Licensed and Designer fabrics:
First note that we are not lawyers, so what follows is not legal advice. It is just a collection of what we have learned from years in the fabric and crafts business.
This is taken from Wikipedia: The first-sale doctrine is a limitation on copyright that was recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1908 and subsequently codified in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 109. The doctrine allows the purchaser to transfer (i.e., sell or give away) a particular lawfully made copy of the copyrighted work without permission once it has been obtained. That means that a copyright holder's rights to control the change of ownership of a particular copy end once that copy is sold, as long as no additional copies are made. This doctrine is also referred to as the "first sale rule" or "exhaustion rule".
Any fabrics for sale on this site are lawfully made fabrics, and (presumably) the licensor or designer of the fabrics is paid a royalty by the manufacturer of the fabric. The Licensor, designer, or manufacturer of the fabric has no legal right to control what you do with the fabric, once you have purchased it, as long as you do not copy the designs printed on the fabric. This is true no matter what is printed on the selvedge of the fabric. You can sew with it, craft with it, use it for scrapbooks or gifts or whatever you want. But... if you sell the things you make from it, you cannot represent them as licensed items. To be completely correct, anything you make is made from licensed fabrics, but it is not an officially licensed item. From a practical standpoint, if you are selling things on eBay, or other places online, and if you use the designer's or licensor's name to describe the items, you are quite likely to attract unwanted attention from various legal departments and/or have your auctions shut down, or some company's lawyer may contact you and send you a very scary cease-and-desist letter. If you're selling at local craft shows, you are unlikely to run into any trouble.
Why all the fuss? Companies and designers do a lot of hard work to come up with their creations, and they want to both protect their income and their reputation. If people come along and sell poorly made knock-off items, it makes those companies look bad.
Copyrighted issues: Please note that all of the fabric designs shown on this site are copyright protected and may not be reproduced on fabric or any other medium for commercial purposes. Sewing or crafting with the fabrics would not violate copyright laws (see the First Sale Doctrine information in the paragraph above). But... photocopying or photographing the fabric for commercial purposes would be a copyright violation. All rights belong to the manufacturers and/or designers of the various fabrics, so if you have any particular questions you must direct them to the manufacturer or designer; we don't own the rights, so we cannot grant you any permissions.
If you have some time, and want to read more about these issues, there is interesting (and extensive) information at www.tabberone.com (please note that we are in no way associated with their website or business).
