Elephant In The Crafting World

There is an old saying "elephant in the room" which is a metaphor for an obvious thing that is ignored or not discussed. According to Wikipedia it is "based on the idea that an elephant in a room would be impossible to overlook; thus, people in the room who pretend the elephant is not there have chosen to avoid dealing with the looming big issue". Well today I am going to talk about the "Elephant in the Crafting World", or rather the elephant in the world of die-cutting machines. The Elephant to which I am referring is the one concerning a CD that contains SVG files for 270 Cricut Cartridges.

I heard about this elephant sometime ago and how it was floating around the crafting world. As the rumor goes, a disgruntled employee made the CD before leaving or being released *okie isn't sure which version, if either, is true*. I know there have been many people talking in hushed tones about this CD. How this CD was released to others is part of the story I can't seem to find, evidently that part is a bit sketchy. I do know there have been stories of copies being sold on eBay, websites offering downloads, CD's being sent through the mail to others and even some folks being bold enough to sell certain images from the CD of certain hard to obtain cartridges.

As the story goes, or at least how I have heard it, ProvoCraft has tried to shut down any talk or exchange of the CD, and if there was any evidence on websites have it removed by individuals offering the coveted files. Now this caused much panic about what would happen if people admitted to having these files. And thus, lead to the hushed whispering discussions about the CD. I wonder what would the repercussions be if someone came out and said "YEP! I got that dang CD and ya know what...I'M USING IT!"? Would ProvoCraft try and come take way the offenders machines, computers and anything related to their products? *okie pictures men in Cricut suits knocking on doors and strong arming their way into homes across the country, storming into the craft rooms of those homes and disassembling all the contents in search of the elusive files*. Would ProvoCraft slap lawsuits on the individual for infringement of copyright? I believe that is what has lead to the "Elephant in the crafting world" and how no one openly discusses the fact that the CD is in existence. And yes folks, IT DOES EXIST!

Now I am wonder what would happen if people weren't trying to sell the elusive files, but instead share them freely. Would that be against the Golden Laws of ProvoCraft? Would the Sheriff of Nottingcricut be able to enter the craftrooms and demand taxes for use of the files or if the person refused, would the Sheriff cut off the hand of the offender? *okie wonders sometimes if her imagination gets the best of her*.

I also have given thought to how much money ProvoCraft has lost due to this CD being released out there somewhere. But ya know it's not like you can't import any image into the programs like Make The Cut and Sure Cuts A Lot and make your own cutting file. Heck you can even do a screenshot of any of the Cricut images and import those. Of course most of the instructions on how to do that have been removed due to threats of legal ramifications. It doesn't mean it isn't being done though, everyone knows it is being done.

A link was posted not long ago for a website that claims to have 300 cartridges in digital format and you can buy one or all of them. There is only one post on this blog and no comments so I am not sure how legit it is, but it is there.

Okay, I talked about it...I talked about the elephant in the crafting world. It's out in the open as far as I am concerned and I feel much better. So shall we stop whispering about this dang thing and just say "Yep, that CD does exist".