Is it acceptable to give away plans that are obvious photocopies?

[rshousha]

Someone gave me some "Admiralty" plans years ago for the HMS Victory. I really have no use for them and I would be just as happy to put them in the recycling bin as to give them away. Is it acceptable to give away such things or should they be dumped in the recycling, instead? I am just thinking about it, on the one hand, from the perspective of copyright, and on the other from the environmental perspective. Depending on the first couple of reactions, I will throw them out or put them on the site to give away.  

 

Thanks 

[knightyo]

If it were me, I wouldn't give them away.  I might pin them up in my hobby area as "art" or find some other use.  If giving them away, the person who they were given to would be less likely to purchase the plans from someone who should receive legitimate payment for their work, etc.

 

Alan

[rshousha]

Done. They're in the recycling. 

 

Regards, 

Rick 

 

[ccoyle]

Rick,

 

The difficulty with copies is their provenance. If the original owner purchased them from, say, the NMM, then passing them along to someone else would not violate copyright, since the NMM was compensated for what is called the right of first sale, i.e. they received their money but are not entitled to the proceeds of any subsequent re-selling -- it's one set of plans = one fee paid to the NMM. But if the original purchaser copied his copies, kept his original copies, and then gave you the second set off copies, he would be guilty of defrauding the NMM by creating a second set of copies in lieu of a first set you would have had to purchase for yourself in accordance with the right of first sale, i.e. two sets of plans were made but only one fee was paid to the NMM. The upshot of this is that if you can't verify the provenance of the plans, both the law and common courtesy require that you do not distribute the plans.

[druxey]

Gifting the plans, assuming you were the original purchaser, is legitimate. However, to sell them on (or sell further copies) would not be.

[hamilton]

Copyright is designed to protect the economic interest of the rights holder, so I don't see how giving the plans away is an issue. Aftermarket sales of print material happens all the time - check out Amazon, if not your local second hand book store. It is only when a party attempts to exclude rights holders and profiteer from protected materials that copyright applies....

 

A question for moderators - I'm assuming that MSW runs on US servers, meaning that the site runs in the jurisdiction of the US. I am familiar with fair dealing (fair use) laws in Canada (I'm an academic so I have to be), but not so much in the US. In Canada, limited distribution of copyrighted material (a single chapter or up to 10% of a published work, e.g.) is allowed "for educational/instructional purposes". Would MSW have some copyright exemptions in its function as a knowledge-sharing service? If I were to use, for example, a modified image of section of a body plan of a ship drawn from kit-supplied plans in order to illustrate something to another user - on a log or through a PM - could this be covered under US fair use doctrine?

 

I only ask to clarify, not because I have any intention of doing this myself - I'm usually the one asking for help!!

hamilton

[rshousha]

To all who are continuing this thread; one, I wanted to give them away, simply from an environmental perspective; two; they are gone to the recycling. 

 

[ccoyle]

2 hours ago, hamilton said:

If I were to use, for example, a modified image of section of a body plan of a ship drawn from kit-supplied plans in order to illustrate something to another user - on a log or through a PM - could this be covered under US fair use doctrine?

 

Yes, this is covered under fair use. Be mindful that there is no standard definition of how much use of a work is considered fair and how much goes beyond the limit; fair use is considered on a case-by-case basis in the event a copyright holder wishes to mount a legal challenge.

[hamilton]

Thanks for the explanation Chris! It is a moving target up here too - though the 10% rule is treated as doctrine (or at least as a practical reference point) for use of copyright materials where I work.....but like everything in the legal domain, this "rule" is subject to testing!!

hamilton