Dallas Quilt Celebration 2013

We had a great time at the Dallas Quilt Celebration and saw many lovely quilts, but there was bad news in this year's program: 

"Quilt Photography.  Taking photos of your favorite quilts to share with friends who couldn't come is part of the quilt show experience.  Please remember a few "rules of thumb" while viewing the many amazing works of art you will see here:

• You may photograph entries in the judged show.  However, please respect the copyright protection to which our quiltmakers are entitled by obtaining written permission from the quiltmaker before posting a photo on the Internet."

I'll comply with the rules, of course, but I think it is a shame.  And with only a name and a city to go by, getting written permission from the maker seems almost impossible.  No one supports copyright protection more than me.  I get irritated with people who disrespect pattern copyrights or somehow think copyright law doesn't apply to them; however, sharing pictures of quilts put forth in a public venue seems different to me.  For one thing, most of the quilts would be impossible to recreate even with a detailed pattern, much less from one of my fuzzy photos.  And if selling patterns is their aim, they are getting free advertising, since I have always provided full attribution.

I'm concerned about this restrictive trend.   I know the guild was probably just listening to their lawyers, but it seemed like the show was smaller this year than in previous years, with both fewer vendors and fewer quilts.  Also, they didn't provide a show cd of all the winners, which was really disappointing.  At the very least, they need to have a mechanism in place where written permission can be easily requested.

The posts I've done on past quilt shows have been some of my most popular posts, so I know this is one way quilters love to share in their craft and get inspired.  Now it has been severely curtailed.  Your thoughts?