Human since 1982 claims
“Human since 1982 have the copyright to works displaying digital time using a grid arrangement of analog clocks…”
I’m not a lawyer, but without obligations (imho) I have removed the content.
Thanks for understanding,
Erich
MCU on Eclipse
Everything on Eclipse, Microcontrollers and Software
Wow. Now it actually makes a whole lot of sense why there are so few online guides for a DIY ClockClock…
Care to share your post privately? I am currently also working on a similar project and would enjoy some exchange of ideas and implementations.
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That takedown claim is almost certainly bogus. Copyright protects the expressive work, not a general concept or idea. Telling people how to construct a machine is not a copyright infringement on another similar-looking conceptual art work.
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The problem here is that copyright laws may vary depending upon where you live and so who really wants to take a chance? For example who really would like to have to hire a lawyer to respond to a demand letter, or appear in front of a judge and/or magistrate etc?
With that said, I do agree that the “Human since 1982” claim that they have complete and full control of any style of kinetic based clocks seems quite incredulous. However, like Erich I would do the same thing rather than take on such a battle.
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Yes, the law applies where you live. So what they can protect is their ‘design’: how their products look: the material, the colors, the 3D form, as shown on their web site.
They only can copyright this, and not the idea (moving clock hands making an interesting effect). What they have ‘registered’ in the EU (there is no evidence for other countries, even Switzerland which is not part of the EU) are images of their clock. So exactly that: the design. The question is: is my design ‘the same’ or different enough? I thought so: different material for the cover, different color and material for the hands, different size. That question might be up to the court (“is it different enough or not?”), that’s why I agreed in my first response to remove the images of the ‘design’ (showing exactly that, the design) as I did not wanted to create any concern. Who wants to go to court for that? But I can build such a thing with a a 3×4 instead of 3×8 arrangement, because their ‘design’ only covers the arrangements they have on their web site. Now they cannot do a 3×4 arrangement because I have the copyright on this, plus I own the copyright on the design of a 2×2 clock version. And Firelefranz and his team owns the copyright on the 2×4 design too:-).
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