Needlework Swaps on Net

* Re “Is a Stitch Online a Crime?” Aug. 1: Oh, well. I am a grandmother, but I’m not sure what the grandmotherly type is. All needlework is not needlepoint, as you undoubtedly know. There are: cross-stitch, crewel, black work, red work, pettipoint, canvas work, counted thread work and the various surface stitches. The charts and even the types of materials used to do these are almost as various as the stitches and types themselves.

Pirating copyrighted work is as old as the copyright laws themselves and as new as today. China, among others, has been accused of pirating films and music. There is a large market for pirated movies on video. Authors of published works have had their work pirated in all the nations of the world, so pirating music or needlework charts is not a new phenomenon; it is the method that is new and, as with all other copyright infractions, should be treated as a felony. It is theft.

Even a simple needlework design takes many hours to bring to completion and many more to bring to publication. Doesn’t it seem reasonable to request that the piggy people and the oink people, if they can’t afford to buy charts, design and publish their own on their networks?

CAROLYN B. POTTS

Palm Desert

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* OK, I was afraid it would come down to this: students stealing music and grannies stealing needlework designs. We might simply have to turn off the Internet!

DARREN HAYLOCK

Palmdale