View Single Post
  #27  
Old 03-14-2014, 09:15 PM
Randy's Avatar
Randy Randy is offline
Master Modeler
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 984
Default

Ethics and morals aside (that all speaks for it's self) and even after going through the entire publishing process, I'm still no expert on copyright law but I do know that merely claiming you have one, or putting a few sentences on your website, as opposed to filing the proper official paperwork and paying the fees and maintaining everything, ain't quite the same thing and if you haven't done all of that, you don't have one that will hold up in court. I spoke at length to a lawyer about it and he said it wasn't that hard to tweak anything just enough, to make it something "you" did, and now it's yours even though it's plain what has taken place. Not to mention parodies. Remember Daystrom ranting about "building on my work" and coming unglued? Even in the 23rd century you have to have a copyright.

When I settled on what I wanted to go with in our book, I contacted David at Sirius and we exchanged several emails, talked a time or two on the phone and when I had enough of the draft together for him to get the feel of the story line and when he agreed, I sent the proper paperwork and he returned it to me to send to the publisher for all associations with Sirius, his artwork and his name. David isn't the only one but you get the idea.

I was told, it is slightly different for the internet but not that much. It's not that difficult nor expensive on a small scale i.e. a book or website but it takes more than 30 seconds and it isn't entirely free and at some point it shows up in D.C. and anyone can look it up, although I have been told under current conditions it might be 6 months before we could find ours on line. Can you imagine what it would cost if Estes tried to maintain everything they have done or acquired? John Boren mention something about that today.

Even if there were no such thing as a copyright, I still would have done it the way we did. For 10,000 reasons, you don't just take someone's artwork or whatever. I put hundreds of hours into writing and rewriting, contacting people, working with all aspects of it, and had to learn in baby steps how things are done. I now fully understand why people are so guarded and protective of their work. It may not be much to anyone else but it is their blood, sweat and tears and most importantly, their life. You don't get those hours back and they mean something, if only to you.

Randy
www.vernarockets.com
https://www.facebook.com/RocketBabeDustStorm
Reply With Quote