Travis

Hi All. There are some software updates I'm getting ready for in November. One of which, they're upgrading PHP (the building blocks of this website) to v8. The problem is, V8 isn't very backward compatible with previous versions, but it's where the internet is going.....so I gotta keep up. Anyway, I just switched over to the new version. Everything seems fine. Let me know if you see anything that isn't working the way it should be, though. Thanks!

Hi All. I guess my hosting company had a site migration overnight. The site functions were temporarily disabled during the migration. I was able to go in and fix what was broken. I think I did it right, but if something isn't working, please let me know. I'm also going to re-cache the site, so the website might run a bit slower for the next day or so. Thanks for your patience!

If you bought them before, you should be able to go to that product page and download them again.

A lot o f scroll saw projects are decorative. Things like wall hanging and shelf sitters. Let's look at the other side, projects that have a purpose. So, this scroll saw challenge is for functional projects. This could be things like clocks, pencil holders, boxes, key holders, key rings, shelves, candle holders, etc. When you post your project, let us know what you use it for. It'll be fun to see what you come up with.

John contacted me at the beginning of summer and sent me a big ol' stack of patterns to share with SSV members. That was a pretty amazing surprise! I've been working on them and scanning them to PDF files as I can (I'm a bit slow). It took me awhile to figure out how to get it from paper to a nice digital download. But we got there in the end. I still have a bunch to scan in, and I'll continue working on them as I can. This first batch has a lot of fun Christmas themed patterns and they use the decoupage/applique method that John wrote about in this article: I set up a special section in the eBooks area to house these patterns. A special thank you to @john nelson for providing these great patterns for us all to enjoy! Check them out when you get a chance. His patterns can be found here.

Hi All. Someone sent me an email the other day asking if my Ornament Business Kits ever go on sale because they wanted some of the older ones. Each year I publish the new business kit on November 1st and put it on sale for 50% off through Cyber Monday. Then it goes to the normal price of $20. Some folks want it earlier so they can get a jump on the Holidays, but it usually doesn't work out too well when I do it that way. So it got me thinking that maybe I can put the previous years up for sale in the middle of the year. The whole "Christmas In July" thing has come and gone (I'm a bit slow on the uptake), so I thought I'd offer it up now. So, all of the Custom Ornament Business Kits in the eBooks section is 30% OFF through September 30th! Note: These ornament business kits are meant for folks who have a working knowledge of Inkscape. You don't have to be an advanced user, but you should have the basics down. If you'd like to learn more about Inkscape, you can find my free online course here. Enjoy!

I don’t think anybody is suggesting that if you make a frame you’re violating some sort of intellectual property. But what is being said, you can’t buy a pattern and think that you own the rights to do whatever you want with it. Your usage rights only fall within parameters of what the copyright holder allow. Pattens are made for crafters, so it’s expected that it’s for personal use. Some designers are ok with you making money with them at a craft show or online sales…others are not. But there are limitations on what you can do with their designs. I like making videos. But I can’t use music from Dolly Parton in my video and post it to YouTube, even though I own the CD. My rights to that music only extends to personal listening. But, boy, what if I REALLY want to use that music? Sure, Dolly’s people will work with me, but it will cost me a boat-load of money. But what if I don’t use her recording, and my band plays a cover of it instead? Still her music…your performance, but still her music. You need to license to use her music.

I've been thinking about that for awhile now. I love books too. I rarely cut anything from them, but for whatever reason, I can't stop collecting them! I'm still trying to figure out how to do it, though. I'm thinking of making a database/resource section of SSV to do reviews, but I do like your idea of having a place for other members to offer their thoughts too. Hmmmm.

