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 Kilkrazy wrote:

 dogma wrote:

MorkorpossiblyGork wrote:

Just to throw this out there and watch the rage, but if its ok for someone to lie and say they were in the military and then run around wearing a military uniform, but god help you if you dress up as a Space Marine because GW will sue your pants off? Im sorry but wtf?

That does raise an interesting, if tangential, point. Could the US military sue for damages if its uniform is used without permission?

It actually is a criminal offence to dress up in military uniform in the USA. This is not due to copyright.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/702

Additionally, works by federal employees are copyright free in the USA. This would include the designs of military uniforms.

This has actually been changed (likely because it is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech). It's only a crime if you use the false uniform to gain benefits, at which point it becomes fraud, not mere speech/expression.

I would have thought dressing as a police officer or a doctor could be more harmful in general society anyway.

Modern doctors don't wear white coats any more. Not in the UK at any rate.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Modern doctors don't wear white coats any more. Not in the UK at any rate.

At least in most places I've been in the US, the only ones actually wearing the hollywood-ized white lab coat... are lab techs.... Which, I could argue would be infinitely worse to have some impersonator "working" in the lab, than in a treatment room.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Modern doctors don't wear white coats any more. Not in the UK at any rate.

I work in a hospital in Maine. Every doctor wears a white coat, every nurse wears blue scrubs and the techs wear grey scrubs.

 Blood Hawk wrote:

 WrentheFaceless wrote:
This whole thing is an internet hoax apparently.

What is your proof for that?

http://www.snopes.com/cosplay-illegal-five-states/

 Kilkrazy wrote:

It actually is a criminal offence to dress up in military uniform in the USA. This is not due to copyright.

But does the US military hold copyright over its uniforms? Can it sue for damages if those uniforms are used absent permission?

It's not clear that any clothes actually enjoy copyright protection anywhere, but in any case, as mentioned earlier, creations of the federal government do not have copyright protection in the US.

You're very nearly 100% right, but I think there are some pretty narrow exceptions to that rule, though. I'm not sure how wide the scope is, but I think they own the copyright for the Medal of Honor, the Presidential Seal, and... I don't know what else. I don't think it would extend to uniforms but I think it's possible.

It is not protected by copyright but it is protected by another law.

http://www.state.gov/misc/87529.htm

Thanks, I was wondering about that.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

It's not clear that any clothes actually enjoy copyright protection anywhere,

I think (or at least it sounds reasonable to me), that things which could/would be covered under other copyright laws, would be covered on clothing. Ie. Adidas "three stripes" or the Nike Swoosh, Canterbury's 3 kiwi logo, etc.

 WrentheFaceless wrote:

 Blood Hawk wrote:

 WrentheFaceless wrote:
This whole thing is an internet hoax apparently.

What is your proof for that?

http://www.snopes.com/cosplay-illegal-five-states/

I believe this is a different case.

Still not entirely sure how this case could affect cosplayers though, unless clothes designed in an animation/comic/movie could be copyrighted.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:

It's not clear that any clothes actually enjoy copyright protection anywhere,

I think (or at least it sounds reasonable to me), that things which could/would be covered under other copyright laws, would be covered on clothing. Ie. Adidas "three stripes" or the Nike Swoosh, Canterbury's 3 kiwi logo, etc.

I think those fall more into Trademark than Copyright.

And the similarity between the two makes things more confusing in general.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:

It's not clear that any clothes actually enjoy copyright protection anywhere,

I think (or at least it sounds reasonable to me), that things which could/would be covered under other copyright laws, would be covered on clothing. Ie. Adidas "three stripes" or the Nike Swoosh, Canterbury's 3 kiwi logo, etc.

Those are actual logos, though.

What about copyrighting vertical red and white stripes, or dots?

 Kilkrazy wrote:

What about copyrighting vertical red and white stripes, or dots?

Yeah, I just woke up, but my first thoughts on this are that I don't think the stripes themselves are copyrighted, otherwise a lot of football clubs (soccer) would have to find new kit. Afterall, how many clubs out there have red and white vertical stripes like Stoke City do?

It's like copyrighting words or sentences. You can't. You can copyright poems or short stories, though. There has to be a significant act of original creation involved to confer copyright.