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From: dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave P. Schaumann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Copyright infringement...
Message-ID: <604@caslon.cs.arizona.edu>
Date: 31 Dec 90 05:18:40 GMT
References: <5772@uafhp.uark.edu> <37411@cup.portal.com>
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 44

In article <37411@cup.portal.com> amigan@cup.portal.com (R Michael Medwid) writes:
>I find it hard to believe that making a model of a space ship similar to the
>one in 2001 would be considered copyright infringement.

Lawyers do a lot of things that are hard to believe.  I heard that Mr. Kubrik
had the first model(s?) of the Discovery destroyed after filming of 2001 was
over so it wouldn't be seen in every grade-b flick to follow for the next 10
years.  I believe if they wanted to prosecute, they would have strong legal
ground to stand on.

>  If you used the
>name "2001" to promote your product..not *that* would probably not be
>copacetic.  In art if you alter an image (an I imagine this caries over
>to models as well) even slightly you have legally made something new.
> [ details of Mona Lisa alterations deleted ]

Seeing as how it was painted hundreds of years ago, the image of the Mona
Lisa is probably in the public domain.  Lots of classicl music (the *music*,
not the performances) is in the public domain.

I do not believe that slight alterations is enough.  If I got together with
three of my buddies, we called ourselves "The Beedlz" and recorded "Elenor
Rigby", you can bet copyright lawyers would be all over our butts in a second.

Digitizing samples of songs or pictures of TV shows/movies probably fall under
the same rules as quoting from a work for review or research.  At least, I
believe a strong case could be made for this interpretation.

Disclaimer: I have no knowledge of the legal technicalities involved, these
are just my opinions.

>
>Out-a-here.
>
>-Mike


Shouldn't this be in misc.legal or somesuch?  Of course, my site doesn't carry
that group, so if it does go there, I'll never know.

Dave Schaumann		| You are in a twisty maze of little
dave@cs.arizona.edu	| C statements, all different.

We want 2.0!  We want 2.0!  We want 2.0!  We want 2.0!  We want 2.0!