Sorry for the long post. There is a couple of things going on here: Can the pattern designer dictate usage rights? The OP's wished there was some sort of explanation of usage rights. I think that's a reasonable request. I wouldn't expect it to be on an Amazon listing, but it should be in a pattern book for sure. Etsy listings, or direct pattern sales, should have EULA (End User License Agreement) with their patterns. Listing it would be nice, but if it's not there, you should be able to ask and easily get an answer. I was thinking Fox Chapel had a thread on their website about what you can and can't do with their patterns in their books. But can a pattern designer dictate usage rights? Sure they can. If they are the copyright holder, they have the ability to control how they want their work being used. You see this with music every political season. A group uses a piece of music the artist doesn't want to be associated with. They have the right to say no. If a pattern designer says that it's for personal use only, it means you can make it for yourself or as a gift. But not with the intention to sell. Others allow you to sell the finished product (not the pattern itself), but they may limit how many you can do. This is mostly protection in case something becomes a runaway hit, or if something starts becoming manufactured, they have some sort of recourse. I think some of our big pattern designers had this happen to them. If their design hits that cord with the public, they want to benefit too. Why should they only make $10 on a pattern while the manufacturer is making a boatload of money? Look at the man and dog scroll saw pattern. I think I saw that floating around as a hand drawn pattern on some communities a long while back. It became super popular in the scrolling community. It got published in a magazine, and eventually turned into a book deal! That's amazing! Congratulations! They deserve that success. The idea of turning a pattern into a finished product by changing the medium will bypass the copyright is not true. Nor does altering the pattern. This is called derivative work and does not void the original copyright. It has to be a significant change where you cannot confuse the original with the new work. Many years ago, there was a very high profile pattern designer that got into trouble because he used copywritten photos to make his patterns. Fox Chapel I think also got into trouble for publishing them in their magazine. I'm not sure the end result of the lawsuit, I'm sure it was settled. But it was a pretty big deal at the time and shook up the scrolling community. I got an email a few weeks back asking if they can use one of my patterns for commercial use. First we had to find out what they meant by commercial. Is it being manufactured, or are they a crafter? Turns out they were a crafter. I basically said, you can't distribute the pattern, but you can make up to 1000 finished products to sell online, craft shows, etc. Because, honestly, if you're a crafter making over 1000 pieces of any one design, you're a manufacture now and we should come to a different agreement. The Custom Ornament Business Kit I make every year explains what you can and cannot do with the kit. It's intended for crafters. I expect that people want to make money from it. That's good (and honestly encouraged). But I don't want them to sell or give away my ornament business kit (that's how I keep the lights on at SSV)....just the stuff they make with it. Who monitors this and can it be enforced? The fact is, there is a copyright with terms of usage. If you don't own that copyright and go against usage terms, it can be enforced. Most of the time, it's just a cease and desist letter. Will you get caught? Hard to say. If you're online, you're very exposed. If you're at a craft show, depends on the craft show and the crowd it brings (if you have a booth at a Harley event without a license, I can almost guarantee you'll be shut down) Can they go further? Sure, but it's expensive and usually the letter is enough to put an end to it. If you really want to go up against it, you'll probably lose. Who monitors? Sometimes the artist. I've reported several people on ebay that were selling my patterns. I've had times where people scrape SSV and Google Images to bundle and sell our patterns. That's why the Pattern Library is now for members only. Sometimes it's friends of the original pattern designer. SSV had some patterns from a person who we thought was the original designer. A friend of the real designer pointed that out to me, and after some research and investigation, we found out they were stolen and removed them. There are companies that specifically go out to look for certain types of work. They basically work on behalf of companies, looking for infringements. They make their money by getting a percentage of settlements. A friend of mine ran a website where he was filed against several times. (His website was legit, though. It was a forum where people showed off homemade cornhole boards for personal use, often with sports team logos.) Likeness of celebrities can also fall under this. You always hear of a daycare that has Disney murals on the walls and get shut down. Harley people, like Wichman shared, got into trouble for repurposing their products. Puzzle makers who take calendars and turn them into jigsaw puzzles. The list goes on and on. Can they prove it? If you're in a craft show, they can look at your merchandise and tell. As simple photo will take care of that. If it's online, they have your listing and they can subpoena sales records. Even if you only sold through social media, there's records. A few closing thoughts: For patterns found on SSV, you'll have to ask the original pattern designer what you can do with them. Please respect their wishes. SSV doesn't own the copyrights to the patterns posted here. When pattern designer uploads a pattern, the designer is giving permission for SSV to host the pattern for members to use. If you want to make money with the design, you'll have to work that out with the original pattern designer. SSV isn't involved in that negotiation. Each artist has their own definition of what is acceptable for themselves. And that's OK. I've had my patterns stolen in the past and it's super disheartening. As a designer, it really makes you question why you do this and whether or not it's worth it. We've lost many amazing designers over the years because of this. We're all artists and craftspeople. Some of us are designers, some are scrollers, some of do both. Its a symbiotic relationship. We want to watch out for and respect each other. If we didn't have designers, us scrollers won't have anything to cut. Without scrollers, designers won't have anybody to bring their ideas to life. SSV is very conscious about copyrights. Please remember that I'm just a solo guy who runs SSV on the side for the scrolling community. I try hard to make this a friendly place with a ton of great information and resources. But we can't use SSV as a platform to share patterns that don't belong to us. A single letter from a cranky lawyer could potentially shut down the whole website. So I try to be diligent about protecting copyrighted works. SSV is a big place and I can't see it all. If you see something that doesn't belong, please flag it for review (the 3 dots under the upper right corner), and I will take a closer look. Here's a couple of other posts that may be interesting: Check out the copyright section in the Village University: And another post about Copyrights:

I just did a software update. If something isn't behaving the way it should, please let me know and I'll take a look. Thanks all!

well...a little to the right.

