Are crafting "angel policies" legal?
Discussion
I generally have one or other of the dreadful craft-based teleshopping channels on during breakfast; they are nicely soothing. They sell fabrics, stamps, pre-printed paper, cutting dies, and so on.
One thing that keeps coming up is mention of a brand's "angel policy". Essentially some/many brands say that once you've bought their product you dan only use it in a restricted manner. Typically it might be "you may only sell x items a year made with this". Some of the fabrics are "personal use only".
Given that they don't require you to agree to such a licence at purchase, do these have any legal standing?
One thing that keeps coming up is mention of a brand's "angel policy". Essentially some/many brands say that once you've bought their product you dan only use it in a restricted manner. Typically it might be "you may only sell x items a year made with this". Some of the fabrics are "personal use only".
Given that they don't require you to agree to such a licence at purchase, do these have any legal standing?
Sporky said:
I generally have one or other of the dreadful craft-based teleshopping channels on during breakfast; they are nicely soothing. They sell fabrics, stamps, pre-printed paper, cutting dies, and so on.
One thing that keeps coming up is mention of a brand's "angel policy". Essentially some/many brands say that once you've bought their product you dan only use it in a restricted manner. Typically it might be "you may only sell x items a year made with this". Some of the fabrics are "personal use only".
Given that they don't require you to agree to such a licence at purchase, do these have any legal standing?
I imagine there may be an element of 'design copyright'.One thing that keeps coming up is mention of a brand's "angel policy". Essentially some/many brands say that once you've bought their product you dan only use it in a restricted manner. Typically it might be "you may only sell x items a year made with this". Some of the fabrics are "personal use only".
Given that they don't require you to agree to such a licence at purchase, do these have any legal standing?
It's like you can sell a set of plans and license someone to build one boat from it.
You can sell someone a copy of an image which is your copyright, and you can impose restrictions on what they do with it.
I imagine this might extend to designs on fabrics, printed images on material like paper.
I'd be cynical about any scarcity value they are trying to imply.
Copyright and intellectual property are complex and messy.
The people who are flogging the product on TV to amateurs may not own the right to sell it for any other purpose.
So the words may be more about covering their obligations than actually caring what the buyer does.
Is it legal? Well there is no statutory law against it.
Is it enforceable? Depends entirely on the basis of the term of sale. The control will be over the use of the design for commercial purposes, not over the product itself. That would have to be tested, and it is unlikely to ever go to court. People buying these things for making items for craft fairs and the like are never going to come on the radar of the manufacturer. The reality of these clauses are they are basically saying “we will let people use them for a hobby, even if they are selling a few, but we still assert our rights to the copyright”.
Is it enforceable? Depends entirely on the basis of the term of sale. The control will be over the use of the design for commercial purposes, not over the product itself. That would have to be tested, and it is unlikely to ever go to court. People buying these things for making items for craft fairs and the like are never going to come on the radar of the manufacturer. The reality of these clauses are they are basically saying “we will let people use them for a hobby, even if they are selling a few, but we still assert our rights to the copyright”.
OutInTheShed said:
I'd be cynical about any scarcity value they are trying to imply.
I'm not sure that's what they're going for.As far as I can tell they generally seem to want to allow cottage industry use, but not large scale reproduction. The fabric ones are a bit odder though - I think it's usually stuff with Disney characters or similar.
Ta for the replies.
I'm familiar with the CDPA but not familiar with angel policies, so I could be missing something.
My take is that stamps, dies, and equivalent crafting tools are tools for making copies of copyrighted works. Therefore, rights relating to the copyrighted work depicted on the stamp haven't yet been exhausted*. Therefore, the provider of the stamps may have the right to impose conditions on any activities beyond personal use, such as the sale of goods incorporating the copyrighted work.
I don't see how angel policies could validly cover manufactured products like fabrics and buttons. The rights in those should be exhausted.
Many small crafting supply companies have very little awareness of IP law, so it wouldn't surprise me if some angel policies are overly broadly worded.
In any case, for a valid contract to be formed, the conditions should be spelt out clearly and before the purchase.
My take is that stamps, dies, and equivalent crafting tools are tools for making copies of copyrighted works. Therefore, rights relating to the copyrighted work depicted on the stamp haven't yet been exhausted*. Therefore, the provider of the stamps may have the right to impose conditions on any activities beyond personal use, such as the sale of goods incorporating the copyrighted work.
I don't see how angel policies could validly cover manufactured products like fabrics and buttons. The rights in those should be exhausted.
Many small crafting supply companies have very little awareness of IP law, so it wouldn't surprise me if some angel policies are overly broadly worded.
In any case, for a valid contract to be formed, the conditions should be spelt out clearly and before the purchase.
Are you talking about the Cricut machine? If so, there are more than likely to be copyright issues when using it to produce designs using others' work. For those that don't know, the Cricut is a machine similar to a vinyl cutter that can reproduce images fed to it electronically in a variety of materials; as an example, one would be able to 'print' a Minnie Mouse transfer and press it on to a tee shirt. Selling the tee shirt could, potentially, result in the need to obtain permission and/or pay royalties to whoever drew the Minnie Mouse image in the first place.
From their website, it appears that Cricut themselves license machine owners to produce and sell a limited amount of goods featuring images and typefaces downloaded from Cricut's own library. What that means for images of non-Cricut origin is anyone's guess. The terms and conditions also look a tad American to me, despite being on the Cricut UK site. Who knows whether they would stand up in a British court.
