I know what you mean Na.  I've learned so much from others who share so freely.  I like saying yes, and I like hearing yes too! LOL

I too have had this come up, especially when I teach a puppet making class.  I sell the pattern we use in class (with copyright details... and still people make them to sell :-(   
When I make the same puppet I do "extras" which I do not discuss in class.  Sometimes I am asked about these.  Usually though, someone will say "what I want to know is how you make ... (another puppet).  I explain I do not sell the pattern or teach how to make that puppet.  I have had people admit "I bought one and took it apart to figure it out."  I have no problem with them doing that, as long as they realize that selling them is a copyright infringement. 
Because a lot of my sales (and classes) are to churches and schools, people seem to think I should not enforce the copyright. I've heard everything including "but you are not sharing your God given talent..." 

I do not mind sharing, and love the give and take on this forum.  But I think in some cases (like the one you mentioned) you just have to let it be known that some things will not be shared. 

Because a lot of my sales (and classes) are to churches and schools, people seem to think I should not enforce the copyright. I've heard everything including "but you are not sharing your God given talent..."

To me, this sounds like a bit of a whine... "oh but we're nice people, can't you just bend the rules a bit?"

I think part of it is a complete misunderstanding about copyright. I think many people just see copyright as someone being mean and holding back info when they have a right to it, as though copyright was just some nebulous idea that's not actually practical or applicable. It's also seems to have a lot to do with a notion that if you use it and the artist doesn't know, it won't hurt them - forgetting of course that most artists don't make anywhere near the amounts that billionaire actors/musicians do (the thinking there being that they have billions already, so why bother respecting their copyrights).

I think overall people just don't understand what copyrights do and how they effect people in a practical way.

I have been putting off, but eventually I'll post an article on my site about copyrights, why they should be respected, and how they can affect artists. It will be a complement to my articles on replicas, which whilst explain that you can't find replica puppets/patterns, don't actually explain why copyright is important. I find that whenever I mention replicas people don't get the underlying reasons so the more we can do to explain this to normal people, the more people will actually respect our rights.

Not to deter people from asking, more to deter people from expecting they have a right to ownership of information.

I look forward to reading that article Na. I agree with Angel that I think you have reached the right conclusion on this one.

As for paying it forward - I don't think I would be alone among the P&S community in saying you do that daily.  Don't beat yourself up about declining one request my friend! You are so articulate and so kind that I just know this person will not be left feeling rejected or dismissed by your response.

I look forward to reading that article Na. I agree with Angel that I think you have reached the right conclusion on this one.

As for paying it forward - I don't think I would be alone among the P&S community in saying you do that daily.  Don't beat yourself up about declining one request my friend! You are so articulate and so kind that I just know this person will not be left feeling rejected or dismissed by your response.

Thanks, I think I did too. It's hard to know sometimes though.

As for the article, it's gotten so long I'm going to turn it into a free downloadable ebook. There's just too much for one blog post. I'll probably excerpt some of it for the people looking to make replicas, but the rest will be in the download; it'll include stuff for us puppeteers as well as non-puppeteers.

Thank you for the kind words   Nice to be appreciated!

Dr. Jeff and I have had similar conversations about how we wanted to handle our licensing as well.  Since we're not building puppets for sale (or at least not to the general public) and more focused on content, we decided to go with a Creative Commons license, specifically the Share-Alike, Non-Commercial, Attribution 3.0 license.

With the CC license, people are allowed to use our original patterns, ideas, images and video so long as they follow the conditions of the license. If they use our material, it has to be CC licensed, they cannot sell any of our materials (they couldn't sell a puppet pattern based on our design,  but they can make one for themselves; they could use our videos to illustrate a speech about puppetry, or in a classroom, but they couldn't make a dvd of our works and sell it), and anytime our works are used,  they need to attribute us.

We decided CC was best for us because of a lot of the problems discussed above. The Internet has trained people that if it's on the net, it should be free. Patterns, music, how-to's whatever, you Google it up and it's yours. Instead of fighting it, we'd rather give general permission for use, and save the hassle for the infringements that will effect us most.

We also use a lot of CC and public domain works ourselves, so it's our way of giving back.

It's not for everyone, but it's working for us!