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Purple Kitty Yarn Hall Of Shame Member Added November 17, 2009

Last November 17, 2009

Purple Kitty Yarn LLC, apparently owned and operated by Debra Geroux, gets its own craft site page because of her false information. Purple Kitty Yarn LLC is located at 172 Ellen St, Oswego, New York 13126. Specifically, it is her copyright information page on her website, www.purplekittyyarns.com. Debra position is that of many people who sell patterns and designs - that her "copyright" extends to what someone makes from the pattern and/or design. That does not balance with the law on the subject. First, a work is afforded copyright when it is fixed in some form and if it is original. To have copyright protection the work must be registered with the copyright office. See Action Tapes vs Kelly Mattson, 462 F.3d. 1010 (8th. Cir. 2006). You cannot begin a court action for infringement until after a registration has been received. If the alleged infringement occurs before the registration is obtained, you cannot collect statutory damages or attorney fees which somewhat defeats the purpose of having copyright protection. Patterns and designs are useful items and as such are not copyrightable. See , Galiano v Harrah's, 416 F.3d 411 (5th Cir 2005), and here, copyrightability of clothing. As of this date, Last November 17, 2009, a search of the copyright office database for Debra Geroux or Purple Kitty Yarn shows NO copyrights registered for either. As for her claim that you need her permission to "make items for commercial use", that simply is not true. The copyright, if there is one, only covers the pattern, not any item made from the pattern. The end product, to be a derivative, would have to include artwork that would survive the useful function of the item. That is, the item would have to be considered a collectable in its own right. She falsely claims: Please respect the copyright on these patterns and do not sell a finished product made from one of these patterns without first obtaining permission from the publisher or designer. It is the law. It is not the law. That is a lie designed to make people believe copyright owners can control their product after it has been sold. Copyright owners lose control of their products after they have sold them. Nothing in copyright law gives the copyright owner (if there is a copyright in the pattern) the right to control its use after the sale. See Quality King Distributors, Inc. v. Lanza Research Int, 523 U.S. 135 (1998), where the Supreme Court stated

The whole point of the first sale doctrine is that once the copyright owner places a copyrighted item in the stream of commerce by selling it, he has exhausted his exclusive statutory right to control its distribution.

See also Bobbs-Merril vs Straus, 210 U.S. 339 (1908).