Stolen Designs

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Alik, Feb 5, 2015.

  1. PAR
    Joined: Nov 2003
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    Location: Eustis, FL

    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    It doesn't matter if your have copyright protection or not, if the offending country doesn't pursue these types of cases. Right or wrong, you will get nowhere quick, plus attorney and filing costs. The attorneys know this, but don't get paid if they tell the truth, so they'll lead you around the bush, until you figure it's a simple business decision on their part.

    A lot of designers distort or alter lines and there's no issue with this, as any package intended for a client will have the actual lines or drawings. It's only the thieves that get screwed, which is a good thing.
     
  2. pdwiley
    Joined: Jun 2008
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    Location: Hobart

    pdwiley Senior Member

    Unfortunately with photocopiers, a set of lines gets reproduced. I looked at a hull for sale near me and asked to see the plans. They were photocopies. No originals to be seen. When I asked the designer, who I knew, he'd never sold this person a copy of plans for that design. At which point I deducted the price of a legitimate set of plans, a number of other items that needed correction and made an offer on that basis. Which was declined.

    Not that I cared, it was worth what it was worth. AFAIK that hull is still unfinished.

    Ripping off designers has karma. For recreational boats, the cost of the plans is a totally trivial component of the final cost. I've spent at least 6X the plans cost on paint alone.

    PDW
     
  3. Mr Efficiency
    Joined: Oct 2010
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    Location: Australia

    Mr Efficiency Senior Member

    There is obviously a big difference between someone copying plans for one-off personal use, and another using them to set up a business. But as I said earlier, any business set up on that kind of shonky foundation, probably won't last long, or become anything more than a small operation.
     
  4. waikikin
    Joined: Jan 2006
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    Location: Australia

    waikikin Senior Member

    Throwing a wobble in can be a good strategy, as you've indicated care must be taken.
    Reminds me of my Pop, who was at one time a salesman for a large window blind manufacturer, after noticing a very low strike rate with one reseller/retailer & becoming aware of the use of an alternate manufacturer he asked the boss if he could alternate the height-width measurements to width- height for that reseller...... got them a beauty with that because they had been using his measurements supplied to the other manufacturer, shut down that waste of time in a few weeks.

    Jeff.
     

  5. SamSam
    Joined: Feb 2005
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    Location: Coastal Georgia

    SamSam Senior Member

    Sorry for the thread drift, but just for everyone's information, unfortunately with photocopiers, everything copied also gets put on a hard drive. So if you sell a used machine or return a leased one etc, a recoverable record of everything you copied goes with it.

    http://bluemaumau.org/copy_machines_keep_permanent_record_documents

    http://www.tampabay.com/features/consumer/your-secrets-arent-safe-with-most-copy-machines/1089864
     
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