Removed thread about Copyright protection

[Neal Moore]

I have only one question regarding this whole incident. Why was this forum chosen to air this greviance? To my knowledge Jeff Zaffino is not a contributer to Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts magazine nor is he a regular visitor to this site. It's truly unfortunate that Mr. Hillberry's drawings were used illegally; however, the intent of this forum is not to air personal grieviances. I wonder what impression this is giving new members who joined to improve their scrolling skills?

[PuzzledMoose]

Originally Posted by J D Hillberry

I apprecate the site admin for keeping this thread up. If not, your community will continue to be fooled.

J. D.

If I remember rightly this thread was closed down .... I doubt it was the site admins intention to put the sticky up for the airing of personal grievances to continue...

[Dragon]

I don't think that this belongs here. As they say "dirty laundry is to be washed in private". That's where this topic belongs.
Diane

[Sue Chrestensen]

Mr. Zaffino is a member of this board and has had contact with any number of other members. He has sold patterns to members of this board who have then cut them and sold them and possibly made a profit from what they believed to be original art. We have supported members of this forum as they have learned to do fretwork and aspired to the skill level required to do a 'Zaffino' design. It does effect us.
As a designer I am very aware of copyright and the various complexities therein. I have read, on this board, many statements which indicate just how little some people know about what is legal and what is not as it pertains to other peoples art be it drawn, painted or photographed etc etc..
This issue effects us all..it will do no good to stick our heads in a pile of sawdust and pretend that none of it happened. The artists who have been ripped off have the right to say that they drew a particular piece... they need our respect..in this forum..not hidden or ignored

[Jediscroller]

Originally Posted by Neal Moore

I have only one question regarding this whole incident. Why was this forum chosen to air this greviance? To my knowledge Jeff Zaffino is not a contributer to Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts magazine nor is he a regular visitor to this site. It's truly unfortunate that Mr. Hillberry's drawings were used illegally; however, the intent of this forum is not to air personal grieviances. I wonder what impression this is giving new members who joined to improve their scrolling skills?

Well said Neal and it's about time someone brought up this curoiousity. This forum is provided by SWWC.

[Greenfield_Bob]

I go along with Diane. I thought this forum was for fun.
The other magazine that he does acticles for has a forum, maybe it should be bought up over there.

Bob

[Daryl185]

I have hesitated to get involved with this as I have always held Jeff Zaffino to the highest levels, I have well over 2 dozen of his patterns, I even have his DVD Mastering Advanced Scroll sawing and just completed his Cheetah and now I am not even sure after reading all these post if its even his pattern and now I may never be able to sell it as I had hoped to do, I can truthfully say I am hurt by all this I feel cheated in a way cause trust has been broken

[Woodbutcher68]

In my post in the now deleted thread, I felt that the matter should have been between the two artists, Mr. Zaffino and Mr. Hilberry. After reading Mr. Hilberry's posts today, I have to retract that post.
Sue is right, "This issue affects us all..", whether we use Mr. Zaffino's patterns or just admire them. It is now apparent that we and members of other forums and readers of magazines have been fooled by Mr. Zaffino.
The ball is now in Mr. Zaffino's court and it is time for him to do the right thing. He's got a long road ahead of him that's full of potholes and hills. Besides the probable legal repercussions, he has violated the trust of the scrollsaw community and that's going to take some doing to repair.

Take a look at page 77 in the Fall 2006 issue of SWWC. It's an ad for Scroller Ltd, but all Zaffino's patterns.

[J D Hillberry]

I'm sorry I didn't look up how often he posts here. I'm not familiar with the different forums and I honestly didn't think it would matter. I choose to post here because on the thread "who came first" my name was brought up and Jeff Zaffino (member name "shadez") responded. I didn’t bring this up here, one of your members did.
I know now that he is involved with the other Magazine but his name does come up quite often here.

[FoxPresident]

I will have Bob post this more prominently tomorrow - but wanted to reply tonight to the online community.


There are three issues to deal with as I see it:
1 - maintaining a useful, positive message board
2 - allowing honest critiques of suppliers to the scrolling community
3 - the need to upgrade standards for recognition of original designers with the spread of the new pattern making software

I'll deal with the first two here, the last is something Shannon began to address in her Editor's letter in the latest issue - but a followup article needs to be done I think.

In order to have the proper combination of 1 and 2 - we need to add something to our rules to deal with handling disputes. As a publisher I know that it is easy for us to be unfairly criticized in various forums by people who don't take the time to check with us first ( their issue is late, we sent duplicate invoices). But I also know that these forums can be useful to swiftly end cheating and shady suppliers.

So - here are the steps to follow if you want to criticize or challenge a supplier in the future.

1 - Address the party in private directly. Give them sufficient time to respond and make things right.
2 - If you don't get satisfaction, escalate the issue. For example, the next step could be to a company manager - someone in authority.
3 - If it is still a problem ask yourself how important the issue is. Only if it's really important and is likely to affect a large number should you post.
4 - If you've gone through the above process and your post is genuinely useful to the scrolling community, we'll allow it. As long as it is respectful and sticks to the facts.

This is just commonsense.
Now, this particular dispute raises a few unique wrinkles, if as charged -copying is going on, quietly being removed when asked but still continuing to copy new artists. None of us at SSWC feel qualified to address the particulars of this dispute at this time, but as this message board is widely read in the scrolling community I expect that this will make all pattern designers straighten up.

Alan Giagnocavo
Founder/President
Fox Chapel Publishing/ Scroll Saw Woodworking and Crafts