I received this e-mail from a stranger this weekend:
Hi – I don’t often visit your website – but I remember it because of your thai pants pattern. I was wondering if you were selling it now on ebay? I saw this just before and I knew I had seen it before:
(link to the eBay Australia auction)
I hope it is you selling it! Good luck with your selling!
No, I don’t sell things on eBay. My pants pattern is free for anyone to use but I have not granted rights for anyone to sell it. It’s one of my all-time most viewed pages–it’s been looked at over 22,000 times since I published it last February.
So I wrote to Kathy the seller on Friday night to tell her that despite her claim in the item’s listing, she did not “own full rights” to the content in her 3 page e-book. I wished her well but asked her to stop selling my pattern.
I haven’t heard from Kathy yet, but someone bought the pattern for five Australian dollars on Saturday and it hasn’t been relisted.
I’ve mailed off the official paperwork to eBay’s VeRO program to assert my right of ownership. I don’t know what will come of it, but we will see.
What other of my works are out there being ripped off?
