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Welcome! Recently, the website was down, and we've
had to move to a new host. But we're back, as you can see! Our
was down, but has changed and it up again! As always, head to
the Forum for discussion and news, and
let us know if you have any questions,
information, or comments!
The Free to Stitch - Free to Bitch
Movement is in no way affiliated with Debbie Stoller or Workman
Press.
Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc., a New York based company, uses aggressive
legal tactics to bully small, social knitting chapters nationwide
over the use of the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant
of those three words. None of these small knitting chapters operates
for profit.
A list of offensive acts are as follows:
- Disabling a large number (exact number pending) of online
shops advertising various local knitting and crafting chapters
by invoking CafePress's terms of service if the chapter made
use of the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant
of those three words. CafePress' terms of service enable CafePress
to shut down these online shops on the basis of an allegation
of trademark infringement that does not need to be proven in
court.
- Causing Yahoo! Groups to shut down or threaten to shut down
a large number of mailing lists (exact number pending) if they
made use of the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant
of those three words. These small social groups of knitters
and crafters depend on these mailing lists to communicate, and
Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc.'s actions have caused harm to these groups'
unity, lost them the ability to communicate with possible members,
and/or caused Yahoo! to delete valuable membership information.
- Claiming they were the very first ever to coin the phrase
"Stitch and Bitch" in 1997.
- Deleting all negative opinions, however civilly worded, from
their guest book and online forum. Even more appalling, they
have edited the very words posted by visitors directing interested
parties to local knitting and crafting chapters. Any links provided
with more information on these local knitting and crafting chapters
have been changed without knowledge or permission of the poster
to lead back to the company's own web site.
Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc. has never once approached any of these
knitting groups themselves to solve the issue amicably. Instead,
they have relied on lawyers and third parties to force these social
groups to remove the term "Stitch and Bitch" or any
variant of those three words. These small circles do not operate
for profit and use the term generically to describe a group of
people that gather to knit, sew, craft, and socialize.
Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc. does in fact own the rights to the service
mark "Stitch & Bitch Cafe" as an online chat room
pertaining to sewing. We believe they hold no trademark on the
more generic term "Stitch and Bitch" or any variant
of those three words, and we believe we have the right to use
the phrase without harassment from this company.
Further history and more in depth documents can be found on our
Info page.
The boycott will officially end once this network of knitting
and crafting chapters are able to do the following without harassment
and threats of legal action from Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc:
- Knitting and/or crafting groups whose sole purpose is to socialize
and not operate for profit will be able to use the term "Stitch
and Bitch" or any variant of those three words on their
web sites, mailing lists, email groups, and advertisements.
- Knitting and/or crafting groups whose sole purpose is to socialize
and not operate for profit will be able to use the term "Stitch
and Bitch" or any variant of those three words on merchandise
and promotional materials. These groups will not receive an
economic profit from these goods, promotional materials or activities,
and any money gained from these materials will be used to cover
the costs associated with their manufacture or given to charity.
- Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc will publicly apologize for their hostile
and aggressive legal tactics.
There's lots of things you can do to help. Start by visiting
our Support page, where you can find:
- a printable version of the boycott to sign and mail to SFSE.
- a printable statement to alternative retailers.
- printable handouts, flyers, and posters.
- buttons and banners.
Most importantly, you must make the decision yourself not to
shop at Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc., nor purchase any of their patterns,
notions, or books. Also, please help the effort by spreading the
word!
We'd like to thank all those who have help spread the word, specifically
national magazines Knit.1
and Vogue
Knitting. You can read the articles from these wonderful magazines
on our Info page.
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