Legal advice for building guts and selling the pedal to someone else.

[Paul Marossy]

Another point in regard to copyright protection is that it may not be enough to just put the copyright symbol and the "All rights reserved" statement  on whatever it is one wants to protect and obtain full protection unless it is registered. But Section 408 of the copyright laws says "Such registration is not a condition of copyright protection."
But the law is confusing; the following statute seems to contradict Sec. 408:

Note that this is a peculiarity of US law only.  In Canada and most other countries, copyright is automatic and no registration is required.  What I am not sure of is whether the © or ® for a trademark need to appear before it is considered infringement.  Take the advice above: check with a lawyer.

Sounds about as good as having a patent - it's only as good as your pockets are deep. If you can't afford to sue the "infringer" your patent is pretty much worthless.

[R.G.]

In general, you do not really own anything you cannot defend.

[Paul Marossy]

In general, you do not really own anything you cannot defend.

Yes, that is true for a lot of things, isn't it?

[duck_arse]

I'm late, but anyway,

jdansti, why didn't you put your food on the table, and cover it with some plastic goop?

[artifus]

I'm late, but anyway,

jdansti, why didn't you put your food on the table, and cover it with some plastic goop?

to take this terribly inappropriate analogy far further than we should... because the food would then be inedible, even for jdansti. maybe you mean that he should leave the recipe on the table but goop that with a little note to state how delicious it is if concocted as per the gooped instructions.

[Mac Walker]

So I could name a box with a generic or custom style appearance and slap on the name BCE distortion  and it would have either a diode clipped or a sat/cutoff transistored distortion effect, and it wouldnt step on any legal toes?

I would recommend contacting the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

They will not give you an ambigous and misleading answer that doesn't truly answer your question, nor will they charge you an arm and a leg.

[artifus]

been enjoying a good toilet read called elephants on acid of late which recounts many an odd scientific experiment published for prosperity.
includes the famous pepsi challenge and also studies that went further, placing subjects in an mri scanner whilst feeding them a generic cola flavoured drink whilst simultaneously flashing images before their eyes, sometimes random, sometimes heavily associated images such as coca cola advertisements.
brains lit up like christmas trees when shown coca cola adverts whilst being fed generic cola flavoured drink. not so much with pepsi ads. same drink.

'hey this is an xyz fuzz by brand x - as used by so and so on your favourite record!'

[armdnrdy]

I would recommend contacting the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

Now you want to get an attorney involved?

Can't we just settle this on our own? Why does it always lead to this? 

[artifus]

greed and short sighted selfishness? money?

[Paul Marossy]

Vindication!

[artifus]

Vindication!

yes, but as what?

[Paul Marossy]

Vindication!

yes, but as what?

As the one who was wronged by someone who infringed on their copyright. Or proving that you didn't I guess would be the flip side.

[slacker]

So you couldn't take a design of a circuit written on paper  (or any medium) and sell the design as yours. But a pedal built from that design I THINK may be a different matter because the pedal is not the design; i

As I understand it, copyright protects the schematic ie:- the drawing its self it doesn't protect the information contained in the drawing, as far as copyright is concerned, anyone can do whatever they like with the information. There's some debate as to whether you can even copyright schematics, the argument that you can't being that the only purpose of a schematic is to convey the information it contains, and as it serves no other purpose there's nothing to protect. This probably varies though depending on whose copyright laws you're discussing.

[artifus]

As the one who was wronged by someone who infringed on their copyright. Or proving that you didn't I guess would be the flip side.

now zoom out and look at the bigger picture beyond our current society and law.  

[Paul Marossy]

As I understand it, copyright protects the schematic ie:- the drawing its self it doesn't protect the information contained in the drawing, as far as copyright is concerned, anyone can do whatever they like with the information. There's some debate as to whether you can even copyright schematics, the argument that you can't being that the only purpose of a schematic is to convey the information it contains, and as it serves no other purpose there's nothing to protect. This probably varies though depending on whose copyright laws you're discussing.

My understanding is that copyright law(s) also apply to PCB designs. So you can't just make a straight copy of someone's PCB and call it your own without it technically being a copyright infringement.

[artifus]

my how humanity has progressed! you can't make fire with a stick that looks somewhat like my stick - that was my idea. when do we visit the moon next?

[Paul Marossy]

my how humanity has progressed! you can't make fire with a stick that looks somewhat like my stick - that was my idea. when do we visit the moon next?

Yeah, it's kind of stupid. It reminds me of my kids fighting over something petty, except that it's adults saying "mine" instead. I guess there is a reason for these laws. To me it really boils down to the bottom line of most things in the USA - money and who gets it.

[artifus]

cool. now where's my banana? 

[Jdansti]

I'm late, but anyway,

jdansti, why didn't you put your food on the table, and cover it with some plastic goop?

to take this terribly inappropriate analogy far further than we should... because the food would then be inedible, even for jdansti. maybe you mean that he should leave the recipe on the table but goop that with a little note to state how delicious it is if concocted as per the gooped instructions.

So I could name a box with a generic or custom style appearance and slap on the name BCE distortion  and it would have either a diode clipped or a sat/cutoff transistored distortion effect, and it wouldnt step on any legal toes?

I would recommend contacting the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

They will not give you an ambigous and misleading answer that doesn't truly answer your question, nor will they charge you an arm and a leg.

I would recommend contacting the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

Now you want to get an attorney involved?

Can't we just settle this on our own? Why does it always lead to this? 

[artifus]

^ that's the bill arriving, yeah?

i did consider biting you but you were inappropriately labelled and left in an ambiguously communal/private area  

(so i decided not to - i like to sleep at night).