BBC Bans Fan Knit Patterns

[Larry]

BBC Blocks Fan's Knit Patterns

News.com.au has reported that the BBC has issued a copyright infringement notice to a fan who has created knitting patterns of Doctor Who characters (including an Ood, Cassandra, the Face of Boe and two others) and shared them - for free - on the internet.

The person behind the Mazzmatazz website stated: "The patterns I created, inspired by Doctor Who, were never for sale - they were shared under Creative Commons licenses, to prevent resale, so that other fans could enjoy and share the fun too."

Mazmatazz's case has also been picked up by the Open Rights Group, an online civil liberties organisation. A statement on the ORG website said the BBC should play a role in "stimulating the creative economy" by allowing fans to alter its content in a non-commercial context. "The approach the BBC have taken with Mazz’s knitting patterns demonstrate a distinct lack of flexibility," the organisation said. "It is quite possible that through transforming the characters in Doctor Who into knitting patterns, Mazz may have infringed upon the BBC’s copyright. But it’s hard to see how Mazz’s non-commercial knitting patterns actually damage the commercial interests of the BBC."

Various bloggers have expressed disagreement that the infringement notice is in any way valid, as the knitting patterns are not "direct representations of their [the BBC's] characters", and that these patterns should rightly fall into the category of fan art.

"They are misplacing their energies pursuing a fan who has done nothing more than to display their love to the show by making a highly original design," said technology law blogger Andres Guadamuz.

what a miserable bunch they are at the BBC this lady is hardly a threat to them .

[Rob McCow]

This is a key example of woolly thinking on behalf of the BBC. They're only knit patterns!

[Si Hunt]

Hmmmm. I heard she put them on Ebay!

In any case, if she distributed the PATTERNS for free, and this led people to make toys and sell them on Ebay... the BBC has a right to protect it's interests.

Si.

[SiHart]

Where does this leave Joy Gammon and her marvellous Doctor Who Pattern Book? No-one worried about that back in the day.
It seems something of an overreaction to me. I'd have thought this was just another way of appreciaiting the show. the fact that someone has been selkling the knitted monsters on ebay after using her pattern isn't actually her fault is it?

Si xx

[Nathan]

Wasn't that book licensed though?

The Ood I saw was rubbish though

[Llordllama]

I just wondered why anyone would want a knitted Ood anyway. An Adipose, well yeah that I could understand. Knitting freeky-keen friend of me has these patterns and admits they're nothing much to write home about - she's working on a knitted TARDIS pattern which sounds far more interesting!

[Antony Cox]

Ood 'av thought it, eh?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

On a related and equally sad note, I've been playing with the idea of building a TARDIS

Well not an actual TARDIS obviously, just a wooden box. Sad though it is it might be something fun to do and an excuse to spend some time with my Dad in his retiring years in his shed.

Anyway, the point... in trawling the internet for any information on how to actually do this I've foudn a few guides from people who've made them before, but it seems they can only give general construction guides and won't actually give any reasonably accurate dimensions. It seems if they do that then the BBC pops up out of nowhere and forces them to remove the copyrighted information. And this isn't just the dimensions for the TARDIS prop from the new series but applies to them all, even the one that hasn't been seen since 1976!

It's fair enough in some senses because some people do actually make money selling replicas on ebay (although this goes on even with shoddy replicas), but it seems a bit harsh to stop people sharing the measurements of a prop made in 1963 so they can build one in their own shed.

[Wayne]

It seems if they do that then the BBC pops up out of nowhere and forces them to remove the copyrighted information. And this isn't just the dimensions for the TARDIS prop from the new series but applies to them all, even the one that hasn't been seen since 1976!

Do the BBC actually own the rights to the 'police box' then? After all, the Police Box was around before Dr.Who. They may own the word 'Tardis', but can they stop people from building a London Police Box as such?

On another note, didn't Ant Cox and/or Ian Lethbridge-Stewart once build a Tardis? I seem to remember a pic of one in one of their gardens or something.

[Rob McCow]

Do the BBC actually own the rights to the 'police box' then?

I believe they secured the rights in the mid-ninties, taking them from the Metropolitan Police.

Ever since then they've had all the designs, plans and knit patterns stitched up!

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Well the BBC won the rights to use the image of the police box as a registered trademark a few years ago, which made news at the time if I recall. Of course the police can still make and use police boxes, but they are effectively banned from making little model police boxes (for example) and selling them to raise funds for the police*.

But then the other issue is that none of the prop TARDISes made for the series ever matched the actual dimensions of the real thing. As far as I know the BBC would have no power to ban the distribution of the original actual police box dimensions. But I bet they would if they could


Edit:* just to clarify, what I mean is (as far as I know) the BBC hold the rights to use the image of the police box for commercial purposes, but they don't hold the COMPLETE rights to police boxes themselves as such. So actual police boxes used for police purposes are well outside the BBC's "jurisdiction". The whole issue is clouded even further by the fact that it wasn't just the Metropolitan Police who made police boxes of that design.

