SoulTaker opened this issue on Jan 31, 2011 · 135 posts
WandW posted Fri, 04 February 2011 at 6:50 AM
Quote - As to the shape and design of the car itself, at least one fully executed court case (Meshwerks v. Toyota) has established that these things fall under copyright law, and that the copyright belongs to the original designer (in this case Toyota retained all rights to the 3d digital model derived from their design).
Actually, this isn't what the Court said at all; In this Case, Meshworks was contracted by Toyota to produce 3D models for a single commerical. These models were registered with the Copyright Office. Even though they were licensed for a single use, Toyota continued to use the models without paying the Artist. The Court ruled that an unadorned mesh of an actual physical object lacks the requisite degree of originality for copyright protection, and is therefore not copyrightable. The issue of derivative works was not dealt with, (and is not even mentioned in the body of the ruling) but any such rights would of course belong to Toyota. The actual ruling is here. However, this isn't a license to go ripping off models, as the Court states "Digital modeling can be, surely is being, and no doubt increasingly will be used to create copyrightable expressions. Yet, just as photographs can be, but are not per se copyrightable, the same holds true for digital models."
The moral apparently is, always use a bit of artistic license. :biggrin:
It goes to show you how poorly defined the Law is in some areas. Unless you want to be a test case, Be Careful Out There...
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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:
"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."