Quote:
Originally Posted by ThatAmericanChap
I'd like to see Chris try his hand at nearly anything which Giotto Bizzarrini had his hand in, but especially the 5300 Strada or the P538S - (...) all he'd need do is to convince some local Bizzarrini owner to let him take his car apart to make the molds.
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This looks like a suitable post to introduce something regarding copyright and design protection law that's been concerning me for the last few days since it cropped up at work on a non-car related matter.
To get straight to the point, the UK Government is going to bring our copyright and design protection laws into line with current EU law next week (28th April 2016).
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/i.../IA12-014J.pdf
The upshot is that the rights to 'artistic designs' will now belong to the designer's heirs for seventy years after their death, not twenty-five as is the case today.
Although this law was intended to cover art works like sculptures and paintings, it's about to have a catastrophic impact on UK based reproduction furniture businesses who are being given six months to dispose of all stock and stop production of anything that comes under this diktat. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that the heirs of car designers may argue that their ancestors' designs qualify for protection from copying under this ruling.
A design will not be covered under this act if fifty or more items were produced by some industrial process - these will remain at 25 years after the death of the designer. In the case of my Spyder, a (sort of) replica of the Lancia D24 Spyder, the designer, Battista Farina, died in 1966 and only four cars were built, plus four 'continuation models constructed in the 1980's and around a dozen D23 to D25 derivative models using the same basic body design in the one or two years before and after the D24.
I think this means that under the new law I could be on thin ice if I built another one as the design will belong to Farina's heirs until 2036, but I don't
think I could be made to destroy the one I've already built (it's not an exact copy anyway, more 'in the style of').
I really don't know what the implications are for resale of existing reproductions though - will people still be able to sell on their second hand 'designer' furniture/clothes/cars?
In the case of Giotto Bizzarini's designs this is all fairly academic - he'll be 90 in June and is still working as a designer (I guess he loves his job) so he still owns the rights to all of his designs that he hasn't specifically passed on to someone else in a written contract. But it could have a significant impact on the 'classic' kit car market, especially when recreating low production sports racing cars designed in the fifties and sixties, using the original design or part of the design (which is also covered).
Thoughts anyone?