Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 3Sep 14, 2007 12:39 pm Peter Clarkson - AusDesign Australia www.ausdesign.com.au This information is intended to provide general information only. It does not purport to be a comprehensive advice. Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 7Sep 14, 2007 1:08 pm Peter Clarkson - AusDesign Australia www.ausdesign.com.au This information is intended to provide general information only. It does not purport to be a comprehensive advice. Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 9Sep 14, 2007 1:45 pm Peter Clarkson - AusDesign Australia www.ausdesign.com.au This information is intended to provide general information only. It does not purport to be a comprehensive advice. Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 11Sep 14, 2007 1:59 pm Peter Clarkson - AusDesign Australia www.ausdesign.com.au This information is intended to provide general information only. It does not purport to be a comprehensive advice. Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 12Sep 14, 2007 4:04 pm This is a very famous case. It states that you can end up with exactly the same design and it's OK if that is a coincidence. You need to have evidence that the person deliberately copied the design.
From Findlaw Australia... Quote: Who owns your designs? Author: Clark McNamara Lawyers The recent decision of Cl******* Homes v H***** has examined just who owns what when it comes to the design of a building. The case gives a clear lesson, whether you are the builder employing a designer in a design and construct contract or the architect or the developer in a straight building contract, that the contract should state very clearly who owns the intellectual property in a buildings design. It may be that the intellectual property in the design is licensed for the purpose of the agreement or for some longer or shorter period. Whatever the case, a developer should always ensure that it can always get access to the design of a building until it is complete, guarding against the situation where an architect or builder can hold a project to ransom pending the payment of disputed fees or insolvency. The C********* Homes case involved a claim by a builder of project homes against another project home builder alleging that the latter had breached the copyright of the former by building a project home of very similar design to the former's design. During the court's deliberations, it stated that, although two designs might be very similar, it is no breach of copyright where two people reach the same design by coincidence or where the second party had expended such skill and labour in the creation of the architectural plans to justify the conclusion that they were original artistic work. The court also held that "the degree of protection under copyright law of an architectural plan may be limited by reason of the significant proportion of features which are common to all plans, with the result that the remaining proportion of the plan in which copyright will subsist is consequently limited". December 1999 March, 2001 Just for the record - I understand that the penalty for copying has been up around $50,000 for a homeowner. So be careful... Ed If I write "I" please read "We"! Be good. Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 13Sep 14, 2007 4:40 pm I quote from www.ebsworth.com.au/ebsworth/website/ee ... 202001.pdf , which states:
"In the cases where the infringement merely involved the construction of a single dwelling, such awards do not usually exceed $1000.00." I would have though more like $3000 would be an appropriate forced fee for someone you copied a design, but according to lawyers who wrote the referenced article, $1000.00 appears to be the going rate. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 14Sep 14, 2007 9:03 pm Thanks friends for the replies.
Just to summarize my previous posts: 1) Yes i have seen Pic B, and realized that i will need a NEW design in order to have quote from different builder 2) I only gave a minimal verbal instruction when i asked the draftman (bxxx) to draw a NEW design. I did not give any skets. I just said that i need a room for study/home office near the entry and chose the best location for POS as my land is limited. 3) The draftman (bxxx) also own the copyright of PIC B, as well as PIC A. 4) The builder who ALSO has copyright to PIC B said that "i am in breach of the copyright". Ozn. Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 15Sep 14, 2007 9:51 pm Having a look at those designs they are similar in concept, but I don't believe it is a copyright infringement as they are notably different in scale and proportion. Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 16Sep 14, 2007 10:35 pm The differences are HUGE!!!!!
If you had retained the WIR/ensuite arrangement, then maybe I could see the similarity, but your design is no more similar to theirs, than any other home builder who might just happen to have a similar design! Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 17Sep 15, 2007 8:41 am In reality, every home design is based on the thousands of existing home designs already out there.
The designers do not start building a house from first principles. Each house is a shuffle of a couple of walls here, move a room there. You can only do so much with "4 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, etc." It is easy to prove that two home designs are similar, because they all are! Sorry I can't be more help, as how can we determine whether 2 designs are similar enough in the courts eyes to be judged copies? If the penalty is only minor anyway, why worry? Re: Urgent: copyright infringement accusation (PIC ATTACH) 20Sep 16, 2007 9:25 am I agree with memphis, what if you move the garage a bit towards the other side, or move the location of a few windows if possible? 4 9047 Old Home Restoration / Renovation Cheers mate! This is exactly what I was thinking but wasn't sure if it was something I'd find on the shelf. I agree with you, fixing the brackets to the board will look… 2 3258 Sorry! I'm new to this forum and have made a mistake in my posting! I'm looking for a structural solution to a stand alone wooden pickets fence with no structural rail… 1 3287 |