legal beagal question

[Bengoodall]

I have a little question here on legal stuff.

I know its illegal to mold and sell bits and miniatures, but is it illegal to do one or two for yourself?


Ive just broken something,and I can mold another one out of green stuff, using a sneaky trick of mine.

Am I going to get locked up by the games workshop police for this?

 

[Thecadian]

i wouldnt have thought so as it only minor

if you mass produced the part and sold it now THAT would be a differant matter.

 

[Bengoodall]

Yeah, thats kind of what I had figured too.

Ive broken my one of my last pair of imperial navy weapons batteries, so making a new one isnt a biggie, I just soak the thing in olive oil, then wrap in green stuff.
Then once thats dry, soak the green stuff in more olive oil, then fill what is now a mold up with more green stuff.

Its a one time mold basically, but gets me out of having to order more parts.

So even if I was to make lots of copies of it, the amount of green stuff Id have to use would more than make up for selling them off.

Besides, Im too lazy to make enough to make any money, and I have enough trouble finishing my own stuff, let alone making bits for other people

Thanks dude.

 

[vincegamer]

That\'s 2 questions. You overasked so you don\'t get an answer.


Just kidding.

1 - is it illegal to take something someone else created and make an exact copy of it?
Yes. That is copyright infringement.

2 - will you get into trouble for making a copy to replace the one you broke? No.

First, it has to be worth GW\'s time to have you prosecuted. Individual personal use is just not cost-effective (unless they can do like the music industry and mass-mail lots of people caught infringing).

Second, there is the doctrine of fair use. Basicaly, since the purpose of Copyright is to encourage creativity, some de minimis use of other people\'s stuff is allowed to go by because it encourages creativity. I\'m not saying yours would be fair use, but there\'s an argument so prosecuting you would not be an open/shut case.

 

[matty1001]

Now you have just told everybody how to reproduce parts! GW will get the fuzz on you! lol

 

[Bengoodall]

Yeah, I kind of had it figured as much the same as the way it is in the music industry, which is something I actually know about, not like these fancy do hicky plastic things.

Where its legal to make a back up copy of a cd for yourself, as long as noone else has use of it, or you offer it for sale, and technically, if you choose to make said back up cd, in case your proper one gets lost/stolen/broken whatever, and then you sell that cd, you have to either give the person your copied version, or destroy it.

It was something I used to do when I was doing a lot of audio visual work (and anyone who has any work in sound/lighting/vision etc, GIMMEGIMMEGIMMEA JOB!!) cause I got sick of dragging my cds along to shows and getting them ruined, so Id make a copy, use that for the shows, and if it got ruined, no biggie.

So I figure making a small part to replace one Ive managed to stand one I would have thought would have followed those lines.

Ive gotta stop standing on things.

 

[Gilvan Blight]

Using the music industry example (even though we don\'t have such rules in Canada, I can burn you whatever you would like... we pay Tax on blank media though), I would think you should be able to copy a mini for personal use.

 

[Avelorn]

White Dwarf has even had tutorials for doing copies of details like purity seals... so you\'re pretty safe!

 

[vincegamer]

Originally posted by Bengoodall
Yeah, I kind of had it figured as much the same as the way it is in the music industry,

Unfortunately it doesn\'t translate perfectly because music and digital recordings have their own section of the code.

Here\'s the reason you are permitted to make a copy of digital information in the form of software:
Every time you turn on your computer, you are making a copy of the software that puts pictures on the monitor.
If you ever need to get your computer worked on, the pro has to turn it on. Wait a minute! He doesn\'t have a license to make a copy!
So, you are permitted to make a backup copy of your software for use by anyone who is restoring broken data to your computer or temporarily transferring it to another computer for the purpose of restoring corrupted data.

Music is a \"sound recording\" so it\'s a bit different, but the right there comes from lending libraries. Libraries can make a copy to store of just about anything they have, since it is assumed that borrowers will trash everything eventually.

That\'s a 2 second slice of copyright law. I took a whole semester on that one law, and hardly got any depth.

 

[treide]

Originally posted by Bengoodall
so making a new one isnt a biggie, I just soak the thing in olive oil, then wrap in green stuff.
Then once thats dry, soak the green stuff in more olive oil, then fill what is now a mold up with more green stuff.

This is great! I have been debating how to fix a missing arm on an old mini I obtained.

How do you get the mold off the original without distorting the mold or damaging the original that is in the mold?

 

[Bengoodall]

Do it in halfs.

So do one half first, slip it out, make sure you use heaps of oil, but not enough to distort and detail, and push it slightly past the original mold line of the piece, and then do the same the other way, the great thing about doing it this was is it doesnt take a huge amount of time, and if you mess it up, it doesnt matter too much.

But you should end up with two halfs a little thicker than they should be, then just carve to fit, and greenstuff up the joins.

Voila!!

 

[lono]

With magic dust and pixies!

Or you could use two halves made to sit either side of the original mould lines on the piece, thus ensuring it will come out with no problems. And plenty of release agent will make it easier too.

 

[treide]

@bengoodall and lono - thanks for the additional tips. I\'ll give it a go!