Who Owns a Tarot Spread?

From what I know, the spread is in fact copyrighted. It appeared in two
e-publications that are themselves copyrighted, so the spread must be, too. And it still got used without permission!

I've been snooping around the web, though, and I've found that the problem is more widespread than I had realized. Pinterest doesn't appear to be the main offender. It's reallly Tumblr. That's where most of the pins on Pinterest came from.

I searched Tumblr and found this image. My spread is the one on the right, with the orange box.

http://www.tumblr.com/search/The+Haunted+House+Tarot+Spread

That is the artwork that I've been finding all over the web, on anything tarot-related on Tumblr or Pinterest. It always has that same orange background, with that black line drawing of a haunted house (either Clip-Art, or something stolen from another source). Right now the spread has 194 likes (notes). But people aren't just liking it. They are reblogging it from one Tumblr site to another. There must be a dozen different blogs with this spread, always with the same artwork.

The person who originally appropriated the spread (and did the art for it) most likely got it from AT, and did not know it was copyrighted. I am certain that it did not come from the copyrighted sources that the spread appeared in. The person was most likely an unscrupulous lurker.

At this point, I don't know what to do. It bugs me, though.

ETA: The link I gave above no longer shows my spread. It shows the spread that replaced mine on the AM website.

This brings to light something I've been concerned about for a while. I used to post my experimental spreads here with no thought to how they might be used. But I certainly don't want someone making money from them when I was offering them for free. So I stopped posting them. More recently, I've gathered together a group of spreads I've developed to expand upon the "cross" idea and put them in a private publication with an appropriate copyright notice on it. The research I've done shows that you no longer have to register to obtain copyright protection, you just have to "publish" in some more-or-less formal fashion. Proving ownership may still be difficult in a dispute, but each spread is supported by comprehensive development notes of my own creation that explain the logic behind the designs. So the layouts and the text are linked together by shared positional keywords and descriptive narrative, which might strengthen my case. All I need to do now is set up a blog where I can offer these booklets in a controlled manner, or maybe offer them to local "book, candle and incense" shops on a consignment basis. I'm very much aware that internet content is often considered free to the public, even when no such thing was intended by the originator, but getting ripped off seems to be a routine event that we have to be vigilant about.

Just to murky the waters, there is a book called Tarot Spreads Collection by Velvet Angel. There are 300 spreads in the book, some of which I recognize from Aeclectic, most of which I recognize from other books. You can tell that the original spreads were photocopied from their original sources and put together in her book because there isn't a consistent look and feel to the layouts. And no credit is given anywhere in the book to the sources of the spreads.

I believe (but have no proof) that recipes can't be copyrighted. I'm guessing spreads also can't be copyrighted. A collection of recipes or spreads can be copyrighted, but individual ones? I doubt it. But again, I have no proof.

Rodney

rwcarter said:

I believe (but have no proof) that recipes can't be copyrighted. I'm guessing spreads also can't be copyrighted. A collection of recipes or spreads can be copyrighted, but individual ones? I doubt it. But again, I have no proof.

Rodney

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Ha ha ha - the gray area becomes that you are not copywriting the 'recipe' - peanut butter fudge is peanut butter fudge - but you are copyrighting the 'language' of the recipe. You are not copyrighting any one recipe in the book - you are copyrighting the selection, the editing process, and the ORDER of the recipes in the book.

When I compiled (notice the wording) my three books on superstitions the first book (the Tarot one) clearly states that it was written by contributions from ATers. That was O.K. with the publisher. However, the Cooking and the Sewing superstition compilations were mostly found in the public domain - and therefore I could NOT claim a copyright on the 'content' - which is out there in bits on the Internet - but I COULD copyright the fact that the research, selection, editing, and order of the public domain material was all done by me. So although I cannot copyright "Ben Franklin said 'A Stitch in Time Saves Nine' ", the order of the 25 quotes in that chapter are what is copyrighted.

I don't think you can take out a patent on the written word.

I can see where Niclas is coming from. It would be considered to patent the "method" of the spread, in the same way that games are patented (the same would be for example in Canada, USA and UK). However, artwork, written text and the like would certainly be copyrighted. Makes for an interesting legal debate. It's a very good question.

Metafizzypop said:

I searched Tumblr and found this image. My spread is the one on the right, with the orange box.

http://www.tumblr.com/search/The+Haunted+House+Tarot+Spread

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Did you write the text, and they just copied it onto the graphic with the orange background?

Debra said:

Did you write the text, and they just copied it onto the graphic with the orange background?

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Yes, the text is exactly how I wrote it.

Uggh, your post inspired me to check if any of the spreads I posted here a long time ago were also out there on the web and sure enough, one was, exact word for word, on a psychic readings for money site. No credit whatsoever to Aeclectic or myself. I don't mind people using the spread, that's why I posted it, but to make money off it and claim it as your own..that's irritating. I feel your frustration, Metafizzypop.

Grizabella said:

You have to pick your battles. You can use X number of words exerpted from a text someone else wrote and it's fine. The number of words used in "your" spread probably falls within that legal limit, first of all.

Second of all, you can't copyright an idea and a Tarot spread might fall into that category in my opinion.

Thirdly, what's the difference? Are you going to patent that spread and make a thousand bucks off of it? Heck, no! It's not that precious.

Last but not least---you're getting upset because they used your spread idea without giving credit to Metafizzypop???

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Exactly like this.

I put a pinterest block into the html on my blog.
It amazes me when people contact me asking me to remove the block so they can pin full posts w/image...

I'm sorry you were thieved...but courtesy and common sense are a thing of the past.