| Projecto7 |
Anyone who has ever ordered a BS tv plan from Maxtheater may be able to answer this...
Are Maxtheaters plans, words and diagram examples the sole copyright property of Maxtheater? I ask this question because I have seen other plan sets that have the exact same diagram examples, I've also seen free plans with the same diagram examples and wording as well...
I know that it's possible that other companies could just be copying Maxtheaters garbage, but it could also be possible that people are all getting this information from the same source and repackaging it (which is probably case).
I'm also wondering if this information can even BE copyrighted since it's public domain information that has been around for ages now.
Anyone with any information on this please post, it would be greatly appreciated! |
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| PaulH_1980 |
This is from an article I read from the US Copyright Office:
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http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?
Several categories of material are generally not eligible for federal copyright protection. These include among others:
Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression (for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded, or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written or recorded)
Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents
Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration
Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources)
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I think a the main section of this that applies to DIY projectors would be the part on:
Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration
Although I have also read articles on copyright that contradict this information which state that any work released after a certain year [which I believe was around 1990] has an assumed copyright unless the author specifically states it's for the public domain. I believe that applied mainly to an information exchanged through private channels. [I am not sure how this is exactly defined.] But I recall an example being, I can tell someone the contents or ideas contained in an email I recieve but not the exact word for word email itself, as it has an implied copyright.
But then again in this day and age we live in with the RIAA, the DCMA and the internet in general it's such a grey area that I don't know how someone could know for sure. I would be interested to hear other people thoughts on this issue.
-Paul- |
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| jcbklyny |
| I dont think they can copyright the design. Lets face it... it's a TV in a box with a fresnel lens! :) |
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| ace3000_1 |
hmmmm copyright is a technical area, i found out abit about it and u can copyright plans, but only the sizes not the drawings lol if that makes sence to u, there is also laws where u have to have permision from the author of somthing that they have soley, written, desinged, or made, u dont have to get anything copyrighted for that , just a good lawyer, its a very technical process, we can even copy somthing like bose speakers or a car, but it has to be a percentage difference of the original design, its a very technical area and i think they should make it easier for the every day guy to understand in lamens term's.
Trev |
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| ace3000_1 |
| quote: | | I dont think they can copyright the design. Lets face it... it's a TV in a box with a fresnel lens |
ya very true but u can copyright the way it is used in the box with a frensel and what the thing looks like lol see its all ****! lol |
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| buckster |
Copyrights pertain to the printed material only. It only protects the writer/artist from someone directly copying there work. It does not protect intellectual property, ie. a design concept or the actual mechanical design, this is covered by a patent. there are patent laws in each country as well as international patents.
Copyrights do not have to filed, when you copyright something (put a copyright notice on it) it cannot be directly copied or even percentages of it that constitute a majority. In effect if you put the material in your own words you are not infringing on the copyright, althought you may be infringing on the intellectual property rights of the owner.
Since a patent search alone in the US cost between 6 - $8,000, and since there are others advertising the same thing I doubt there are patents on this sort of thing. If there is you will see that mentioned in the printed packaging.
I don't know if this helps?? |
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| ace3000_1 |
ya patent is the other one, i should have put it in my posts, i know in australia u can copy somthing with a percentage of it being different, not sure about the rest of the world, i think copyright can be a good thing and a bad thing, and from what others have told me it doesnt cover u from much compared to patenting, either way if some one tries to copy my projector without my consent and starts to sell them, ill hunt, ill track, ill find u, kick your *** personally and put u down like a dead animal thats after ofcourse i tear your head off and **** down your neck lol, now thats my kind of copyright lol
Trev |
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| Projecto7 |
I was just about to respond about Patents before buckster beat me to it....
I was in the music business for a number of years and my understanding of musical protections are pretty vast but this stuff is quite a different ballgame, it appears.
I doubted that one could copyright a design in the literary world since designs are patent territory (and I still asked the question anyway, lol. What DID I go to college for again? LOL).
But I was curious to know about the pictures and words too because I don't know much of anything about protections in literature and I know absolutely nothing about it in photography.
To my limited (and I mean limited) knowledge of intellectual protections in literature that incorporates photography however, if one creates a body of work that includes both "original" ("original" having varying definitions of course) words and original pictures that have been covered in the legal text of the original work (usually found at the beginning of the work OR on each page of the work-very tacky by the way) with a "©", it means or is at least implied that those pictures and "original" words are protected under copyright.
Having said all of that, the issue I'm confused about is the actual origin of the information that Maxtheater or the other companies out there are using. I'm not trying to start a conspiracy theory or anything but I sincerely doubt that Maxtheater is the creator of this whole thing since we know it's been around for decades but they are parading around like that is the case in their literature, which is illegal in the United States if it's made up of all public domain material. |
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| buckster |
WOW....
buckster looks in rolodex under psychologist...
:) |
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| jcbklyny |
| ...alright... so who's gonna make a clone of Ace's machine first? :) |
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| ace3000_1 |
lol smart ***, hmmmmmm maybe i sell yours to the koreans diy shop lol it would sell like hot cakes compared to the sky scraper they got.
diy copyright, YEAH!!! |
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