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user123
Copyright guidelines
After recent troublesome experiences with copyright issues and subsequent messages and emails from lovely people (thanks guys, & gals J you know who you are J, some wanting to know more, here are the main points (in entirely layman’s terms!) I have learnt that may be useful for you good people to know in any tiling or mosaic situation.
(Dave and I decided to close the previous thread to move on from that…)
OK – here goes:
Ok. What does this mean in practice for the average tiler?
It means that:
· if someone shows you a book with Victorian tile patterns of any other public domain design (think old designs with no immediate name attached) you are free to happily tile away, add a few bits of your own or not, no problem.
· If someone wants you to make a mosaic or tile design to copy say, a classical painting, again, no problem, as that painting is old enough to be in the public domain. However..
· If someone opens a book or a magazine showing the hotel foyer of say, the Hilton hotel and says I want a foyer like that, that is when you start dreading on copy right issues, no matter if the hall is nowhere near the size of the Hilton, but if the final design gives the Hilton look, don’t go there, just in case. Especially if the customer’s name is Harry or Harrietta, they fancy the fancy H on the floor and the hall is in a B&B. Why? As even though the Hilton interior designer who came up with that particular tiling pattern for the Hilton chain will have only been able to use public domain design jumbled up in his unique way, and has only used a letter ‘H’, the copyright of that design then belongs to either him, or to the Hilton company, depending on the arrangement between them. How do you check if it’s too close to the knuckle? If any outsider, even including you and the customer is likely to be reminded, by looking at what’s been put on the walls or floors of the Hilton hotel, you have in effect breached the copyright law attached to the branding, or image if you like of Hilton. That image was created not by one but by several similar or identical designs to impart it into people’s memory – just plain old marketing tactics…
· The design of the Hilton Hotel floors (I use the Hilton Hotel as an unresearched example, just to put the message across), is not Public Domain, as the Hilton is still a business today and their branding, imagery, typical design is part of their business success. A bit like the colours and writing style of coca cola, dairy milk etc. That’s why cheaper competition brands, Aldi is a good example as I’m told, spend quite a lot of money to be allowed to use a similar look on their similar products to cash in on the bigger advertising power by association, but we don’t have supermarket funds, do we.
Ok, how can copyright work in your favour?
Right, that’s it from me on the subject….ready to get my head into something else now…
After recent troublesome experiences with copyright issues and subsequent messages and emails from lovely people (thanks guys, & gals J you know who you are J, some wanting to know more, here are the main points (in entirely layman’s terms!) I have learnt that may be useful for you good people to know in any tiling or mosaic situation.
(Dave and I decided to close the previous thread to move on from that…)
OK – here goes:
- Copyright law is an umbrella term covering the law dealing with all related issues - ranging from downright plagiarism to imitating a company image.
- All designs translated from an idea to paper, pc or internet are automatically copyrighted to the original ‘inventor’ whether there is a little copyright sign or not.
- In order to prove ownership of ones design one must keep dated copies, and, if the content is likely to be contested at any point, sending a copy of the original to oneself by recorded delivery asap and thereby proving the date of the design may help in cases of dispute.
- Copyright applies to all designs created by an individual or group of individuals until 50 -100 years after their death, depending often on whether it is company owned or individually owned.
- There is a point of leniency when certain things are not commercially available anymore or some exceptions made under special ruling for example in the fashion industry)
- Any tiling patterns, such as Victorian floors, Greek Roman or any other classical or traditional patterns are free of all copyright restrictions, as the original creation is too old for copyright to apply. In these cases the designs are classed as ‘Public Domain’, i.e. there are no restrictions of use whatsoever.
- The same applies to any piece of ‘old’ art, classical music, paintings, etc.
- Public domain designs, art, patterns may be revamped, redesigned or included in new work which can then be copyrighted to the new creator.