I also can't see how such terms could apply to images originally drawn or owned, in the copyright sense, by the Cricut machine owner - also assuming said images do not infringe other copyrights or intellectual property. If one were to draw a picture of 'Cynthia the Squirrel', a currently non-existent cartoon character, and put that on tee shirts, what's the harm?
From their website, it appears that Cricut themselves license machine owners to produce and sell a limited amount of goods featuring images and typefaces downloaded from Cricut's own library. What that means for images of non-Cricut origin is anyone's guess. The terms and conditions also look a tad American to me, despite being on the Cricut UK site. Who knows whether they would stand up in a British court.
I also can't see how such terms could apply to images originally drawn or owned, in the copyright sense, by the Cricut machine owner - also assuming said images do not infringe other copyrights or intellectual property. If one were to draw a picture of 'Cynthia the Squirrel', a currently non-existent cartoon character, and put that on tee shirts, what's the harm?
The Angel Policies are legal, the big question is how enforceable they are.
My wife does a bit of crafting and we are often told of Angel Policies, It is basically a means to try and protect "intellectual copyright"
Using Disney products as an example, my wife has some Disney stamps for making cards. She is not allowed to use them to mass produce cards using "their" design. Problem is mass produced is not defined (usually they state no more than 200 per design per year) she can't use either the stamps or the name Disney in either her business name or logo.
So the question comes how would Disney know how many cards of a particular design my wife has made? Firstly I doubt my wife sells more than 200 cards in total per year (although interestingly the angel policy would also cover any cards she gave to charities that they then sold on)
I suppose something like the Cricut machine might store image numbers used, but how would it know how many of those ended up being used?
My wife does a bit of crafting and we are often told of Angel Policies, It is basically a means to try and protect "intellectual copyright"
Using Disney products as an example, my wife has some Disney stamps for making cards. She is not allowed to use them to mass produce cards using "their" design. Problem is mass produced is not defined (usually they state no more than 200 per design per year) she can't use either the stamps or the name Disney in either her business name or logo.
So the question comes how would Disney know how many cards of a particular design my wife has made? Firstly I doubt my wife sells more than 200 cards in total per year (although interestingly the angel policy would also cover any cards she gave to charities that they then sold on)
I suppose something like the Cricut machine might store image numbers used, but how would it know how many of those ended up being used?
Missy Charm said:
Are you talking about the Cricut machine? If so, there are more than likely to be copyright issues when using it to produce designs using others' work. For those that don't know, the Cricut is a machine similar to a vinyl cutter that can reproduce images fed to it electronically in a variety of materials; as an example, one would be able to 'print' a Minnie Mouse transfer and press it on to a tee shirt. Selling the tee shirt could, potentially, result in the need to obtain permission and/or pay royalties to whoever drew the Minnie Mouse image in the first place.
From their website, it appears that Cricut themselves license machine owners to produce and sell a limited amount of goods featuring images and typefaces downloaded from Cricut's own library. What that means for images of non-Cricut origin is anyone's guess. The terms and conditions also look a tad American to me, despite being on the Cricut UK site. Who knows whether they would stand up in a British court.
I also can't see how such terms could apply to images originally drawn or owned, in the copyright sense, by the Cricut machine owner - also assuming said images do not infringe other copyrights or intellectual property. If one were to draw a picture of 'Cynthia the Squirrel', a currently non-existent cartoon character, and put that on tee shirts, what's the harm?
I have a cricut machine it's great for creating abusive slogans for t-shirts and cars - OK it was lockdown and I was bored. From their website, it appears that Cricut themselves license machine owners to produce and sell a limited amount of goods featuring images and typefaces downloaded from Cricut's own library. What that means for images of non-Cricut origin is anyone's guess. The terms and conditions also look a tad American to me, despite being on the Cricut UK site. Who knows whether they would stand up in a British court.
I also can't see how such terms could apply to images originally drawn or owned, in the copyright sense, by the Cricut machine owner - also assuming said images do not infringe other copyrights or intellectual property. If one were to draw a picture of 'Cynthia the Squirrel', a currently non-existent cartoon character, and put that on tee shirts, what's the harm?
Aren’t they just cheekily trying to imply that if you buy their machine you’ll make such a huge amount of money that cosmic justice requires them to try to stop you becoming richer than Croesus?
Buy my dick enlargement pills. You agree to only sleep with a maximum of 500 supermodels per weekend in Scarborough.
Buy my dick enlargement pills. You agree to only sleep with a maximum of 500 supermodels per weekend in Scarborough.
SpeckledJim said:
Aren’t they just cheekily trying to imply that if you buy their machine you’ll make such a huge amount of money that cosmic justice requires them to try to stop you becoming richer than Croesus?
Buy my dick enlargement pills. You agree to only sleep with a maximum of 500 supermodels per weekend in Scarborough.
Possibly, although Cricut's definition of mass production is more than 10,000 things a year exclusive of other copyright issues. I would think the average Cricut machine will give up the ghost a long time prior to getting anywhere near that level of output. Buy my dick enlargement pills. You agree to only sleep with a maximum of 500 supermodels per weekend in Scarborough.
Furthermore, I doubt annual production of 10,000 pieces using a Cricut machine is even possible. There are 8,760 hours in a year and the machines take 30 minutes to an hour to produce one thing. Running it 24/7 and constantly feeding new designs in might get one close, but there will also be time needed for setup, removal of finished goods, cleaning and maintenance.
Edited by Missy Charm on Thursday 29th December 14:48
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