Thread: file cabinet full of patterns

there must be a mens shed somewhere that would like them. Council run woodwork group maybe.

If they are all purchased or otherwise legally acquired plans, sell them if you want to. Your location is Maine (USA???), so your reference is the doctrine of first sale.

The first sale doctrine is the provision in copyright law that gives the purchaser of a copy of a copyrighted work the right to sell or otherwise dispose of that copy without the permission of the copyright owner. If there were no first sale doctrine, there would be no free market for used books, CDs, or DVDs, because the copyright owner's right of distribution would reach beyond the first sale, all the way down the stream of commerce.

However, if they are photocopies of plans from magazines or other 'for sale' sources, then legally you can't do a thing with them (even give them away), as this would be breaching copyright.

If you hang on to them long enough (70 years...errr no, 80...err 110 years... errrr...whatever length of time the Disney corporation bribes the American Senate to pass next) they will fall out of copyright eventually.....

Well said Master Splinter. I would sell them because they will probably never come to attention.

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

If they are all purchased or otherwise legally acquired plans, sell them if you want to. Your location is Maine (USA???), so your reference is the doctrine of first sale.

The first sale doctrine is the provision in copyright law that gives the purchaser of a copy of a copyrighted work the right to sell or otherwise dispose of that copy without the permission of the copyright owner. If there were no first sale doctrine, there would be no free market for used books, CDs, or DVDs, because the copyright owner's right of distribution would reach beyond the first sale, all the way down the stream of commerce.

However, if they are photocopies of plans from magazines or other 'for sale' sources, then legally you can't do a thing with them (even give them away), as this would be breaching copyright.

If you hang on to them long enough (70 years...errr no, 80...err 110 years... errrr...whatever length of time the Disney corporation bribes the American Senate to pass next) they will fall out of copyright eventually.....

Hi Master Splinter
I like that sort of talk! if your free next week can you meet me at Woy Woy Court and handle my case Im sure thoes copyright laws would be the same for printing money LOL
colbra

Originally Posted by colbra

Hi Master Splinter
I like that sort of talk! if your free next week can you meet me at Woy Woy Court and handle my case Im sure thoes copyright laws would be the same for printing money LOL
colbra

The prevailing act for currency is Section 19(1) of the Crimes (Currency) Act 1981....but for those who incorporate Australian coins in wooden artworks, the following may also be of interest....

"It is a criminal offence under the Crimes (Currency) Act 1981 (Cth) to deface or destroy current Australian currency coins. It is also an offence to sell or possess current coins that have been defaced. Defacing a coin includes coating the surface of the money with any sort of material. The penalty for defacing coins , or selling or possessing money that has been defaced, is $5,000 or imprisonment for two years for an individual (or both), and $10,000 for a body corporate."

Thanks for the advice. I wonder if laws in the US are different. I've heard that these patterns cannot be sold here - even though most of them are original and some of them were specially commissioned. Your logic makes sense - but that doesn't always mean that the laws make sense!

I guess I'll keep researching.

Copyright laws in the US are pretty much the same (in fact it's the US doctrine of first sale that I quoted, as our equivalent isn't called that) since one of the trade harmonisation acts that the US pushed through on trading partners.

If the plans are original (ie your Dad drew them for himself) then legally their are (or were) his intellectual property. As his heir, ownership of this 'intellectual property' passes on to you (or as according to his will) and you become the copyright owner and can do as you see fit with them for the next X many years (where X is the ever increasing term of copyright required to keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain).

However, if your Dad drew them as part of a work for hire (ie he was paid to draw them by a magazine or book publisher or by someone commissioning them) then typically the magazine/publisher/whoever will own the copyright. You can also give the originals to a museum or historical society or whatever (you own the originals, you just don't have the rights to make copies of them)

Or to save everyone all the hassles. Just send them to someone that would use them. ie; a woodwork club. No name no pack drill just plain envelope. Then they can either use them or what ever.

Same sort of coin defacement law in Canada. I wanted to make a medallion from a $100 Canadian gold coin. There is a knurled-edge ring which nicely fits around the coin, thus no damage or defacement. That ring and the chain each cost more than the dang coin.

The patterns? Bundle them up for some Mens' Sheds. They are quite capable of instant amnesia.

"Huh. We've always had those. Dunno where they came from."

Don't quote me!

'The prevailing act for currency is Section 19(1) of the Crimes (Currency) Act 1981....but for those who incorporate Australian coins in wooden artworks, the following may also be of interest....

"It is a criminal offence under the Crimes (Currency) Act 1981 (Cth) to deface or destroy current Australian currency coins. It is also an offence to sell or possess current coins that have been defaced. Defacing a coin includes coating the surface of the money with any sort of material. The penalty for defacing coins , or selling or possessing money that has been defaced, is $5,000 or imprisonment for two years for an individual (or both), and $10,000 for a body corporate."'

Geeze who didn't put a penny on the railway line for a coal train to flatten then shape said penny into a heart and drill a hole to wear it around your neck in the sixties? I certainly did and so did most of the local teenagers in the small town where I grew up....

Marg.

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