from TB-303 resources mailing list -------[ http://www.tb-303.org ] ---------------------- In response to David's question about the need to get permission from Roland: I don't want to bore / scare anybody with legal mumbo-jumbo, but for those who are interested, some facts about copyright law:
- ONLY the US has a requirement that a copyright notice appears (you know, that (c) symbol + year of first publication + name of chopyright holder) on the work in question, and leaving it out does not invalidate a copyright but merely has procedural consequences (you can't recover legal costs or statutory damages from an infringer). ALL other countries with copyright laws have NO formalities at all. Just the creation of an original work of art gets you a full and valid copyright for all those countries. - IF there is a copyright on the work, making copies and giving them away 'free of charge' is NOT an excuse in any way. - BUT: In this case, you can very well argue that (under US law as well as under the majority of other countries' copyright laws), the chord wheel cannot be copyrighted at all, as it is not a work of art, but a completely functional work, to which copyright law doesn't apply. (See for the US especially the Supreme Court decision in the Feist case; http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/copyrt.htm; holding that because a telephone book is collection of factual data, it is thus not copyrightable). - IF Roland would sue anybody over this, there are pretty good arguments to be made that Roland would be guilty of 'copyright misuse', UNLESS THEY STILL MAKE AND SELL THOSE CHORD WHEELS THEMSELVES. Which they don't, obviously. - A remaining problem would be the Roland trademark on the chord wheel. - Explicit permission from Roland would be perfect, but it's probably not needed and involves costs (if only time). Summing up: don't worry, be happy. If you're in the US, even better: Roland can perhaps sue, but at very unfavourable terms to them (because they apparently didn't use a proper copyright notice on the chord wheel), and a big chance of losing. My educated guess: they won't sue. No way. So: make copies and spread them around if you want to, but keep it on a low scale, and be careful with use of the Roland trademark (when advertising or something like that). Cheers, Sjoerd At 15:42 23-5-02 -0400, "David Joeright" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Actually I had thought of that very idea right after I >sent that email. Don't you >think I would need permission >though (from Roland) ?? However, if anyone on this >list >would like a paper copy, I could take mine apart and send >you one "free of >charge" (so I don't get in trouble) (On >the other hand, it doesn't appear that the >303's chord->shift wheel or the manual is copyrighted,...unless it says >so in >Japanese).......... > >Dave -------[ http://www.tb-303.org ] ---------------------- Subscribe & unsubscribe there : http://www.tb-303.org/
