Fox Network

[Kheldarson]

I'm sure most of you already know about this but:

Fox is cracking down on small sellers of the Jayne hat. So Etsy users and Facebook sellers.

I just really want to know why they can't get fandom outside of the Simpsons and all of its ripoffs.

[PepperElf]

i suspect this won't be the first firefly product to get targeted.
when it comes to shirts, coats, whatever... outside of the DVDs, books, etc... there IS no official merchandise. but if they're doing this than... what else will be next.


bit ironic considering the line "you can't take the sky from me"


but for those who can't knit... there's always knifty knitter. my jayne hat was made that way. if i ever find my pattern, i'll share it here. cos technically it's just a knitted hat with flaps, and I developed the loom pattern myself.

after all you can make it with other colors, right? I have one that has red flaps, a pink middle, and a white top.

[Kheldarson]

Actually, a few Etsy sellers have already reported their listings for related jewelry have been pulled.

And if I'm willing to buy yarn if somebody else will knit (I can barely get through a cross-stitch!). I like Think Geek, but I won't buy a Jayne hat from them.

[PepperElf]

think geek isn't behind this.
they have an official statement on their website.

Ripple Junction is the company that has the license.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...se-money.shtml



And if anyone wants: here's my pattern for ear-flap hats on a knifty knitter loom. They're not as good as the ones you get in stores, or the other handmade ones but if you just want to make a quick one this will work well enough.

Yellow round loom: (41 pegs)
Yarn is doubled (2 ply etc)

Ear flaps
- start each one independently on the loom. They're positioned about equidistant from each other, and the starting row is 3 pegs long. IIRC it was approx 9 or so to the left & right of the center peg.

3 pegs: 4 rows
5 pegs: 4 rows
7 pegs: 4 rows
9 pegs: 4 rows
Repeat for other flap.
leave the yarn ends loose. you can tie them into the main hat when you're done.
don't take them off either. they'll just be knitted into the main hat as you go on etc*

Then I knitted the hat part, again with an E-loop, all the way around. 15 rows for the middle color, 15 for the top color.
Then use a yarn needle to take the rows off and tighten them into the top of the hat.

Pompom: wrap all 3 colors into a loose circle. i find 4 fingers wide is good. Then take some long yarn and use it to tie the circle in the middle making it look like an 8. leave the "tie yarn" ends long - you'll use them to sew the pompom onto the hat. cut the loops on the 8 at the very ends and then you have a pom pom.


* this is why my pattern is a quicky one. you don't get the cute ridge between the flaps & the main body of the hat. but i didn't want to pay for them.


Knit hats have had ear flaps for as long as knitting existed. So technically this isn't a jayne hat pattern, cos... you don't have to use red/orange/yellow for it. Like I said above, I have one that's red/pink/white.

I decided the "real" pattern is to have the ear flaps & top to be 2 different colors, and the middle part to be the combination of those colors. So I could make one with blue flaps, a green middle, and a yellow top.

Or I could just do whatever i want with the colors and make it pink, purple, orange.



Of course... the big question isn't just whether or not the hats are licensed but... can you really put a trademark on what is such a simplistic pattern?

[Kheldarson]

I was just saying Think Geek and therefore Fox won't get my money on a Jayne hat.

But Etsy knitters ask the same by making "not-Jayne hats". I like the sentiment, although the story a seller wrote at the bottom seemed a little overkill...

[Akasa]

They're also selling them as "Jane hats"

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I've also seen them as "Autumn Colored Yarn Knit Caps with Ear Flaps"

[Andara Bledin]

Alas, the trademark on Jayne's hat didn't quite expire before they started enforcing their claim on it.

Honestly, I can't find it in me to be upset about it. People had most of a decade to flood the market with these things before anybody decided to make an official version and tell the rest of the crowd that they couldn't keep trampling all over someone else's IP.

And there is nothing to stop people from just selling them without direct reference to either the show or the character. It is, after all, just a hat in what are fairly typical colors.

[Ginger Tea]

An effing long multi coloured scarf is associated with Tom Baker's Doctor, but at the end of the day it is a multi coloured scarf, a home made scarf might be sold with photographs of a model cosplaying as that doctor to aid the awareness that it is after all meant to be The Doctor's Scarf, but most would see the same scarf wrapped round a 'nude' mannequin and know instantly it's a scarf for Tom Baker whovians.

This hat however, my mum made me one kinda like it when I was still in school, it's not that special and even if firefly fans had not taken it up as a badge of honour (esp as said single episode appearance never aired in the original run, according to one link, only seen serenity myself) people would still be knitting that kinda hat, in that kinda colour scheme as it's a nice Autumn colour.

If however they used a product that was available in retail stores or once was but it faded out of fasion, eg a retro show brought it back cos the character in the time frame would be wearing it and fans of the show wanted it, I could see them going after fan made stores.

The Cambridge satchel company (only know of them due to chrome YouTube infomercials) based their design of an already established but out of fashion for so long item, yet they got pissy when their factory started making their own stock of similarly cut bags. Cheeky yes, unethical maybe, but when you aren't even making an original product yourself STFU.
The only thing really would be that they also used the same garish colours, but I guess at the time they were prelevant there were dozens of companies making satchels for school children, none exist today or make them as the market collapsed for decades and they moved on.
If one of the old factories re-started using their old templates, her company would not have a leg to stand on when it came to 'infringement'.