Copyright Question

[WayneMahler]

Okay, so the wife has been going through all the books and magazines I have. Looking to add to our inventory for doing shows. She found a pattern for a Humpty Dumpty ( Creative Woodworking  June, 2010 ) wall plaque and was thinking it was a night light for a child's bedroom. It is just a flat plaque. If I was to change this to a night light pattern would it become my pattern of would the original copyright stay in place? I know this is a grey area and I can do this for myself, but was thinking I may be able to share the pattern once all the bugs were worked out for it?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Edited February 15, 2016 by WayneMahler

[Birchbark]

This is just my opinion.  Everybodys got one.  But i'm thinking that the image is copyrighted.  If you stick that image on a nightlight, or a box, or a football helmet, it is not your image, that image is copyrighted.  Draw a picture of humpty dumpty and it's yours.  You can put it on anything you want.   I can't use it unless i ask your permission.  But like i said, that's just my opinion, i'm not a copyright lawyer, so take it for what its worth.

 

Russell

[crupiea]

I as well have about zero legal training but I do have a take on this subject.

 

I look at tattoos as an example.

 

Lots of people with star wars or disney tattoos, clearly copyrighted material but you dont see disney hunting them down making them remove it, nor do hear about them pursuing tattoo artists for putting them on people.

 

Obviously if he says its officially licensed disney merchandise then that would be trouble. Look at etsy or ebay and search for homemade stuff, lots of mickeys, donald ducks, you name it.

 

I used to sell ebay logos on ebay, looked just like their logo.  They never said a word about it.  i didnt say it was an officlal ebay logo but people could obviously see what it was.

Edited February 15, 2016 by crupiea

[NC Scroller]

Also not a lawyer.  If you are making finished product based on the Creative Woodworks design you are OK.  Just do not mass produce them.  Making a handful or even a couple dozen for your craft show inventory is not mass producing them.  Making thousand is mass producing them  The only except is if the article specifically stated you can not make items for sale based on that particular design. 

 

You can not make, sell or otherwise distribute copies of the original design. 

[Lucky2]

Wayne, unless you make significant changes to the pattern design itself, you can not lay claim to the pattern. Making it into a night light doesn't change the pattern, it's just a different way of displaying it. I am not a lawyer, but, this is what I got for an answer from a lawyer when I inquired about the same issue.

Len

[WayneMahler]

Thank you all for the input.. I'm not looking for mass production or even claiming "my" design. Somewhere in years gone by I thought I read that a certain percentage of change your could re-label it. I'll post a picture of the finished product once done. Thank you again for the input, and insight.

[amazingkevin]

Some incite to the problem is in "USER GUIDE LINES" on the bottom right of most pages in SSV

[orangeman]

This may help.

 

I recently bought a clip art image and the license gives me the right to use it for commercial purposes. I intend to use the image in creating a puzzle with some modifications. With the modifications you can still tell I used the copyrighted image  for the basic design.

 

I then asked the folks who I bought it from if I could submit my puzzle to a magazine for publication. The magazine would copyright my puzzle design so somebody could not sell the puzzle pattern. They said no way! The copyright remains with the original author although I purchased the right to use it commercially via selling puzzles.

[WayneMahler]

This may help.

 

I recently bought a clip art image and the license gives me the right to use it for commercial purposes. I intend to use the image in creating a puzzle with some modifications. With the modifications you can still tell I used the copyrighted image  for the basic design.

 

I then asked the folks who I bought it from if I could submit my puzzle to a magazine for publication. The magazine would copyright my puzzle design so somebody could not sell the puzzle pattern. They said no way! The copyright remains with the original author although I purchased the right to use it commercially via selling puzzles.

 

This makes sense to me. And is sort of my thoughts but wanted to ask to be safe and sure. Somewhere way back in history I remember reading a topic about changing a pattern by greater then 20 % but could not remember the whole article or find it again. I do give credit to the original designer when I display my works. 

 

Thanks everyone for all the input and feedback. Greatly appreciated

[kywoodmaster]

Wayne I think that 20 % thing has to do with a patent on a product. Copyright is somewhat different.