Paula A, quote: "UK copyright laws are a disgrace". I wouldn't go so far as to say that much, but UK copyright laws are very grey: the water can easily get very muddy.
Consider the following two scenarios:
(a) a very simple design: I change the values of only a few components, publish the result, but overall the cct. performs exactly the same function. To me, I have simply retained the overall "what it does & how it does it": so it's copyright infrigement.
(b) Now take something much more complicated. I design something that, overall, does the same thing as a previously published and copyrighted design. Many - but not all - individual 'chunks' of circuitry within mine are the same as the published original, but many component values have changed. So it's not a direct copy, but it is something very similar it terms of "what it does & how it does it". Does this constitute copyright infringement? I suggest not, since, for example, there are many radios that are designed using the same 'blocks' of circuitry by different manufacturers: no copyright infringements have been issued to deal with such occurences that I am aware of.
Although I have used hardware as an example, it is easy to see how published written material falls into the same arena.
So it seems that it all amounts to a question of degree of similarity between the original and the 'copy': what, exactly consistitutes a 'copy'? Somewhat analogous to "how long is a piece of string?"
And, finally, I guess that that is one for the lawyers to decide.
Al.
Consider the following two scenarios:
(a) a very simple design: I change the values of only a few components, publish the result, but overall the cct. performs exactly the same function. To me, I have simply retained the overall "what it does & how it does it": so it's copyright infrigement.
(b) Now take something much more complicated. I design something that, overall, does the same thing as a previously published and copyrighted design. Many - but not all - individual 'chunks' of circuitry within mine are the same as the published original, but many component values have changed. So it's not a direct copy, but it is something very similar it terms of "what it does & how it does it". Does this constitute copyright infringement? I suggest not, since, for example, there are many radios that are designed using the same 'blocks' of circuitry by different manufacturers: no copyright infringements have been issued to deal with such occurences that I am aware of.
Although I have used hardware as an example, it is easy to see how published written material falls into the same arena.
So it seems that it all amounts to a question of degree of similarity between the original and the 'copy': what, exactly consistitutes a 'copy'? Somewhat analogous to "how long is a piece of string?"
And, finally, I guess that that is one for the lawyers to decide.
Al.
