Open Source... Sewing?

from the stitch-it-up dept

Mon, Apr 16th 2007 3:17am — Mike Masnick

Apparently this is the month for the fashion industry to teach some lessons to other industries that you don't need to focus on protecting your intellectual property when, instead, you can use it to promote products to sell. First there was the research showing how a lack of intellectual property protection on fashion designs helped grow the industry by making it faster to change and faster to innovate. Now, Portia writes in with an example of a company that sells high-end sewing patterns that has decided to adopt an "open source" attitude. Basically, the company has recognized that obscurity or disinterest is a much bigger risk its business than "piracy." So, with that in mind, it's removed the copyright on its designs, asked people to feel free to improve on them -- and even encourages people to make money selling the improved designs. The only thing the company asks for is attribution of where the design originated from. What gave Hubert Burda, the chairman of the company, the idea? "He said we should not make the same mistakes as record companies did with copy restrictions."

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27 Comments

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dorpus, 16 Apr 2007 @ 3:43am

Unless
Italian fashion designers jealously guard their fashion labels and go after counterfeiters and imitators. Nike, Reebok, NFL, all go after counterfeiters/imitators. And yes, there are still millions of stupid people willing to pay double for an "authentic" product, even when it is often made of inferior material.
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Jack Sombra, 16 Apr 2007 @ 5:00am

"counterfeiters and imitators"
Huge difference between the two
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- dorpus, 16 Apr 2007 @ 5:04am
  
  Re:
  Not really. Some factory in China could make clothes that look identical to a name brand, with a slightly altered logo.
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haywood, 16 Apr 2007 @ 6:39am

Back to the topic....
Disinterest is exactly the biggest foe. The labels are seeing this one come home to roost. Hollywood is still in denial, but the megaplex may soon go the way of Tower records. It isn't that they are losing the battle to free downloads, most of the downloaders wouldn't pay anyhow, and would simply do without. They are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the general public.
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chris (profile), 16 Apr 2007 @ 6:50am

innovation in fashion?
forgive me for being so ignorant, but just how has the fashion industry innovated anything since the 1800's?

the last technological advance in fashion that i can think of was levi strauss during the gold rush in 1849.

pants technology pretty much peaked then and hasn't progressed much since then.

the fashion industry is good at invalidating last years "innovations" and replacing them with this years "model"... but it's not like shirts and pants are able to do things that they weren't able to do 10 years ago.
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dorpus, 16 Apr 2007 @ 6:59am

How is music different from fashion?
Music has not invented anything to speak of either -- does Elvis's rock or rap music count as "innovations"? Both industries rely entirely on human irrationality to sell their product. They are inherently worthless products whose value is determined by the human herding instinct.
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:34am
  
  Re: How is music different from fashion?
  "They are inherently worthless products whose value is determined by the human herding instinct"
  
  Yes, and that can be said of almost ANYTHING.
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dorpus, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:04am

Symmetry
In the Western world, the fashion industry has created an unhealthy obsession with being rail-thin. In the Islamic world, the fashion industry has created an unhealthy obsession with being fat.

As described in the links below, girls in Islamic countries are sent to fattening camps where they are force-fed 4 liters of milk and couscous for breakfast, made to swallow their own vomit, given vigorous stomach massages to stretch their stomachs bigger, and the skin on their arms and thighs break from gaining too much weight.

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/395

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/3429903.stm
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Innovation, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:07am

Idiots
Did anyone ever say that the fashion industry made TECHNOLOGICAL advances? Hello?

Innovation. As in the reason why we wear shirts and pants now instead of leggings, powdered wigs, and tight jackets. And why women no longer wear hoop skirts and corsets. Idiot.

Of course Elvis was an innovator. Rap music was an innovation. Reggaeton is an innovation. What does innovation have to do with a product being "inherently worthless"? Since when is the definition of innovation inextricably linked to value?

Duh.
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- dorpus, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:15am
  
  Re: Idiots
  So instead, we wear too-tight jeans that harm the sperm count, get harmful body piercings, get harmful suntans, harmful tattoos, uncomfortable neckties. Do these things have any inherent value, or is it just a social symbol? What is music, besides so many sounds? Only the irrationality of the human mind perceives any value in it.
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  - haywood, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:24am
    
    Re: Re: Idiots
    "Only the irrationality of the human mind perceives any value in it."
    
    My cows like Motown, my plants like Mozart.
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    - dorpus, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:25am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Idiots
      Do humans see what they want to see? That is a well-established observation.
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      - haywood, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:33am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Idiots
        All I can tell you is that in my tests, the cows disliked classical music & would walk out on a performance, but would assemble for Motown. The plants are harder to gauge.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:36am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Idiots
        Well clearly you see what you want to, but probably not what others want.
        
        What you find of no value others find as value. If you feel music is just so many sounds, then vision is just so many images and life just a waste of time.
        