[Jeff]

News.com.au has reported that the BBC has issued a copyright infringement notice to a fan who has created knitting patterns of Doctor Who characters (including an Ood, Cassandra, the Face of Boe and two others) and shared them - for free - on the internet.

The person behind the Mazzmatazz website stated: "The patterns I created, inspired by Doctor Who, were never for sale - they were shared under Creative Commons licenses, to prevent resale, so that other fans could enjoy and share the fun too."

This degenerate scofflaw MUST be brought to heel!!

[Wayne]

Hmmmm. I heard she put them on Ebay!

In any case, if she distributed the PATTERNS for free, and this led people to make toys and sell them on Ebay... the BBC has a right to protect it's interests.

Si.

I've heard that she didn't, but other people who used the pattern did.

Anyway, you can probably guess what i think about huge corporate entities vs little people.

[Antony Cox]

didn't Ant Cox and/or Ian Lethbridge-Stewart once build a Tardis? I seem to remember a pic of one in one of their gardens or something.

We did indeed - well, I built it and Andrew paid for most of it!

Strictly speaking it was only half a TARDIS but you'd never know that from the way it was filmed (until someone opened the door and the gaping whole at the back wasn't very well covered, of course... )

Although this was long before the BBC claimed the rights to the design, I didn’t think twice about infringing any copyright. As I understand it, you could only be prosecuted if you built one with the express intention of using it to make money. Whether these so-called ‘official’ companies who’ll build you a TARDIS for a price are licensed by the BBC or not I’ve no idea, but if you want to build one just for your own pleasure then you’ve no need to worry.

As for plans/blueprints, you’ll need to get hold of a copy of the TARDIS Technical Manual book which gives detailed and accurate dimensions of every single aspect of the design. It's based on an original Police Box and not any of the TV props, so really it's as original and accurate as you can be. That’s what I used anyway, and if I say so myself, it looked bloomin’ marvellous!

[Wayne]

Haven't you got a bigger pic? I could do with a good laugh at whichever one of you is wearing that combat gear.

[Antony Cox]

I'm not even in that picture! I was busy directing behind the camera!

Andrew's the one standing by the TARDIS door - the other person is his brother David (the Doctor, in this instance).

[Wayne]

So what happened to your Tardis? It does look spiffing. And a lovely vivid blue!

[Dirk Gently]

It went the way of the Dodo. It's now an ex-TARDIS.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Staying with its auntie to recuperate?

[Si Hunt]

On a related and equally sad note, I've been playing with the idea of building a TARDIS

But I didn't think you liked Doctor Who...?



Si.

[Antony Cox]

So what happened to your Tardis? It does look spiffing. And a lovely vivid blue!

We kept it for as long as possible but eventually didn't have anywhere to keep it, so it was dumped.

[Wayne]

What a shame.

Pity you couldnt've passed it on to someone somehow.

[Mike Saville]

The BBC is right to protect its interest because precedent set is hard to revoke.

I was led to believe they had approached her to work with her on it, but she got a chip on her shoulder over it.

AFAIK, the BBC has never had a problem with people making something for themselves, but distributing a pattern, even for free, can't in any way be seen as for personal use.

[Wayne]

Fascists!

[Captain Tancredi]

Well the BBC won the rights to use the image of the police box as a registered trademark a few years ago, which made news at the time if I recall. Of course the police can still make and use police boxes, but they are effectively banned from making little model police boxes (for example) and selling them to raise funds for the police*.

But then the other issue is that none of the prop TARDISes made for the series ever matched the actual dimensions of the real thing. As far as I know the BBC would have no power to ban the distribution of the original actual police box dimensions. But I bet they would if they could


Edit:* just to clarify, what I mean is (as far as I know) the BBC hold the rights to use the image of the police box for commercial purposes, but they don't hold the COMPLETE rights to police boxes themselves as such. So actual police boxes used for police purposes are well outside the BBC's "jurisdiction". The whole issue is clouded even further by the fact that it wasn't just the Metropolitan Police who made police boxes of that design.

The interesting case here is a firm called Langley Models, who make cast white metal model railway accessories. They've had a police box in their catalogue for decades along with phone boxes, pillar boxes etc, long before the BBC claimed any rights.

The interview I saw with BBC Worldwide on News 24 gave the impression that it was people selling the finished products which was the issue, not the patterns themselves- the Worldwide rep seemed to be quite fair in saying that they do appreciate that Who in particular has a lot of very creative fans and they don't generally mind them doing their various projects as long as they aren't making money.