- If such new designs are repeated in a similar fashion often enough by the same designer or company that that style of work can be recognized as typical of that designer’s or company’s work, the copyright moves into the realm of company image and branding, which protects that right to design ownership to a much larger degree than ordinary copyright perimeters. This is where the multimillion dollar lawsuits come in… (in my recent case that’s why the work had to be stopped, - if the reaction would have been, oh that look likes a (“company name”) just better J, more interesting…or whatever, that first reaction of recognizing similarity could have put me into serious jeopardy! And no, didn’t like it either…)
- Recognising something as similar is judged by the amount of similarities, a bit like when we think a friend looks just like Mel Gibson or whatever, it’s the amount of similar features that add up to the likeness, the same applies to design if something is deemed similar enough to be recognised as a copyrighted design of someone else.
Ok. What does this mean in practice for the average tiler?
It means that:
· if someone shows you a book with Victorian tile patterns of any other public domain design (think old designs with no immediate name attached) you are free to happily tile away, add a few bits of your own or not, no problem.
· If someone wants you to make a mosaic or tile design to copy say, a classical painting, again, no problem, as that painting is old enough to be in the public domain. However..
· If someone opens a book or a magazine showing the hotel foyer of say, the Hilton hotel and says I want a foyer like that, that is when you start dreading on copy right issues, no matter if the hall is nowhere near the size of the Hilton, but if the final design gives the Hilton look, don’t go there, just in case. Especially if the customer’s name is Harry or Harrietta, they fancy the fancy H on the floor and the hall is in a B&B. Why? As even though the Hilton interior designer who came up with that particular tiling pattern for the Hilton chain will have only been able to use public domain design jumbled up in his unique way, and has only used a letter ‘H’, the copyright of that design then belongs to either him, or to the Hilton company, depending on the arrangement between them. How do you check if it’s too close to the knuckle? If any outsider, even including you and the customer is likely to be reminded, by looking at what’s been put on the walls or floors of the Hilton hotel, you have in effect breached the copyright law attached to the branding, or image if you like of Hilton. That image was created not by one but by several similar or identical designs to impart it into people’s memory – just plain old marketing tactics…
· The design of the Hilton Hotel floors (I use the Hilton Hotel as an unresearched example, just to put the message across), is not Public Domain, as the Hilton is still a business today and their branding, imagery, typical design is part of their business success. A bit like the colours and writing style of coca cola, dairy milk etc. That’s why cheaper competition brands, Aldi is a good example as I’m told, spend quite a lot of money to be allowed to use a similar look on their similar products to cash in on the bigger advertising power by association, but we don’t have supermarket funds, do we.
Ok, how can copyright work in your favour?
- Let’s say your customer wants you to give them some ideas (show your design ideas) for their bathroom, swimming pool, whatever.. you go home, take out your drawing pad or your computer program, come up with some ideas and show them to the customer and leave them with them to think it over… next thing you know they got a cheaper guy in who fixes your design! That means breach of your copyright, and yes, you have the right to sue.
- That also means that you are not allowed to fix someone else’s design just like that either, you have to check who did it and if you have permission to use it. Remember if it’s just a tile pattern (like the Victorian hall) from old, no problem. You must be careful that the customer who may have pinched an unusual design from somewhere can’t blame you, make a record somewhere that you are working from a design handed to you in good faith…blabla whatever.. you get the picture.
- Also, by designing something for the customer, whether they go ahead with your idea or not, means that the copyright remains with you, the customer can pay you for producing a design, but the copyright remains with you, unless you are specifically offering to sell it, which would not be clever at all in most cases. As the design remains with you, you are free to repeat that design in other customers’ houses as often as you like, it is yours do with as you please.
- If you are at the very high end market and want a signature theme in your tiling, say for example one round bright red tile (can’t think of a decent example right now) in a corner or any kind of signature mark you want to include in all your work as a ‘designer tiler signature’, like the DG of the tiling world, then that signature tile/pattern is copyrighted to you, will make you recognisable and give the customer something to show off with J and no-one else is allowed to copy it.
Right, that’s it from me on the subject….ready to get my head into something else now…
