No bran shea, you can't photo copy (not with out permission!)
well you can copy for yourself (i often do, so i don't have to carry a whole book around with me, or rip the pages out of the book)
but its not generally acceptable to photo copy (for distribution) a pattern. when you buy a pattern (in a book, in a store, as a pdf download..it's for your personal use. in most cases, you can't donate to a charity auction. (you can donate to charity and you can give away the finished object, but you can't give the FO to a charity to auction off (with out permission)
Libraries (well libraries in US) have library edition of books--these are more expensive than home editions. it is recognized that library edition of a pattern book might have patterns photocopied --(and it's ok to photocopy a reasonable amount of material.. (10% or so) of a library book for personal use..
Just as we have language experts here (and scholars who know can translate latin, german, etc, there are some lawyers who specialize in copyright law who are also knitters.. and there are knitting blog and knitting BB that have whole threads devoted to the details of copyright law (and what is copyrightable (or what is uncopyrightable!)
