[Woodcarver] Re: Copyights

[Classic Carving Patterns]

Ivan is very right that you just can't change the color of a hobo's
pants, add one patch to his pants, make his wiener stick forked instead
of one straight branch and have the spot of the hound dog on the left
eye instead of the right.  All of these are extremely minor changes and
what you are doing is clearly just trying to get around someone else's
copyright without creating your own pattern or carving.  
 
There are however a simple set of design/composition changes that you
can use as a guideline to help make sure that when your design is
completed it's not a copy.  First, let me say that not everyone is
blessed to be an expert with a camera and not everyone has the chance to
sit in the woods for four days hoping to catch that moment when a white
tail buck jumps over a fallen log ... not everyone has had the chance to
spend four years in college learning the basics to composition and
design.  And I think that just about everyone, once in a while, gets in
a rut of doing the same thing over and over again so that you might want
to try something new.  So that's where reference materials for concept
come into play. Remember concepts are not copyrighted only your version
of that concept is copyrightable.
 
Let's go back for a moment to that buck jumping over the split rail
fence into the field with the barn complex background.  The buck is just
starting the jump and his back feet are still on the ground, there is a
doe and two fawns in the field. So the concept is "a buck jumping a
fence line between a field and the woods".  Now let's look at the
possible guidelines for large changes that can be made.
 
1. Direction - Instead of the deer going into the field what if the deer
jumps out of the corn field into the woods.
2. Motion -  Instead of the deer starting the jump and so on his back
legs he is now finishing the jump and so lands on his front legs.
3. Adding Elements - What if you add a raccoon ducking for cover under
the fence as the deer jumps over it.
4. Subtracting Elements - What if you take out the doe and fawns from
the field
5. Element Placement - If in the original design the barn was a
background element what happens if you move your barn to the foreground.
6. Reversing the Composition - If the deer in the reference work is on
the left side how about changing it to the deer coming in from the right
side.
7. Size  - The original reference material may have been a horizontal
design (11" high x 18" wide ) and you lay it out vertically (18" high x
11" wide) Which means you must add a mountain background and extra grass
in the foreground to compensate for the new height.
 
Now, if you are not tracing or copying in any way ... you are drawing
your own new barn and your own new deer then if you use the guideline
above you will end up with a totally new, totally original creation that
simply works off the concept not someone else's copyright.
 
The "Rule of Seven" which use to be taught in college is a set of
compositional changes that help an artist consider a reference piece and
then create their own work.  And if you check that your version has
considered all seven of the possible composition changes and it does
then your work will not look like a copy of the original reference
material.
 
Susan Irish

Carving Patterns Online
Designs Online Since 1997!
Classic Carving Patterns By L.S.Irish
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-----Original Message-----
From: woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net
[mailto:woodcarver-bounces at six.pairlist.net] On Behalf Of Ivan Whillock
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 1:42 PM
To: [Woodcarver]
Subject: Re: [Woodcarver] Re: Copyights


In the September 2005 issue of Creative Woodworks and Crafts Wes
Demarest addresses some of the issues we've been discussing about
copyrights.  One point he makes is that the belief that making eight (a
recent list member said seven) changes makes it an original is a myth.
To quote Wes, "Whether you add or remove eight or 800 holes, it is NOT
yours.  You have to make changes sufficient enough that the original is,
at best, not even recognizable.  Anything less and you are on thin ice."
He goes on, " . . . you see an original pattern of a cardinal bird that
sells well.  You want the pattern to be your own, so you make at a
bluebird.  Well, it had better not be a cardinal with his crest removed
and colored differently because that may not work."
 
You may want to check out the article for yourself.  It is in Creative
Woodworks & Crafts, September 2005, p. 20.  Wes will even answer
questions put to him by mail with a SASE or by email.

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