'Y'ever crashed one of these?' by Kara
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 6:28 AM

So I sew, but I don't knit. But I have friends who do. And of late, some have been finding really nifty knit and crochet patterns (and even some sewing patterns for me!) of various Doctor Who characters and critters -- the most recent being little cuddly Adipose. The patterns are, of course, free, because it would be bad form and just wrong to charge for them. I seriously can't conceive of people working these out, but I am, and said friends are, really grateful that people take the time.

Buuuuut apparently others are not.

Yesterday, a blip came across the Outpost Gallifrey feed that the BBC has just issued a copyright infringement notice to one of these fans (I'd heard before that it was a group, but apparently it's someone in particular). Further research and prodding shows that it may have been prompted by someone else selling this fan's designs on eBay (which happens with fansubs quite a bit, actually, and it's just nasty). Nonetheless, they are attacking the person rather than the dickmonger who decided to profit off the creativity of two parties.

Now, this sort of thing is actually protected by the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1907 and the more recent Creative Commons licenses. That is to say, since the items are not direct rips of the Beeb's stuff, but rather creative modifications, they are technically protected under their own copyright. As this license is now effective in 45 jurisdictions, nationality is not an issue here.

That said, here is my issue:

Does the BBC ever plan to sell anything similar to these?

Much like fansubs, these came about because of fans wanting something that simply was not available. I'm not going to say I've been sitting around lamenting my lack of an Ood doily, but various cuddly versions of monsters (and the aforementioned Adipose) have been craved by fans for quite a bit now. And as the BBC has never been particularly likely to sell them, fans took it upon themselves to provide them. They're not even just getting the item free -- they're being shown how to put their own time and effort into making them.

Now, if the BBC sent out a C&D (as is done with fansubs) because they are planning to make their own, that is perfectly understandable. But if a fan wants a Genesis Ark, they will buy a bleeding Genesis Ark. If a fan wants a Sonic Screwdriver, ditto. I did, and I didn't look for ways to not have to pay for them, either. If the BBC started marketing cuddly Adipose, they would get bought, and then I could maybe understand asking for those to be pulled. Maybe. (I could understand the sewing patterns being pulled, anyway.)

But they have not said, 'Please stop sending these around; we are planning to market these soon.' Unless they believe that fans are going to start knitting action figures because theirs are consistently on the ugly side, they have no truly legitimate reason to be snarky. Tatsunoko might as well come to Anime-Classic and say, 'Stop fansubbing Urashiman. No, we're not going to try to make money off Americans for it, we're just saying.'

And I'm not hypocritical about this. If someone started putting up free plushie patterns of my characters and I had no way (and no plans) to make money on the concept, I would not tell them to stop. Why? Cuz as soon as I got wind of it, I'd be all over their e-mail making a 'business' deal with them, duh! That's just smart.

So until the BBC shows concept art for a cuddly Dalek pillow, colour me unimpressed.

Also, yes, I have been watching Macross Frontier.

If you have been, bite it off.