[sdiy] cloning, copying, copyrights

[Richard Wentk]

On 29 Jul 2008, at 11:20, Tom Wiltshire wrote:

> 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.

This assumes the circuit includes no patented elements, which is a  
risky proposition, because many circuits do.

But I think in practice it rarely matters. The hobby vintage market  
is tiny and not very interesting to the big manufacturers. ARP, Moog  
and Sequential are long gone as legal entities, and - unless anyone  
knows different - there are no remaining rights on those circuits,  
and no one likely or willing to prosecute for their use.

If Korg, Roland et al cared about use of (e.g.) the MS-20 or TB303  
filter topology, they'd have prosecuted by now. The fact that they  
haven't suggests that either they don't know about the hobby market  
or they don't care.

If I started making reasonable runs of a direct VCS3 clone the  
remains of EMS would complain. But the costs vs the benefits mean  
that older circuits aren't worth producing in production quantities  
unless you're going for the very high end collector/hobbyist/ 
professional market and charging accordingly. (E.g. Club of the Knobs  
Moog modular clones.)

> 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!

Behringer do it all the time.

Sometimes they get sued. Sometimes they don't.

Richard