Posted By Hans on 07/01/2007 7:33
PM I was speaking more from a business standpoint, where the intended benefit is a financial profit. From a hobbiest standpoint, the intent is generally just to enjoy yourself, and some folks share things like that because they gain pleasure from doing so. I know It's why I keep putting my conversion work here and up on my website. I enjoy helping other folks and giving them ideas to inspire them.
But I think the main point is still valid even in that case . Lets say you did a really nice conversion, and put it up on a website to show others how you did it. Then a couple of other copycat websites had a photo of the work you did, claiming it to be their own idea... would you still enjoy having done that? It would probably get you a bit upset. Then, what if they kept doing it on a regular basis, repeatedly spoiled your fun, and took away that special warm feeling it used to give you. Would you keep doing it? Would you fight back, trying to get them to remove it?
You may have meant in business but you said "noone is going to make models" etc. Well, people will, not everything has to make money to be shared. Copyright is only there as an incentive, not a means to an end. When people take your idea and claim to have been their idea you just move on if they don't agree to stop, or if you really care if you get credit you stop doing it. If you do it for the sharing of knowledge you can simply know in your own mind that it was your idea and if someone else wants to spread it like a jerk you still shared the knowledge. If you are a business and someone does this it is fraud and you can sue them. People claim credit for other's work all the time, but yet we always have new stuff to share.
Again, I like a short term copyright to encourage work but don't think it is a right that should extend 90 years past death. I also don't believe that people who infringe affect companies profit margins, as the people who would not buy their stuff anyway are the ones who pirate, and some people who are exposed to the pirated stuff will still buy the real thing if it is better (see iTunes).
Besides, isn't your work influenced by the previous art you have been exposed to? Isn't the majority of your designs based on something you have seen which is probably covered by copyright? Do you realize how adding to the public domain helps future works such as the ones you have made? All art is influenced by what we have seen or heard (through previous art or nature), your art is just a combination of your accumulated knowledge.
