how copyright protect boat design images?

Yes there is, but few designers use it.

 

Maybe that Swarbrick case was come uppance, I remember Joe Adams being PO'd when he did the Adams 8 and Swarbrick allegedly hijacked the design and morphed it into the S80... I don't know who was right but it all seemed a little close to home from Joes angle.

 

That is incorrect. Just by snapping a photo or drawing/rendring you created an image with copyright. C-symbol and the copyright text is added just to make it easier to prove when the image was created and by whom. I can download plenty of hi-res images from internet but if I start selling prints I will risk getting sued. If it did go to court it would be up to me and the party suing to prove the origins of the image.

You do not need to register image for copyright and neither can you use random images from internet (even if they have no labels).



from wikipedia:
"In all countries where the Berne Convention standards apply, copyright is automatic, and need not be obtained through official registration with any government office. Once an idea has been reduced to tangible form, for example by securing it in a fixed medium (such as a drawing, sheet music, photograph, a videotape, or a computer file), the copyright holder is entitled to enforce his or her exclusive rights. However, while registration isn't needed to exercise copyright, in jurisdictions where the laws provide for registration, it serves as prima facie evidence of a valid copyright and enables the copyright holder to seek statutory damages and attorney's fees. (In the USA, registering after an infringement only enables one to receive actual damages and lost profits.)"

 

Kerosene

I think you need to reread my post...you have the wrong end of the stick!...since your post above, is simply an expansion of mine!