Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 12:22 PM 7/30/1999 -0700, Paul Cherfuka wrote: >So by extension of this analogy - if I were to take a copy of >"" it, say in Photoshop, >and then sell it - is this a lesser offence? Copyright and patent law differ on this point. If I take a patented item and improve upon it, then, yes, I can patent the new item as it is "an improvement in the art". An entirely different standard applies to copyright. I can redo your picture myself -- same scene, same light conditions, and so forth, and it then becomes "my" picture. I can rewrite the LORD OF THE RINGS and get away with it, too, so long as I rename all of the characters and so forth. But I cannot take a recognizable image belonging to someone else, massage it in a computer, and claim it for my own -- at least in the US, I believe the courts have taken this position. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!