Hi all, 
So recently to get into the Christmas spirit, I wanted to make some Christmas crochet!
Unfortunately I had no Ideas of what to do!
But I was wondering whether it was Unethical to pull up an image of someone’s Crochet Gingerbread man for example, and make it yourself without buying the PDF and selling/ making the pattern free to followers, I would really like to hear your thoughts on this topic!
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Wait- i dont rly get it
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It’s best to try to come up with your own unique design. Taking someone else’s creation and trying to make a knock off isn’t good (although depending on how basic the pattern idea is, sometimes it’s inevitable that different designs will look similar e.g. crochet bees). It would be better to look at non-crocheted Christmas inspiration, and try to think of ways you could make a crocheted version of it. Good luck with your patterns!
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Well, you could have the gingerbread man inspired by that person’s picture of their’s and give them credit for that.
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TRUE! (this is going to sound really selfish) I didn’t think of that!
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A couple of things to think about when approaching making a pattern of someone else’s.
- If you were the pattern designer, especially on a paid pattern, would you like seeing your work replicated in another’s works?
- Is yours distinct enough to be considered different? My favorite way of looking at this can use today’s pattern discount, Crochetbykelsie has a bee pattern that’s distinct from the normal bee we always see, same with craftinginglorys bee pattern that she has. They both have a unique style and flair that makes it uniquely something they work on.
- Would you feel up to asking the pattern designer? Oftentimes when people have similar ideas an executions one will reach out to the other and they can discuss.
These are just some things to consider. But I would always say it’s best to make things of your own creation when it comes to patterns. It would probably be safer to use real life examples of gingerbread people and craft your ideas around that.
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I dont think it would be fair to sell or even give away free patterns that are extremely inspired by someone else’s.
Imo, it has to be different enough that they cant be compared. If someone is looking for a gingerbread pattern and saw 2 that look almost the same, they’ll choose the cheaper one. If it was different enough then people will look at the patterns and choose which they like better aesthetically.
If its just for personal use then why not. Imo, pdfs are instructions to make something, if something is simple enough that you dont need to be instructed, why would you be motivated to pay for it. Like recently i saw a woobles muffy, its literally a sphere and sew on 2 ovals, if you have your own yarn and dont want to pay 30 bucks for that, you can just find tutorials on spheres and ears separately.
I personally never recreated a pattern just from photo cus im lazy and i feel like a $3 pattern is a better price than spending hours trying to figure it out, but i see no problem with others doing it as long as they dont profit from it.
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Making it for yourself is one thing. Making it into a pattern is another. 
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Thanks for your Opinion! I won’t copy a project!
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Taking someone’s picture or idea and claiming it is yours and either selling it or offering it for free is violating copyright law.
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I was talking about making a pattern from reference of someone else’s photo
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Their photo is also protected by copyright laws
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Looking at a photo, and making a pattern and taking your own photos
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Is it? I m not sure?
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Yes it is, it is their property
If you take your own photo and design something based on it you are fine.
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You are right, if you have copyright for it, it is illegal
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