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Laserists
and intellectual property (IP)
In 2006, there was increased concern at ILDA, and with ILDA Members,
about intellectual property (IP) rights, including trademarks, copyright
and patents. The concern also includes broader moral issues about taking other
people's work without attribution or compensation.
Below are summaries of
recent IP issues in the laser field. If you have additional questions,
or wish to inquire about whether a use is permitted, contact
ILDA's Executive Director. If you suspect a
violation of the ILDA Code of Ethics,
then you should contact the Ethics
Committee to see how best to resolve the situation.
Case 1: Companies that stole laser artwork
Recently, legal action
was taken against at least six lasershow-related companies that were illegally
distributing laser artwork. The infringing companies' libraries of free
laser artwork included frames, animations and shows which they did not
have the rights to distribute. Typically, the infringing company would
legally purchase one disc of a laser artwork collection, but then would
illegally include copies whenever they sold their software programs.
Obviously, this has a devastating financial impact on the people who
created the stolen laser artwork.
Various legal actions
were taken against these six infringing companies. The legal actions
included both copyright infringement, and violation of licensing
agreements. In all cases, the infringing companies immediately
surrendered and settled in favor of the copyright holders, thereby
acknowledging both the copyright and the infringement. Often the
infringing company had to pay fines and/or court costs.
- In one high-profile case, an
infringing company was successfully approached by a group of seven top
laser companies: HW Laser, Laser Animation Sollinger, Laser
Entertainment, Lightspeed Design, Pangolin Laser Systems, Strictly FX,
and Tarm. The infringing company had to pay well over US$ 5,000 in
fines, court costs, and attorney costs for both sides, and further US$
3,500 in a parallel unfair competition case.
This case is noteworthy
because in the unfair competition case, a court for the first time
mentioned that laser shows may of course be artistic works which can be
copyrighted.
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To avoid problems, if you use any
laser art libraries, or buy any third-party collection, check to
be sure the seller/distributor has rights to the artwork.
If you continue to have questions,
follow the advice above and check with
ILDA's Executive Director, or with someone familiar with laser
art collections. A few minutes checking could potentially save you
and your clients thousands of dollars. |
Case 2: Misuse of
ILDA's name and logo
Earlier this year (2006),
an eBay seller grossly misused ILDA's name and logo in his auction
listings. ILDA members helped shut down the seller's auctions, and he
eventually stopped this misuse. But we have seen other questionable uses
of the ILDA name and logo. For example, the logo is not to be used to
indicate that a product has an ILDA-compatible connector.
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If you want to put the
ILDA Member logo at your website or on printed materials, be sure to
check this webpage
for details on how to properly use the logo. |
Case 3: Taking material
from ILDA's website
ILDA has seen websites
that took text and/or photos from ILDA's website, without any
permission or attribution. If you want to use
material from ILDA's website, you may be able do so.
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You must first get written
permission to use material from ILDA's website; plus, there has to be a caption or credit line giving
credit to ILDA. For example:
Image courtesy
ILDA,
used by permission |
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©
2004-2008 International Laser Display Association. All rights
reserved.
No
reproduction of text or images on this site is allowed without
written permission
of ILDA or other copyright holder(s).
"ILDA" and the ILDA logo are
trademarks
of the International
Laser Display Association.
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