        Perhaps you should end yours and spare us your idiot comments?
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        dorpus, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:40am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Idiots
        Your comments come from a Western tradition in which statues of naked men and music are held in high regard. In Islamic cultures, music is viewed as sinful, and an enlightened person has no need for it.
        
        Western cultures claim to value freedom, but expect conformist worship of their naked men and noises.
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        Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2007 @ 7:58am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Idiots
        But at least we wont kill our government officials for hugging someone, or stone people to death for "immoral behavior" and 3 warnings, or worse, strap bombs on our kids and send them out to kill people we just dont like
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        dorpus, 16 Apr 2007 @ 8:01am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Idiots
        Instead, we live a stressful lifestyle of tolerating immoral behavior by others.
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  - mandi, 28 Sep 2007 @ 9:45am
    
    Re: Re: Idiots
    Tattoos and piercings are NOT harmful if they are done in a safe, sterile environment with sterile equipment and jewelry. The only time a good tattoo or piercing is harmful is if the person who has it does not care for it properly.
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William, 16 Apr 2007 @ 8:25am

this is stupid
Even a cursory look at the fashion industry should reveal one thing. Style is easy to copy and therefore all the value is in the name brand. And that is only a status symbol that is very fickle. Whatever the richest people in society wear will be imitated by those below them. And once other people start to wear it they move on to new things to differentiate themselves. And there you have it the fashion industry. An endless game of keep up.
That and dorpus is an idiot
But I think you missed the point of the article. People don't make their own clothes anymore so patterns are mostly worthless. This is an attempt to bring the hobbyist too their company by giving them more freedom. But in the end they are making buggy whips.
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Xenohacker@hotmail.com, 16 Apr 2007 @ 8:29am

If It Were Really Open Source, Then I Digress...
Open source often allows innovation without the burden of corporate profit. If they were truly trying to innovate they would make the whole sewing machine open and allow customers to submit their improvements. I have noticed fashion has gradually seen people wearing less and less clothing over the years. I hope to live to see the day that women walking around in thong bakinis in public is typical. :-) Yeah!!! Just think of being at a concert with hundreds of thong wearing women bumping up against you all night. :-) Do women sew their thongs? I hope you liked those visuals... but, you are now 1 notch stupider for having read this... :-P
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- Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2007 @ 9:39am
  
  Re: If It Were Really Open Source, Then I Digress.
  My visual is hundreds of those women in thongs, 40-60lbs overweight. Do you really want to see that?
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Effeminem, 16 Apr 2007 @ 9:55am

Why don't the posters just admit that they don't believe in the concept of intellectual property? CNN has more subtle spin than this.
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F, 16 Apr 2007 @ 10:58am

Uncomfortable Clothing?
"So instead, we wear too-tight jeans that harm the sperm count, get harmful body piercings, get harmful suntans, harmful tattoos, uncomfortable neckties. Do these things have any inherent value, or is it just a social symbol? What is music, besides so many sounds? Only the irrationality of the human mind perceives any value in it."

Body piercings and tattoos have been around for centuries. Too-tight jeans that harm the sperm count? What about corsets that caused women to faint and pass an inordinate amount of gas? What does comfort have to do with the value of clothing? You contest the value of clothing and music. What is the value of food? What is the value of toilets? What is the value of brushing your teeth?

Your comment about the irrationality of the human mind is an excellent example of the irrationality of the human mind. Congratulations.
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- dorpus, 16 Apr 2007 @ 11:05am
  
  Re: Uncomfortable Clothing?
  Body piercings and tattoos have been around for centuries. Too-tight jeans that harm the sperm count? What about corsets that caused women to faint and pass an inordinate amount of gas?
  
  So, why hurt yourself for no reason? Because humans are irrational.
  
  What is the value of food?What is the value of toilets? What is the value of brushing your teeth?
  
  How do people live without them? Uncomfortable clothes serve no purpose other than to look stupid.
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DorpusEater, 16 Apr 2007 @ 3:49pm

Feeding the Trolls
By eating bread and water every day (yes, still food, but you know what I mean), using outhouses, and rinsing out their mouths with water and losing their teeth early like they did in the good old days. Point being that comfort alone has never been the sole essential element of clothing and you're wrong to think so.
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vapiddreamer, 16 Apr 2007 @ 3:52pm

DORPUS
Why are you such an argumentative jack-ass?? Do you thrill in playing devils advocate or do you just not have anything to contribute that doesn't involve ripping into someone else. I hate you and agree, spare us by just ending it already.
"Only the irrationality of the human mind perceives any value in it." and the only mind that perceives any value in YOU would apparently be, well-- YOU, cause the rest of us wish you would just shut the hell up.
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- Alucardbsm, 16 Apr 2007 @ 11:30pm
  
  Re: DORPUS
  I agree with this statement. Shut the hell up dorpass.
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