In article , writes:


OK. I have a set of drawings for the Dyke Delta JD2. I did
not buy these plans, they were handed to me after the
purchaser died. Since I have no contract with the designer,
are you saying that I am free to copy and sell as many
prints as I feel like?

Scott McQ



I have a book that I bought second hand, do I have the right to publish the
book because I didn't buy it from the original publisher? NO, you don't
own
the rights to publish the boook or the plans, contract or no contract.

PS: I talked with John Dyke at Oshkosh a couple of weeks back and I suspect
he
would take a real dim view of your efforts as well.

Legally he could refer to the Delta plans and build his own airplane that
looks
exactly like a Delta in every way down to the last rivet, then write his own
plans about how to build an airplane just like his, so long as he didn't use
anything from the Delta plans. It wouldn't be an ethical thing to do, but it
would be legal.

Copyright doesn't protect an idea, it protects the expression of that idea
set
down in tangible form. It's a thin, blurry line.



When you finish that knock off plane you have just crossed the thin blurry line
since it is now in tangible form. Then again, that was not the question. The
question was would he be free to copy and sell the plans. The answer remains
NO.

Bob Reed
www.kisbuild.r-a-reed-assoc.com (KIS Builders Site)
KIS Cruiser in progress...Slow but steady progress....

"Ladies and Gentlemen, take my advice,
pull down your pants and Slide on the Ice!"
(M.A.S.H. Sidney Freedman)