...And after Mike specifically asked not to be argued with HERE... -Blondie
On Saturday, July 13, 2013 3:56:06 PM UTC-5, Bob Pounds wrote: > 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 Hungerfordhttp://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 > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Papermodels II" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
