I belong to a knitting forum which shall remain nameless as I would like to continue to belong to said knitting forum. Yesterday morning a knitter left a message stating all she got when she clicked on the link was a blank page. The link was to my free Fingerless Gloves on Two Needles pattern. Within minutes other "helpful knitters" had copied and posted my copyrighted pattern to her thread in the forum. By mid-afternoon there were no less than twelve copies of my copyrighted pattern posted to this thread. Most of them even retained my copyright notice, "Copyright © 2008 Nittineedles This pattern is for personal use only. It is not to be used for profit. Selling
copies of this pattern or selling the finished product of this pattern is strictly prohibited." I politely asked each "helpful knitter" to kindly remove my pattern as it is copyrighted. No one did so and one greedy, ignorant, selfish cow actually started arguing that free patterns are there for the taking and you can do whatever you want with them because they are free. She, cathy47, said that if I didn't want people to share the pattern I shouldn't have put it out there (for free). So I took her sage advise and it is no longer a free pattern. That pattern and two others, Shetland Lace Shawl and Ribbons and Lace Christening Gown will now cost $5.00 each. Thank you so much cathy47 for being a greedy, ignorant, selfish cow and twisting the law to make it fit for your selfish gain. Thank you for opening my eyes and ruining a good thing for thousands of knitters around the world.