Hi Guys,
About a year ago I wrote a piece on copyright, meaning to send it to Rodd for Pagoda World. I forget whether it was ever submitted, but it'll probably reach more people this way...
I’ve spent over 20 years helping inventors capitalize on their intellectual property: patents, copyrights, and trademarks. I like to see people put their assets to the best use after considering all their options, including outright publication and free use. Lest I be accused of drumming up business for myself, I’m fortunate enough to be able to do this for free these days.
A while ago, someone appropriated a great picture of Herr Boehringer looking at Pagoda World and posted it on a French website without attribution. The picture had appeared in the December 2003 issue of Pagoda World. It had been snapped by a Pagoda Group member, and Pagoda World correctly put a copyright notice on it. We had a little discussion about it on the forum, but I don’t think I got my point through. I believe that the French website posting has opened an important and serious issue facing the whole group.
All of the contributors to Pagoda World have created potentially valuable stuff. Each is protected by a copyright, without doing anything, no lawyers necessary. If I understood the author correctly, he doesn’t care about his copyright; he just wants people to freely use his pictures. That’s his right, and I agree that this particular use of his picture has the value of advertising Pagoda World.
However, I suggested to the copyright-holder that he could ask the French group to put an attribution to this picture on their website—a request that is not overly legalistic or bureaucratic. It is both required legally and is a common courtesy in the copyright world. Also the notice would preserve the copyright so that some day the author might use his rights to even better advantage.
“What If” is a game we licensing folks always play when thinking about the disposition of a piece of intellectual property. What if all existing photos of Boehringer were destroyed in a fire, and yours was the only one left? Suddenly it becomes a very valuable piece of racing history! Would it be fair (or the best use) for someone to start printing your picture and selling it on eBay for $500 a toss? No benefit to you… but if you enforce your copyright, other scenarios could be beneficial, either to you or to the W113 Pagoda SL Group:
(a) you could license someone to produce and sell the picture and pay royalties, or
(b) you could sell it yourself and keep the royalties to spend on dancing girls or old cars, or
(c) you could assign your copyright to the Pagoda Group so they could derive income from the sales.
All I’m saying is that each person (and maybe the Group’s Board) should consider what the eventual “best use” is as we produce more and more Group materials—the income generated from copyrights can send a kid to technical school or establish a classic-car museum. That doesn’t mean we give up our nonprofit status. Business is not always a dirty term, and profit is not always bad. I’m just offering the thought that this might be a better use than allowing an infringer to pocket proceeds made from your talent and hard work. Thanks for listenin'...
Trice
1968 280SL US, signal red/bl leather, auto, kinder
Sarasota FL; Alsace France
