Discussion
Hoe far does anyone think I can push the following without being trampled on by US lawyers??
I am doing some research work that wants to measure certain attitudes. I have come across a US web site that uses a well known theory to drive a web based tool to gather data. They are happy for anyone to use it, but not for commercial purpose.
I have had my own web guy look at it and he believes he can replicate it for UK use, insert my UK content instead of theirs (it basically is photographs that I would have to have re-taken anyway) expend the ideas to suit my purpose and host it in the UK. The site would work in roughly the same way, but be bigger, bettter and look very diferent, but driven by the same basic ideas, which are public domain, but it is the way they are measured which is theirs.
Question is, at what point do I start to infringe copyright?
To me it is a bit like Dyson: we are building a similar product but based on our own components and styling
I am doing some research work that wants to measure certain attitudes. I have come across a US web site that uses a well known theory to drive a web based tool to gather data. They are happy for anyone to use it, but not for commercial purpose.
I have had my own web guy look at it and he believes he can replicate it for UK use, insert my UK content instead of theirs (it basically is photographs that I would have to have re-taken anyway) expend the ideas to suit my purpose and host it in the UK. The site would work in roughly the same way, but be bigger, bettter and look very diferent, but driven by the same basic ideas, which are public domain, but it is the way they are measured which is theirs.
Question is, at what point do I start to infringe copyright?
To me it is a bit like Dyson: we are building a similar product but based on our own components and styling
There is no copyright in an idea so the point at which you infringe copyright is at the point where you start to use text, images, software code, names or style from an existing package.
Example:
A quiz based show where the contestants are selected from "phone in" responses, filtered with a series of questions and then answer on their own to win a series of escalating cash prizes. One wrong answer and you are out. Questions are multiple choice and there is limited assitance allowed from the audience, friends and by removing options. There are "safe points" where getting a question wrong does not risk the prizes already won but a wrong answer takes you back to the last safe point.
This is "Who wants to be a millionaire" but there is no reason why each of these features could not be replicated in another show. There is nothing in the description that is capable of being protected by copyright.
What you could NOT do is use the name (or anything even close such as "Who wants to be a dollar millionaire"
, the imagery of the chair in the middle of a circular stage, the phrases such as "phone a friend" or "fifty-fifty" or the layout of the questions and answers as they appear on the screen.
Hope this helps as a guide.
If you want to go into it in more detail email me off thread.
Example:
A quiz based show where the contestants are selected from "phone in" responses, filtered with a series of questions and then answer on their own to win a series of escalating cash prizes. One wrong answer and you are out. Questions are multiple choice and there is limited assitance allowed from the audience, friends and by removing options. There are "safe points" where getting a question wrong does not risk the prizes already won but a wrong answer takes you back to the last safe point.
This is "Who wants to be a millionaire" but there is no reason why each of these features could not be replicated in another show. There is nothing in the description that is capable of being protected by copyright.
What you could NOT do is use the name (or anything even close such as "Who wants to be a dollar millionaire"
, the imagery of the chair in the middle of a circular stage, the phrases such as "phone a friend" or "fifty-fifty" or the layout of the questions and answers as they appear on the screen. Hope this helps as a guide.
If you want to go into it in more detail email me off thread.
It is possible that something on a web site has been patented but very unlikely. Writing software does not have the "invention" that is essential to a patent
There are however a whole host of rights that are generally referred to as "copyright" but are technically different.
If you use a registered trademark then you are infringing the rights of the owner of the trademark. If you copy the images on a web site you can be infringing both copyright and design right.
I put the example in to avoid a technical discussion over the legal niceties required to distinguish between some of these rights - seems I failed!
There are however a whole host of rights that are generally referred to as "copyright" but are technically different.
If you use a registered trademark then you are infringing the rights of the owner of the trademark. If you copy the images on a web site you can be infringing both copyright and design right.
I put the example in to avoid a technical discussion over the legal niceties required to distinguish between some of these rights - seems I failed!
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