Copyrights

If you are not using the drawing for Parody or News Commentary/Review
(the
two main catagories of "Fair Use"), then the line is drawn at #0 - all
of
the above are infringements.  Whether you make the copy by hand, or by
other means, doesn't matter - it's still considered to be a copy if it
is
recognizably the same.	Your chances of being taken to court, however,
vary
widely by the circumstances and the disposition of the copyright holder.

Example: There was a daycare center in Los Angeles (?) that had made
some
hand drawings - made by the staff and kids - of Mickey Mouse, Minnie
Mouse,
Donald Duck, et al, and was using them as decorations in the main play
room.  Disney successfully sued them and had them removed as copyright
infringements.	Disney got a lot of bad publicity over this, but they
*were* within their rights as copyright holders to do so.

Example: I contacted Five Rings Publishing / WOTC a couple months back
in
order to get permission to use the "Clan Mons" for decals on my Clan War
miniatures - specifically I wanted to be able to decorate any sashimono
banners on the figures.  While I got a legal blanket approval for
*anyone*
to do so, it was with the restriction that it would be for personal,
non-commercial use only.  Because of the "personal use only" part of
that
permission, I can print up my own decals using Clan mons, but I cannot
give
anyone else any of the decals - whether I charge for them or not. 
Someone
else could print them up for their own use, but they could not ask me to
do
it for them.

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** Err, Mark, if I did this myself its okay..... 
.... what if I did it with a Robot? - that is it was personal use only,
but
I had my 'Bot do the construction? .....
.... and what if my 'Bor happens to be biological and have the name
Mark....?

That's pretty thorny. I'm having a machine (the computer) do this for me
(so
it isn't hand drawn). So if I could use tele-operation to do it with
your
printer (ie use some remote
control to make your printer work) it would probably be legal. So if
instead
of having a
dumb bot, I have you do it for me, why is it any different? I'm
essentially
"making" these things for personal use. You're not getting paid for it.
You
profit in no way (in this example) from it. So it is "personal use"?
Isn't
it? You guys live in the USA so who knows... but other than in the land
of
the ambulance-chasing lawyer, this seems reasonable to me....

... which has little to do with legality I realize. 

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Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008