[sdiy] cloning, copying, copyrights

[Tom Wiltshire]

On 29 Jul 2008, at 10:29, Derek Holzer wrote:

> I hope others will chime in on this, but as far as I know, it goes  
> like this:
>
> You can trademark a name, you can patent a design or design  
> principle, and you can copyright the actual "artwork" (i.e. the PCB  
> art). But most vintage synths and effects are not patented, since  
> they are often based on the same principles as other circuits. So  
> what is copyrighted is the PCB art. Therefore, if you take the  
> circuit and make your own PCB, you are not violating copyright.  
> However, if you call it a Korg, you may well be violating  
> trademark. Directly reproducing the original manufacturer's  
> schematic might also violate copyright on that piece of "art". The  
> people who clone the EDP Wasp, for example, have gone to great  
> trouble to redraw both the PCBs and the published circuit schematics.

That was my understanding of the situation too. You can only  
copyright a PCB artwork or a schematic, so the sharing of original  
schematics (although widespread) isn't legal, but the cloning of a  
circuit by redrawing the schematic and making a new board design is  
fine. It would certainly be polite (but not legally required) to give  
credit were it is due. Presenting someone else's work as your own is  
a damn dirty trick in pretty much everyone's head!

The duration of copyright varies, but mostly lasts at least 50 years,  
or 50 years after the death of the author for individuals. This means  
virtually all synth schematics are still protected.

Names of instruments and devices are likely to be trademarks, so you  
can't go calling your new box a "Polymoog" or "Prophet" without  
causing yourself a lot of bother - although unless you're a  
counterfeiter, I can't see why you'd want to.

Patents are a whole other kettle of fish. Even finding out whether  
there is a patent that covers what you are doing is difficult. It was  
my understanding that the Moog filter patent expired fairly recently,  
which is partly why we've seen a wave of ladder filter clones from  
everywhere.

> Zach from Z Vex has posted quite a bit about people cloning his  
> Fuzz Factory pedal, claiming that publishing a tracing of his PCB  
> (i.e. reverse-engineering it) violates his intellectual property  
> rights.

Makers of FX pedals have always been screwed. It's so easy to reverse- 
engineer the simple circuits that a pedal is based on that one  
manufacturer has often stolen ideas or designs from another. Everyone  
has a version of a Big Muff fuzz, and a ProCo Rat fuzz, etc etc. It's  
easy to forget that these basic building blocks that we take for  
granted were originally someone's new idea.

T.