I think the printed circuit board itself can have a copyright. Therefore, copies of it can not legally be made except for "fair use". What "fair use" is for a pcb I have no idea. Certainly building and selling copies would be a violation of US law. It would be up to the copyright holder to seek an injunction against a direct copy.
Nothing would stop another from imitating ronja by drafting their own schematics (not copying) and building boards from the new schematics. That is nothing would stop them, unless there was a novel concept that had been pattented, before the design was made public. The pattent owner would have to ask a court for an injunction against the offending party. Steve Meier On Tue, 2006-12-19 at 12:17 -0600, John Griessen wrote: > > He didn't actually copy the schematic. He just built devices according to > it, > > added his own mechanics, and sold it without giving the sources to the > > mechanics to that people. That's not illegal even is US then as you say. > > > > CL< > > DJ Delorie wrote: > >> That's not illegal even is US then as you say. > > > > Right, unless you patented it. > And then, the schematic would still only be copyright protected for its exact > look, not a functional copy. Patent would protect only the novel concepts > implemented by the schematic. > > John G > > > _______________________________________________ > geda-user mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list [email protected] http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
