"Bill" wrote in message
. ..
Is it considered copyright infringement to change all the dimensions on
the plans in order to enlarge the boat for personal use?


"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
The issue is not so much whether the finished boat matches the plans as
whether the same boat, whatever the final product looks like, could have
been built without access to the plans. If you used the plans as
guidance to build the boat, and have the warm, sly, feeling that you saved
their cost by changing a few things, it's copyright infringement.

If you paid for the plans and want to make it bigger or smaller few
architects are going to bother you unless there is something specific in
the sale agreement (if any) or on the plans prohibiting that.

Roger -- I am curious. Other than contract language in a sales agreement,
what could possibly bar the buyer of a set of plans from making any
modification he wants when he builds a boat? Certainly copyright law would
not have any bearing; that simply bars the duplication of the plans
(typically for profit or for use by someone else; making a backup of a set
of plans on CD for yourself would normally be considered "fair use.")

If I buy plans for a 14-foot skiff and decide to make it 18 feet long, add
an outrigger and carve a mermaid on the bow, it may be ugly and unseaworthy,
but to my knowledge all the original designer could do is grimace or grin.
Of course, I probably couldn't call it a "14-foot Bolger" or whoever
designed it, but that's a different matter.

Your thoughts?

Alex