On 7/14/2013 4:07 AM, Mike Hungerford wrote:
The following are my opinions on this subject, and are what I expect
from the members of this group. Feel free to disagree with me, but
DON"T DO IT HERE.
Ethically, if you've paid for something you should have the right to
do with it what you want, up to and including reselling a physical
object such as a commercial model kit, or the assembled result of that
kit.
Things get greyer with purchased digital models, as while you may have
the ability the print and assemble many copies, you really do not have
an ethical right to sell more than one without permission from the
kit's publisher.
With free models, you have no right ethically to sell anything,
whether digital copies, printed copies, or assembled models, but I see
no issue with giving copies away without compensation.
One should at least attempt to obtain permission from the model's
designer before republishing (i.e. posting the files elsewhere),
however.
Mike Hungerford
http://www.chthulhu.com/
Mike
I must disagree with your fourth paragraph. Despite your request not to
'don't do it here', not to indicate my dissent could be misconstrued as
a agreement.
I do not intend to discuss the matter at length - but I will point out
that a couple of years ago there was a case in one of the Australian
jurisdictions where the material facts were similar. It wasn't free
paper model downloads that were at issue - I seem to recall it was
either embroidery patterns or clothing patterns - but the court held
that the copyright owner's claim was limited to copying /redistribution
of the pattern itself. That means you cannot give away copies you have
made of the pattern without the copyright owner's permission. But the
item produced from a pattern is a 'derived work' and the copyright and
ownership in it - the assembled item - belongs to the person to sews it
and he or she can do with it as wished. That multiple items were made
and sold did not concern the court.
If one were intending to assemble and sell multiple items of a kit for
which there is charge - printed or digital - then legally and ethically
one should pay for a kit for each item assembled. That a kit is offered
free of charge would not change that principle. One might argue that in
theory one should download the free kit each time a free model were
assembled, but that seems to go to the /absurdum./
If anyone is interested, I'll try to locate the court report and sent it
to them off-list, on request.
On reflection, it may be possible under contract law to limit the use of
a free pattern by making acceptance of certain limits or restrictions a
condition of the download, but that may vary from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction. Copyright is my specialty, not contract law.
Bob Pounds
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