I recently vended at a craft fair I've done for several years. A woman approached my booth and I overheard her say to her Husband, "Look, here is more!" and she looked around at my display. I noticed she carried a copy of one of the scrollsaw pattern books in her hand. She started up a conversation and began to tell me that she was at a booth in another building at the show (4 buildings total) and she saw a scroll sawn picture of her up for sale.

 

To summerize her story, she saw a picture of her with her horse that a friend of hers had drawn in pencil many yeras ago. She approached the vender and explained to him that that was her and her horse. He of course didn't believe her, after all it was just a girl and her horse! She was adamit about her claim and asked where he got the picture from to cut the portrait. He told her he purchased the pattern from a magazine and offered to bring that catalog the next day to prove it. He not only brought the catalog but also brought the pattern. Upon that pattern was a persons name and the copyright notice.

 

From what she told me, her friend had that original drawing on her website and she held the original drawing. She was kind of flattered but the friend who drew the picture was quite upset about it.

 

So it boils down to someone who saw the picture on a website,  decided to design and sell it to one of the scroll saw catalog as his own design. This woman who was telling me this said she wasn't going to take any action but the original artist would most likely be looking further into it.

 

So be careful where you obtain your subject matter from for portraits. It was a one in a million chances that this woman would attend a show and see her portrait, but she did. DO NOT SELL a pattern from a photo or picture that you did not take or draw yourself(except commisioned portraits from customers who supply a photo). And don't claim something as your own unless it really is!!

 

I do a lot of (dead) celebrities and even those these peple may be long deceased, the estate still has rights to everything.I just pray that the other "one in a million" folks who pass thru a fair doen't fimd their image in wood up for dale!

 

Linster