Hi all. This thread is quickly turning into the political realm. A friendly reminder that political discussions/debates are against the user guidelines for SSV. Thanks all!

That looks amazing! I'm a terrible gardener. Envious of folks that are good at that. I've tried a few times with limited success. I did enjoy making a lettuce garden. Nothing like fresh veggies for dinner.

Summers usually slow way down....but it has been extra quiet this summer. Probably everybody anxious to get out of the house. Toward the end of the month, we'll see a ramp up of traffic as we start heading into fall and the holidays.

Bookmarks are an extra feature for SSV Patrons. At the bottom of a post, there's a Bookmark button. If you click that, you can save bookmarks and go back later to look at them. It's nice for maybe patterns you'd like to cut, or a post with really good information. You can categorize them any way you want. You can choose to keep them public or private, too. Then, if you want to look at them, you can click the pulldown on your profile to look at your bookmarks. There's also a tab on your Profile that also has those bookmarks. I hope that helps!

Let's have a little fun with this one. It's pretty open for interpretation. Post a silly, or funny project. It can be a sign with a joke, a fun toy, a ridiculous invention, etc. Keep it clean, but let's have fun.

I'm not sure what that would be. I checked them on my iPhone and iPad and they seemed fine. You can check to see if it has nigh mode turned on? Maybe it's not converting the black text to white on a dark backrougnd. that's the only thing I can think of.

Not really scrolling related, but I wanted to share a camping trip my son and I took last week. I think I'll have to make something to commemorate the trip. A great way to recharge the soul and make awesome memories with my boy!

Summer is in full swing! Time for some summertime projects. Post your project that is either used for summertime actives, summer themed, outdoors, or vacations. It's pretty open to interpretation, so have fun with it. When you post, tell us a little bit about the project and why you made it. I always love seeing the stories behind the project.

Ha! I missed June's challenge. Things have been pretty crazy on my end. I'll have one for July, though.

Thanks Everybody! I had a great day! Plus, I took the week off work, so I get to celebrate even longer.

You can hover over the rank, too. That will tell you your current rank. Different people will have different pictures next to their avatar, based on their rank.

Hi all. I thought I posted this update, but I guess I must have not hit the submit button. At any rate, some of you may have noticed the ranks have changed. The old rank system was set up 12 years ago when having 1500 posts was a lot of posts. That isn't true anymore. You're a chatty bunch....LOL Plus, it didn't take much to shoot to the top of the rank tier. So I wanted to balance it out a bit more. We have a new system in place now. We now have 10 separate ranks. The higher the rank, the harder it is to achieve. You can find your rank badge off the side of your avatar, as well as your profile. Ranks are calculated by points. And points are awarded for doing different things on SSV. For example; posting a new thread is worth 10. Responding to one is 5. Points for uploading to galleries, helping members, emoting, joining groups, downloads, following members or content, etc. Points aren't really visible, as far as I can tell, and are calculated behind the curtain. I wouldn't put too much stock in your rank, though. Its just a silly little thing that adds a bit of fun to the site. And don't put too much weight into the rank name. I just picked rank names based on scroll sawing themes and how long you've been on SSV (it's so much better than Rank 1, Rank 2, etc). You may have been scrolling for decades, but your rank is Apprentice Scroller. That's just a title you have on SSV and doesn't reflect your skill level. Anyway, that's what those symbols mean. Just a bit of flair for fun.

Awesome. I'll check out his videos. I've been woodturning for years, but far from an expert. I usually dust off the lathe a few times a year. Looks like he has a lot of great projects. This one is clever. He did it with a reciprocating saw. I think a scroll saw would work much better. Kinda blend two different disciplines, which I like the idea of.

Actually, if you written anything for a scroll saw or woodworking club and you don't mind sharing, I bet I can convert those too. It has to be your article, though.