It’s the case of the dumpster-diving DMCA fighter.
Monsterpatterns.com operator Derek Gendron says he didn’t see anything wrong with posting for sale the discontinued sewing patterns he’d found in the trash heaps near some Jo-Ann craft shops.
But sewing pattern giants McCall Pattern and Simplicity, makers of the patterns, disagreed. In February, the companies successfully convinced Web host Digital River to shut the Monsterpatterns.com site down, saying Gendron had no right to sell their copyrighted work online. “He did not pay for these patterns,” said Robert Hermann, CEO of McCall.
The companies invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which shields Internet service providers from liability if they comply with takedown requests. It seems the long arm of the DMCA, which has been used to crack down on file-swappers, printer cartridge makers and font creators, is now reaching into the competitive world of sewing patterns.
Pirated sewing patterns may not be as hip as the latest copy of “The Matrix: Reloaded,” but they have long found ready buyers. Even before the Internet, people could photocopy patterns and distribute them to others. But the Internet allows people to rapidly copy and disseminate items without permission from their creator, a trend that’s raised the ire of groups such as the Hobby Industry Association.
Salvage man Gendron isn’t giving up, however. He’s found a new host for his site. And last week, he filed a lawsuit in federal court in Detroit, asking a judge to declare his dumpster diving, and the selling of his treasures, legal. He said he never thought his plans to profit from dumpster diving would result in a legal tangle. “I’m not a lawyer,” he said. “I pick garbage.”
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