This is an archived message posted to the Kayak Building Bulletin Board. If you would like to ask a question about building kayaks, you can post a new message.
For better or worse:
At best the copyright laws provide only protection for IDENTICAL copies. If you change the coaming height, omit a bulkhead, or change the deck fittings, you have a new boat that is not covered by prior copyrights.
At best once a boat design is published in a book or magazine there is no copyright protection. Anyone may make as many copies of that boat as they wish. (This is different from making copies of the book.) I think the correct way is to donate the book to a library and then check the book out each time you wish to build.
At best purchased plans can limit the prodution of a design only if the seller has in hand an agreement signed by the buyer that only one copy will be made. That agreement should include the destruction of the plans and tooling (inclluding forms) upon completion.
For myself I usually do not copy plans. I have made 1 exception, a recent J. Winters design. I was bulk mailed something that I did not request containing enough information for me to derive the EXACT lines of one of his most recent boats. (I checked my derivation against his plans.) If someone asks me to build those boats I will without compensation to Mr. Winters. If Mr. Winter's complains, I will publish the plans. (I really hate bulk mail.)
While I wish there were more protection for kayak designers works, I also wish there were more protection for those who do work that is not protected at all. (We all use the math and science we learned in school without paying for that right.)
This is an archived message from The Kayak Building Bulletin Board.
Guillemot Kayak - High
Performance Wooden Sea Kayak Designs
