I copy another normal construction in mesh design, it is a crime?

[POLIDOG Bebb]

I have a business in construction, and a client asked me to build a club with the same structure made another club in second life, my question is if we perform this in  mesh design, it is a crime?

 

 

 

[Dresden Ceriano]

---

POLIDOG Bebb wrote:

I have

a business

in construction,

and a client

asked

me to build

a club with

the same

structure

made

another club

in second life

, my question is

if

we perform this in 

mesh

design

,

it

is a crime

?

---

In my opinion, doing such a thing would be infringing on the original creator's intellectual property, unless you get their permission beforehand (in which case, I'd suggest getting it in writing for your own safety).  Honestly, though... if I were you, I'd explain this to your client and tell them you'll work with them to create something original which they'll like even more.

...Dres

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I built a club with an original design.  Someone else liked it and hired a builder to build her one like it.  They textured it differently.  I filed a DMCA against both the builder and the owner who hired him and was successful in having it removed.

I have clients that ask me to copy other buildings in SL or RL.  What is the point of having someone hiring a custom builder to build something that is a copy of another building?   I refuse to do that and generally will talk them into building something in the architectural style of the building, but with an original design which they end up liking better because it is unique.  

[Rhys Goode]

I am genuinely surprised that you were successful with the DCMA, given that the copy cat had built it from scratch, using your work as a model, and not just copyinging the prims somehow, and retexturing.  And especially if they took design that was originally executed in prims, and re did it in mesh.  

My understanding of copyright law is that unless I steal the actual prims or textures, and as long as I do not call it the same name and represent it as the same build, re doing an existing design is perfectly legal.

[Scooter Hollow]

Copying is copying, regardless of whether you do it quickly or slowly. If you rewrote The Hobbit line by line, it would still be just as illegal as if you had copied and pasted it from a word document.

[Theresa Tennyson]

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Scooter Hollow wrote:

Copying is copying, regardless of whether you do it quickly or slowly. If you rewrote The Hobbit line by line, it would still be just as illegal as if you had copied and pasted it from a word document.

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Writing, yes, but not the appearance of a built object. In the United States, designs are only protected by copyright if there's a "design patent" taken out on it, and the design patent can be considered invalid if someone can show "prior art" that indicates that there were similar designs before. Very few designs are so unique that it can't be shown that others did similar things, and many industrial/architectural designs will be similar due to their being built to suit the same conditions. Architectural drawings can't be copied though, and the laws in Europe are much more strict.

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

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Rhys Goode wrote:

I am genuinely surprised that you were successful with the DCMA, given that the copy cat had built it from scratch, using your work as a model, and not just copyinging the prims somehow, and retexturing.  And especially if they took design that was originally executed in prims, and re did it in mesh.  

My understanding of copyright law is that unless I steal the actual prims or textures, and as long as I do not call it the same name and represent it as the same build, re doing an existing design is perfectly legal.

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It's quite likely that the other builder chose not to answer the DCMA because it requires sending real-life information in the response.

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Rhys Goode wrote:

I am genuinely surprised that you were successful with the DCMA, given that the copy cat had built it from scratch, using your work as a model, and not just copyinging the prims somehow, and retexturing.  And especially if they took design that was originally executed in prims, and re did it in mesh.

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Agreed.

I find it somewhat chilling that someone would think it proper to file a DMCA in an example like this, and even more chilling that it worked.