[d at DCC] Can a guitar have a copyright?

[Russell McOrmond]

On Wed, 31 Mar 2010, Alex Jillard wrote:

> My brother builds custom guitars, does he have a copyright on the design 
> of that guitar (shape of the body, etc?).  For a side project, he also 
> built a guitar partially out of lego, using a Stratocaster as a 
> template, but building the parts that are not critical to the structure 
> of the guitar out of lego.  These parts are essentially the wings of the 
> guitar, knob ends, etc.  Can this have a copyright as well?  Someone 
> else has copied this idea (making a lego statocaster) and is getting 
> some minor press coverage for it.  I'm wondering if we have any way of 
> forcing him (or the magazines writing the articles) to give credit for 
> the design/idea to my brother.


   I am not a lawyer (IANAL), and thus am not going to offer anything that 
might be confused as legal advice.

   I do want to comment on the logic of the question.

   You can't copyright ideas, just expressions of ideas, so no way to 
impose through the power of the state (through the legal system) someone 
to give credit for an idea.  Going all legalistic doesn't tend to win you 
friends, or gain positive press coverage anyway -- and more social methods 
would be far more effective.  More carrots, less sticks -- and please, 
don't do as the outgoing recording industry does and hit their potential 
customers with both the carrots and the sticks.


   So we are talking about designs which might be offered design patents, 
copyright, or may even have trademark implications.  Again, I'm not going 
to dive into which I think may apply to these Fender or Squier 
Stratocaster repicas (Strat copies?) as IANAL.

   If the design of the guitar is offered exclusive rights then what your 
brother was doing of making a derivative of the statocaster was illegal.

   If the designs of the guitars are not offered exclusive rights, then not 
only is what your brother is doing legal but also that what this 
"someone else" is doing.

   This is a common logical flaw that many "creators" have -- that they 
want exclusive rights granted to them to stop others from building on 
their work or doing parallel innovation, but required limits on the 
exclusive rights of others in order to be allowed to create in the first 
place.

   "The protection afforded in copyright is to the creator as water is to 
humans; too little and you dehydrate and die, too much and you drown and 
die. Survival requires understanding this delicate balance."  (blah, blah, 
blah).

-- 
  Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
  Please help us tell the Canadian Parliament to protect our property
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