I'd think that they would need to at least credit the source for the
pattern (the museum); but if the embroidery was on an object with no
traceable creator, thus in the public domain, there is no copyright on
the object to begin with.  Again the question is in the creator of the
work (the pattern)...And by the way, such patterns are painstaking,
highly skilled work (not "slavishly done").

Pat Roath
Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume Collection
Indiana University
[log in to unmask]

On Wed, 19 Feb 1997, N.M. Cummings wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Paid some attention to the discussion about copyrights especially in terms of
> "copying" an artifact -- the example was for a period dress I think.  Okay,
> here's one....
>
> Person contacts a museum and would like to do needlepoint patterns based on
> some embroidery that we have in our collection.  We sell them photos of the
> items in question and they do the necessary work to turn them into patterns on
> a grid and sell the patterns.
>
> What would we charge?  We charge for the photos, and we charge for the
> reproduction of said photos...but they're not going to be reproducing the
> actual photos in their book or patterns I don't think.
>
> Thoughts? Comments? Reply here or directly to <[log in to unmask]> my
> work e-mail address.
>
> -Nina Cummings-
> The Field Museum, Chicago
>
>
>
>
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
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>