Jump to content

zimmerstutzen

Member
  • Posts

    208
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Everything posted by zimmerstutzen

  1. years ago, I represented a man that had connections with a leather clothing manufacturing concern. He wanted to sell leather NFL team jackets to the public. I contacted the NFL main Licensing office. We had to submit a sample of each proposed team logo jacket for approval and then the was a licensing fee of $1,500 and then an additional percentage fee for total sales. Each company has different prices and procedures. Then there is also something called "fair use" It is the use of a service mark or copyrighted material that requires no permission. Such as satire, ridicule, or otherwise criticizing or making comedy of a thing. As best I can recall from my intellectual property law class, 40 years ago, the rules for fair use can be even more confusing. For instance changing the words of a song to make fun of the original song is protected as fair use. (And a copyright attaches to the new words) There comes a point where copyright and trademark law merges. For instance the Stiffel lamp company sought both trademark and copyright protection for it's lamp designs. If a company made knock offs, Stiffel would sue under both laws for infringement. Their position was cutting edge 40 years ago. Don't know if that still holds. If I want to use a a rusted Chevy emblem on a Bumper sticker that says" This is Ford Country. On a quiet night you can hear a Chevy rust" that would be fair use. If you design/make a satirical characature of a Disney figure, that would be fair use. If you copied a Mad Magazine satirical Disney figure, you probably violate the Mad Magazine copyright, but they did not violate the Disney copyright. Trying to figure out who or what agency at a company to talk to about using a design/figure/picture can be very confusing. Big companies like Disney and the NFL, have their own licensing offices. Some farm licensing out to other companies. Some just don't deal with it. Some will refer you to their advertising agency, because the agency personnel actually designed the item under contract.
  2. The fact that a copyright owner does not pursue every violation is irrelevant. Some owners actually encourage free use and do not care. That does not change the fact that for violating another's right, the copyright owner might sue and end up owning your house. Frankly, the damages to be collected for infringement are usually pretty low. After all, how much did you make selling 5 copies of a Chevy emblem? How much did chevy lose with those sales. In this day and age, it is so easy to find pictures and drawings on internet sights that are free to use, even to use commercially. Altering a design, either digitally or by hand, is easy. There is little reason to infringe a copyright.
  3. Just as an example of how complicated the copyright aw can be read this: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/1999/12/why_wonderful_life_comes_but_once_a_year.html Also, I studied the history of the song "A Lion Sleeps Tonight." It was originally a Zulu folk song. A version of it appeared in the first Boy Scout Manual as a scout marching song with words similar to the Zulu words, written by Robert Baden-Powell, who heard the Zulu version while serving the British Army during the Boer Wars. . In 1939, in South Africa, a gent named Solomon Linda and his group recorded their arrangement. It was Solomon;s arrangement that had the high pitched falsetto yodel type performance. (You can listen to the original here: ) The record had few sales, but a copy found it's way to Decca records, where it sat for ten years and then was to be thrown out. A music historian was given the pile of trash records. He approached a musician named Pete Seeger whose folk group, the Weavers, recorded it as Wimoweh in the early 1950's. Several Groups recorded versions of the song and then in 1961, a Brooklyn doo-wop group recorded the song as In The Jungle the Lion Sleeps Tonight. That recording and arrangements made a few reprisals in popularity over the years and then was used by Walt Disney Company in the movie the Lion King. Each time the song was recorded a different copyright attached, sometimes just to the changes. Solomon Linda sold his rights to the song in 1939 for the equivalent of about $2.50. However, under a fluke of law, the rights reverted back to his heirs 25 years after his 1961 death, so in 1986, the family became owners of his arrangement again. Around 1999, the South African Gov't, in trust for the destitute heirs, sued for copy right infringement, Sued Everybody, Capitol, Decca, Disney, etc. The case was settled for 11 million dollars payable to the family of Solomon Linda. As you can see, it gets very convoluted.
