Re: [OT]Look alike figures and copyright

On Mon, 02 Jul 2001 11:08:16 -0500, Andy Cowell <andy@cowell.org> wrote:

>No way.  If it's the same, you're lawyer-bait.  If it's totally
>different, you're safe.  If it's similar-but-not-quite-identical,
>well, then you're probably okay but may have to prove it.

Good summary. There is "fair use" that comes into it. If you were to
make a
ship that looked like the Enterprise D from ST:TNG, but it was held
together
with bailing wire, and had trash cans for nacelles, you're safe as it's
a
parody.

If you scratch build an Enterprise for your own amusement, you're safe. 

If you scratch build an Enterprise and start selling it as such, you're
toast.

Anything in between is open to legal interpretation. Note that you can
be sued
over just about anything. Being sued doesn't mean that you're wrong,
just that
someone thinks you're wrong enough to take it to court.

Jon's "not B5" ships come about as close as you can without going over
the
edge, though at GenCon 1999 the AoG folk weren't happy to see the B5
not-starfuries... but nothing came of it. Note that licensing can get
tricky,
too, with different companies getting licenses for certain geographic
areas.

Allan Goodall		       awg@sympatico.ca
Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall

"Now, see, if you combine different colours of light,
 you get white! Try that with Play-Doh and you get
 brown! How come?" - Alan Moore & Kevin Nolan, 
   "Jack B. Quick, Boy Inventor"