I've never understand why they get upset about it. Unless your house is the size of Grand Central Station, or some of the places I saw in Ft. Lauderdale this past week, measuring furniture makes a lot of sense even if you're planning to buy it.
LOL! But he could always buy some Contac Paper with nice butcher block pattern to cover that walnut!
BTW, just picked up a copy of your book, Charlie, and I'm half way through it must say that I'm impressed with the quality of the print job (from China, no less) as well as the amount of concise, handy information arranged in such orderly fashion. Looks like a winner.
Good. I'm delighted you like it. With any luck, it will pay me enough to let me get rid of all my WalMart furniture (in truth, one computer desk that I bought for temporary use three or four years ago). It was probably worth the $49 it cost.
The trouble with "read the acts" as advice is that the "acts" are only part of the story, you also have to read the case law to find out what the courts think that the "acts" mean.
And before you say "the acts are clear", consider the wide variation in interpretation of something as simple as "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".
Actually, it is in the eye of the court. In the US you can sue anybody for anything, but bringing suit doesn't mean that you are going to win.
And yet you claim that the plaintiff rather than the court decides what constitutes copyright violation and lead people down the primrose path of "reading the acts" and ignoring the case law.
Good general advice.
Most of it is designed on the euro 32-mm system, which is public domain. So you would probably be safe, unless there are some very distinct features. The alternative is to look into the 32-mm system, and design your own from scratch. Given the same dimensional constraints for size, and similar woods, it is going to come out very similar.
My pers> A little debate between friends has led me to spill it among the
Greetings and Salutations....
I suspect that "approaching" is not a crime (yet). however, if you reproduce the piece exactly without the original creator's permission, you WOULD be in violation of copyright laws. Now...having said that, it seems that for many cases, there is a 'wink and a nod' exemption. Most places are not going to get bent out of shape over an individual making a copy of their product. Also, frankly, most of the furniture I see in those places is really butt-ugly, and I would not want to reproduce it in the first place. Rather what I would do is get reference materials (books on furniture design, etc), find something elegant, and build my version of that. I will say, though, that I HAVE, in the past, used design details from several different sources, merged together in one unit. If one piece of commercial design has an interesting design for a tambour cover, for example, and, another one has an interesting drawer/pedestal layout, I might well take those elements and recombine them. Of course, I always end up changing them slightly anyway, because I NEVER seem to be satisfied with the exact design. If we were too strict about the whole idea of copyright, I suspect that innovation would grind to a halt, as much of that sort of progress DOES come from exactly the above process...little bits of ideas from other folks being combined in new ways, and added to by the person doing the combining. Regards Dave Mundt
Suppose you see a plain white T shirt that you like and that you are an accomplished tailor. You make a white T shirt that appears identical. Is that OK?
Or, suppose I have a 4 foot long piece of pine lumber that is 3/4" thick and 4.5" wide. Is it OK for you to rip a 4 foot 1X6 to 4.5" width, or do I have some kind of "rights" to those dimensions.
How about a shipping pallet? Is it OK for someone to build a duplicate of one?
What about a plain, slab door? What about a cigar box? How about a clipboard?
And of course, is it OK to copy a Pointy Stick?
Copyrights, I believe, apply to written or recorded work such as books, music, movies, etc, and not to items like chairs or tables. The PLANS to the chair or table could certainly be copyrighted.
The answer to "all of the above" is that copyright only protects the "unique" creative effort that goes into a work.
"Non-unique" characteristics are not protected.
A special Wasserman test will be administered, to see if you can identify the unique creative elements in each of the above items.
You are in error.
"ships hulls" are one item that is _specifically_ mentioned in the copyright statutes.
*IF*and *ONLY*IF*, there is sufficient "unique creative effort" in the piece to merit copyright protection of those 'unique' features.
Absent 'unqiue creative effort' copyright does *not* attach.
The textbook example is the 'white pages' of a telephone directory. It is just a mechanical compliation of facts. the creative effort element is lacking. Copyright protection of those 'facts does _not_ exist. *NOT* my opinion -- so said the U.S. Sup. Ct.
((snipped))
You missed a couple of important points in this message. Time! The piece one copys may well be a copy of some long ago expression. Even if it is not, the "copyright" may well have expired, if it ever existed. More importantly, the piece being copied, may not be copyrightable, i.e., it is a common idea.
The subject keeps coming up, but I really can't imagine anyone giving this idea much concern except for pieces that are considered "art." Even in that case, an actual copy in wood of someone else's art, would be very difficult. And of course there is always the exception of making something for one for personal use.
I don't think there is any 'one-off for personal use' exception in the statutes.
As a practical matter it just isn't worth suing someone for that sort of violation.
Some pretty good info here:
I didn't say anything about a "one off." Make anything you want in any amount for personal use--copyrighted, patented. We're talking about normal stuff and not computer programs which are a confused mess with shrink wrapped licenses, etc.
Still, the chance of violating a copyright in furniture by looking at and measuring an item is virtually zero because the designer is long dead, the expression is obvious and inevitable, or you wasn't get it exactly like the model anyway.
OK, I misrepresented your remarks.
There is no exception in copyright or patent law for items copied for personal use.
Actually, computer programs are the one area where the statutes specifically _allow_ making a copy regardless of any licenses or contracts or anything else.
You, sir, "know not that of which you speak".
Ok, I don't know what I speak of.
Most of the furniture that I've made, if I didn't have a purchased plan, came from going into high end furniture stores and getting basic dimensions on a piece. What I made never exactly matched what was in the store. sales people look at you funny when you measure pieces.
If it is aga>A little debate between friends has led me to spill it among the
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