Exactly. In my opinion the right violation can be only on the brand mark, if it has been registered and if Thomann lutes had it on them. There could not be a copyright on a lute design, in my opinion, as they are from historical designs which are public domain. Probably if the LDD rosette was a very special design they could register it but it is a standard original design that every luthier has used once in his life.
It is like the copyright on fonts. One can copyright the font file, that is the computer instructions that permit the rendering of the typeface on screen and printer, but cannot copyright the typeface, the actual aspect of the characters. If there is some special lute feature exclusive of LDD lutes, that could be copyrighted, but if they are "almost" traditional I think everyone is authorized to make an identical lute. At the end it is even difficult to say if the plan used is protected. In principle yes, but one could have copied one of the already built lutes, as it is usually done with the museum lutes, and have his own plane. To be honest, in this case it seems there is not even a guarantee that those lutes didn't come from the same factory. If this is the case both Thomann and LDD have been tricked by the Chinese makers and LDD should complain with the Chinese maker, if there is a contract of exclusive supply. If the Chinese didn't sign a contract in exclusive they might even be in their right to sell the same lute to other brands... On a more "philosophical" view: wasn't it better to allow young luthiers to have a market instead of put this also in the hands of Chinese mass building? If young luthiers will not have a market and will not be able to grow up professionally to the verge of the art, what you will get in a few years is the same standard, cheap instruments, maybe good enough but without personality. Francesco > -----Messaggio originale----- > Da: lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu <lute-arc@new-old- > mail.cs.dartmouth.edu> Per conto di David van Ooijen > Inviato: venerdì 20 settembre 2019 11:00 > Cc: Lute List <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> > Oggetto: [LUTE] Re: Thomann Canterella and LLD lutes > > I think the author of the video is too quick in accusing Thomann > instead of the Chinese supplier. Chinese suppliers of copied > instruments often use the pictures from the originals, and not form > their own work. If you go internet shopping for a cheap Chinese Gibson, > Fender or fancy jazz guitar, you'll find the suppliers use the pictures > taken from the websites of the original guitars, and not pictures from > what you will actually get. I'm sure Thomann violates copyright laws by > distributing these instruments, if they actually did because in all the > stories I haven't heard anyone yet who actually bought one of the > Thomann Chanterelle copycat lutes, but I think the focus of LDD should > be at looking at what's going on at their Chinese lute supplier. > On a side note. I'm interested in the copyright on a historically > accurate lute. If a luthier makes a historically accurate lute, whose > copyright are you infringing if you make that same historically > accurate lute? > David > ******************************* > David van Ooijen > [1]davidvanooi...@gmail.com > [2]www.davidvanooijen.nl > ******************************* > > On Fri, 20 Sep 2019 at 10:39, Anthony Hind > <[3]agno3ph...@mail.cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote: > > Dear Bruno and other Lutenists > Following on from questions raised by Bruno Carneiro and > others > about Thomann Canterlla lutes being possible copies of LLD lutes, > I see > Braedon Hofmann has posted this video about this question: > [1][4]https://youtu.be/VcOIeVwCOv0 > Regards > Anthony > [2]Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone > -- > References > 1. [5]https://youtu.be/VcOIeVwCOv0 > 2. [6]https://yho.com/footer0 > To get on or off this list see list information at > [7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > -- > > References > > 1. mailto:davidvanooi...@gmail.com > 2. http://www.davidvanooijen.nl/ > 3. mailto:agno3ph...@mail.cs.dartmouth.edu > 4. https://youtu.be/VcOIeVwCOv0 > 5. https://youtu.be/VcOIeVwCOv0 > 6. https://yho.com/footer0 > 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