  4. There is a host of complications in just the US copywriter law, not to mention the 6 to 8 significant Amendments over the past 50 or 60 yrs. Many copyrighted items from the 1940's are no longer protected because copyright renewals had to be filed in the 1970's, howver, there is little way to tell because there is no index of renewals. A modification of a public domain design can be copyrighted, but just as to the modifications. In this day and age, in which computers can be used to stretch and broaden a design, it is difficult for anyone to prove a copyright infringement where the design has been even moderately altered. Also beware of marks or letters left in a design to prove copying. The ADC map of my neighborhood shows a small non existent pond on my property. Never been a pond on the top of my hill. It is there to catch copy thieves.
  5. Yes indeed, it was the "painless" blades, I was Making light of. My adult son was hurriedly cutting some wood on a saw a decade ago and a painless blade would have been a benefit.
  6. from Home Depot's site: The General BT8007 Scroll Saw also has a 9/16 in. stroke with the allowance of both pinned and painless blades.
  7. I saw a video in which a gent cut angled slabs from a tree branch and scrolled them to make plaques. I have 20 acres of woods and lots of maple, cedar, poplar, etc. I have a bandsaw to cut the wood into thin half inch slabs. But how should they be treated/handled until dry to reduce cracking and checking. turners spray their bowl blanks with paint, or BLO, Spraying the pieces with paint would create a mess to sand off. I have a barrel where I could bury them in saw dust to dry more slowly. But that might promote mold. Any suggestions.
  8. nearly everything in my price range looks like Asian disposable. Parts expensive and/or non-available. Right now my metal lathe is an old 1880's screw cutting lathe. Until a few months ago, I was using an old 1940's 6 inch Powrkraft wood lathe. It still works fine for turning between centers. Cant mount a chuck or face plate though. Somebody just listed a Ryobi NIB on our local craigslist. might try to check that out.
  9. they are asking $1,050.00 and at 90 lbs not cheap to crate and ship
  10. Velocipede No. 2 Foot Powered Scroll saw, manufactured late 1800s by W. F. and John Barnes Co. of Rockford IL. Operated like a bicycle. Uses flat perforated leather belt to turn drive wheel. Also has boring attachment. Serial number 11356 in edge of wood table. From Company catalog: Swing around the blade is 24 inches; length of blade is 7 inches; table and arm of hard maple; frame is cast iron; balance and drive wheels run on steel arbors; machine weighs 90 pounds.
  11. available near central PA chambersburg.craigslist.org/tls/5424490686.html
  12. Thanks. I am going to look at a 1960's Craftsman tomorrow.
  13. Nearly everything before 1930 is in the public domain. I actually looked it up with the US copyright office. However, because congress changed the time periods and renewabilty some things from the 1940's and 1950's and even 1960's might be in the public domain, if the copyright was not renewed. The problem is the difficulty in looking up the renewals. Even many publishers do not know if they renewed their copyrights. I used a 1944 Magazine cover for a Christmas card two years ago. I sold about 300 of the cards. I got a letter from the magazine's attorneys about it. I checked with the copyright office and no renewal could be found and so the magazine cover was probably in the public domain. I called the attorney's office and pointed out that to still be copyrighted, they would have had to file a renewal 25 yrs ago. I will give them $100 for a copy of the renewal. Never heard back from them. However, some crafty publishers will republish old engravings etc, but they make a few changes to the original. Changes that could be picked out if someone just copies their "republished" copy. They can copyright those minor changes. Map publishers do a similar thing to catch copy thieves. There is an ADC map of my county that shows a small pond on top the hill in the middle of the hay field. I checked aerial photos back to the 1930's. Never been a pond there. Talked to a guy at the company who explained that such things are incorporated in their maps to catch copyright infringement. I have also copied old pictures out of the original 1880's magazines for use. I pick up the magazines at flea markets and yard sales just for the pictures. A little edit work is required to wash out the yellow brown oxidized paper color, but it is not that hard.
  14. I have not done any scroll work in nearly 40 years. I had an old Powrkraft (monkeywards) brand unit back when they were called jig saws. I am slowly transitioning into retirement and gearing up a new work shop for my hobbies of black powder shooting and wood turning. A few items I want to do can't be done on the band saw and I am looking for a scroll saw. I have a few projects lined up and a couple of charity projects that will require some scroll work. I recieved a gift card to Harbor Freight and wondered is one of their scroll saws would fit the bill. There was a time that I would not touch their stuff with a toll call, but some of their products have improved greatly.
×
×
  • Create New...