Legal: Amiga schematics

[Zetr0]

@michaelz

While I am not a solicitor or legal profession, in my humble opinion your work doesn't infringe any any trademark or copyright if all you are doing is producing a schematic based on the hardware in front of you.

(Have a look at the replica A500+ that is now available on a1k)

When you publish your work just do not publish any current trademarks (i.e. the CBM logo) and you will, in my opinion not have anything to worry about since you wont be "infringing" any companies (or persons) intellectual property.

I wish you luck in you project and I look forward to reviewing your efforts with much excitement =)


@Pat_The_Cat
I admire your enthusiasm sir, however trademarks are limited in scope, just like patents to where they are registered (or unregistered in the case of some trademarks) - copyright is implied the moment of creation - the other two constructs need to be applied for - to obtain legal protection within a country.

Since michaelz is in the Netherlands his primary concern would be the possible regulations adhered to within Europe. Remember that there is no such thing as "international copyright law" its a complete myth - these are all based by country. For example did you know that in Canada; "James Bond" is now Public Domain - not so for the rest of the western world.

Intellectual Property law changes from country to country it is a perverse enjoyment of mine that I got into it when I was a UNI. I would humbly recommend if one is so inclined to have at read of all the statutes and law that applies in the UK and the interesting differences within Europe and the US =).

[Pat the Cat]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

- copyright is implied the moment of creation -...

Intellectual Property law changes from country to country it is a perverse enjoyment of mine that I got into it when I was a UNI.

Copyright is dependent on a declaration of copyright stating entity and year.

Did you never read the front of the books declaring the publisher, ISBN, data of publication and the copyright notice?

The reason is, you have to be able demonstrate the start of the copyright period. Any evidence of that outside of the work could easily be counterfeited.

[EugeneNine]

Originally Posted by michaelz

I'm using kicad

I have a little bit started from troubleshooting my A2000. I wonder if we couldn't upload to github or something to share the work.

[idrougge]

Originally Posted by Pat the Cat

Copyright is dependent on a declaration of copyright stating entity and year.

Wow, no.

[michaelz]

Uhm, copyright law is most of the times defined by the Berne Convention apparently. The default is during the live of the original author + 50 years. In the Netherlands and most of the EU and in the USA it's 75 years.

This would make it impossible to publish, unless the original author(s) would license it. Since it is some form of copy, I think it will be private until I get some form of written statement.

[Daedalus]

@michaelz

Indeed, and is different to trademarks and patents. Don't let the uninformed ramblings of certain people here confuse you. Copyright protects works. If you're generating your own schematics from analysis of the hardware in front of you, that's your own work and so is your copyright. If you directly copy other schematics, then the work is not your own and copyright comes into play. By your description, you're not copying anyone else's work, so copyright isn't an issue for you.