Editor Gives Permission to Copy Plans & Construction Articles

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed but Lindsey has given us permission to copy free plans together with their associated construction articles.

In the March 2023 Model Boats at the bottom of page 66 George Darby asked if he could buy a copy of the GG Fire Boat article and free plan. He got this reply:

"I am so sorry, Geoff, but Mortons doesn't hold any stock of issues going this far back. I am, however, publishing your letter in the hope that someone reading may step forward and volunteer to scan both the plan and the supporting build guide from his/her personal own archive copy for you. Ed."

This might be a real opportunity to share older plans & articles on the forum without fear of copyright infringement..

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Chris,

Most of my boat & aeroplane designs which were free plans, are available on ebay, Glynn's Fireboat Elliot is for £5.00 and the article should be easy enough to get copied by somebody as Lindsey suggests.

The copyright of the design stays with the designer actually, especially as in recent years they haven't been passed to SARIK which used to be the case.

Not sure if there was a physical archive passed on from myhobbystore who published MB's back in 2011.

Glynns latest design does carry a Morton copyright, but the plans such as my White Marlin don't ! Maybe Mortons will revert to passing the designs to SARIK ?

In reality there is no practical way to stop people copying the plans, this is not the case when you buy plans to build a fullsize boats, as those plans include a royalty to build 1 nr boat

Regards Ray

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

As Ray says, whatever the legalities, there is no way to stop people copying plans or indeed text these days. So it comes down to whether the copyright holder is willing to take action to protect their copyright. Model Boat plans are very much a niche interest so it's probably not usually worth while.

However, many of those old plans were one or more large sheets of paper so if you compare buying from Sarik with finding someone who has them and then paying a copy shop to reproduce them and factor in the general faff associated with it all then it is probably just easier buying online from Sarik. If the plans are no longer listed then it is different of course,

I had the magazine with the paddler Bilsdale drawing in it at half page size but would have bought from Sarik had it been listed. A bootleg plan was being advertised from Canada and at not too much money so I ordered that. It arrived promptly but I subsequently discovered that it was distorted to some extent and the dimensions not to be relied upon. As I had the original from the magazine and the model is only intended to be a semi scale testbed for trying out the paddle wheels and mechanism, it didn't matter too much. Had I been buying with the intention of making an accurate scale model it would have been very frustrating though.

Colin

Edited By Colin Bishop on 24/02/2023 16:58:31

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I think it is a bit of a misleading sweeping statement to suggest that Lindsey has given permission to copy free plans together with their associated construction articles based on the fact that she has suggested this in one particular example.

I think each individual case would have to be evaluated individually to determine whether that is an appropriate thing to do and I don't think Lindsey is suggesting for a second that she is giving carte blanche permission.

[Stephen GarradParticipant @stephengarrad28964]

Isn't the problematic bit with copyright a question of intent? A copy for your own use is OK but for commercial gain, selling multiple copies, is a different matter.

Stephen

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Copyright remains with the person who drew up the plans, unless they have sold it on. It has always been OK to copy plans for personal use, but it would not be right to copy them in bulk and sell multiple copies.

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