Apocolocyntosis wrote:
My understanding is that wether or not you are making money from it does not mean you are not infringing on IP (woo negatives). If you take a photo of a GW piece it is a derivative work of their piece (again, depending on what it counts as, if it is sculpture). If i draw a doodle which is an original work, it is my intelectual property, if you photograph it that is a derivative work infringing my original. The paint job would need to be sufficient for it to be considered a new piece, although with a GW mini the whole point is they are sold to be painted. I doubt a project log thread on here counts as review – think this is intended to protect more academic stuff, eg it means you can write a comparative critique of oil painting styles without needing copy-write permission on the paintings, as you are not using them as the paintings in insolation as 'an art'.
With the Levi thing, of course they don't try, just like GW dont try to stop people posting pics of their minis online, it would destroy vast amounts of free advertising. Doesn't mean they couldn't try, they just choose not to. Didn't a company recently try to get a youtube video taken down because it had their car/bike engine sound in the background, which they considered to be their IP?
I know nothing about the law, i'm probably completely wrong.
This is all probably true. Happily, this is largely academic as it is a minefield. However, I believe that most uses of images come under the fair use or derivative work license. I would assume that if you painted up a miniature, then it is counted as 'derivative' - that is that the design of the miniature belogs to GW, but the interpretation of the colours and paints is your own. I think that any company would have a hard time taking out an action in this kind of case, whether it is technically legal or not.
Kriegsspiel wrote:
What about new blogs? For example, it's my intention once I have my Msc out of the way and I get more free time, to start a painting/hobby blog. I'm hoping it'll encourage me to get my act together and paint rather than buying new stuff all the time. It's one of the main reasons for me joining the board tbh. Lets say hypothetically that I have some forumware and would like to post up pics of it once I've made it all shiney and awesome looking, would you have a problem with this as it's new material? In other words, do only old previously submitted photos receive the amnesty?
No. It would be strange of me to say that old pictures are OK and new ones are not, in absence of any legal advice or notice from GW to outline this. It is easier to have a policy which applies to the boards as a whole.
In reviewing this entire thread and issue, I am coming to two comclusions:
1. The demonstration, sale and distribution of IP infringing miniatures (although this could theoretically also apply to art, text, etc) will not happen on this site or these boards. I will put in place clearer regulations, police them better and set up the 'miniatures catalogue'. I do intend to promote the sculpting, casting and creation of miniatures here (if there is anyone left still posting who does it!) but within the legal limits. I would love these boards to be a showcase for hobby sculpting and casting, with a selection of truly unique (in every sence of the word) miniatures which enthusiasts can buy and include in their armies.
2. I cannot make judgement on past pictures or future photos of whether the miniatures in your collection are your own scratch built creations, and I cannot simply disallow the use of anything not produced and bought directly and which is unmodified or converted, on a wargaming hobby site. Therefore, I will rely on the community to make their own judgements and - in absence of any official or outside advice - allow pictures as they have happened in the past.
2a. Caveat: Anything considered as 'promotion' of IP infringing miniatures is not allowed. For example, saying 'these are recasts and I got them from this guy on this site.....'. While this abides by the regulations of not permitting the sale of IP infringing miniatures on this site, it goes against the spirit of the regulation (I was wondering how long it woudl take to come down to 'rules as written v rules as intended'!) and would qualify as promotion and is therefore also not permitted.
The difficulty is that each case is unique and it is difficult to come up with a more specific ruling than this. So, if you have any doubt, drop a PM to myself (or one of the mod team) to double check.
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