Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 06, 2009 3:48 pm Dear all,
I am a bit confused about how this works? If I love several floor plans from different builders and put all of them into a single floor plan, who owns the copyright of the floor plan? If I modified a floor plan to move the bedrooms around, then how does the copyright issue work? For most floor plans which are rectangular in shape or something like that, there are only so many ways you can put the bedrooms around ~ either you put all bedrooms in a corner as an L-shape, or you put them in one side like a straight line, or evenly distributed them in both side of the hallway, etc ... So with the limited amount of creativity you can put in a floor plan, and with so many builders out there, how could they ever claim if a particular design is theirs? I've talked to a builder and they said as long as you modify 10% or whatever %, that should be fine ~ so is that correct or misleading? As I said before, there are only so many ways you can put the bedroom or master bedroom in a rectangular shaped floor plans, so you will most likely find one floor plan from one builder similar to another floor plans from another builders, so if you get the general idea and modify it, will you get sued by every builder? Re: Floor Plans and Copyright Issue? 2Feb 06, 2009 4:12 pm this is a very grey area, ill send you a pm about my experience so far Blog - http://snakedr.blogspot.com/ Build Thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12084&p=307406#p307406 Status - PCI 15/10. Things nearly done. Re: Floor Plans and Copyright Issue? 3Feb 06, 2009 4:27 pm If you take an exisitng plan and modify it, by even more than 10%, you'll still come across copyright issues.
Copyright is to protect people's effort. Someone puts together a plan and they expect to be rewarded for the effort. So modifiying it doesn't change the fact that they have not been rewarded for their efforts. That's the bad news. The good news is that ideas are not copyrighted. So if you like something you see, then you can use it in your plan. What you need to do is not start with anyone's paln. Start with a blank sheet of paper. Then add all the good things you find from around the place into the plan that you (or whoever you've commisioned) puts together. This is my understanding. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Floor Plans and Copyright Issue? 4Feb 06, 2009 4:50 pm Casa2 If you take an exisitng plan and modify it, by even more than 10%, you'll still come across copyright issues. Copyright is to protect people's effort. Someone puts together a plan and they expect to be rewarded for the effort. So modifiying it doesn't change the fact that they have not been rewarded for their efforts. That's the bad news. The good news is that ideas are not copyrighted. So if you like something you see, then you can use it in your plan. What you need to do is not start with anyone's paln. Start with a blank sheet of paper. Then add all the good things you find from around the place into the plan that you (or whoever you've commisioned) puts together. This is my understanding. Spot on... Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Floor Plans and Copyright Issue? 5Feb 06, 2009 4:55 pm this is basically what master builders told me when i spoke to them Blog - http://snakedr.blogspot.com/ Build Thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12084&p=307406#p307406 Status - PCI 15/10. Things nearly done. interesting situation what happened after builder issued final invoice? did you list as defect or not does the building surveyor have any responsibility? ie. issuing… 13 46972 The two 15mm holes are obviously not compliant. The Dept of Fair Trading would love to see this one! Do the gutters pool water after it stops raining? Although it's… 4 7872 |