrights any more. They are/were owned by a Japanese company. The same company that has given me permission to post pdf’s of those old patterns on the internet if I so desire.
So, No. McCalls isn’t coming after anyone for sharing a xeroxed copy of one of those old patterns."
The book may be copyrighted but the patterns may not be.
Dealing with copyright I wouldn’t base anything off of hearsay, I’d want something from McCall’s legal dept in writing, CYA.
Possibly they gave you permission as they see this a bigger hassle to actually enforce since the spread of digital information is impossible to stop, some mega-corps are too thick headed to figure this out and insist on DRM that gets broken within days of release. Think Bluray.
If the book contains the pattern, they’d be copyrighted as being the book.
Stitch patterns are not copyrighted, but hthe manner in which they’re presented can be.
Exactly what I’m thinking.
But the post was very interesting. Had to share.
You know the old saying? “Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear.”
That about covers hearsay…
Very true.
I don’t really understand why a company would try to copyright a pattern. I understand that they do so to protect them as was stated that they owned it at the time of printing, in that case I could see them wanting some type of protection from say someone copyrighting a work that they printed then trying to sue them or extort money due to them owning a copyright on them and not getting remuneration for it at time of printing.
Seems sad when talking about something that someone with skill could look at a garment and go home and almost exactly reproduce it without a pattern. I’m assuming the gurus here with the mystical stitch wizardry are capable of this, call it zen-knitting if you will.