Interesting question, Russ

In my opinion [*] : If you are making 'something else' from a set of commercially available castings, you would be within your rights to publish your design, however you see fit.

MichaelG.

.

[*] no liability expressed or implied !!

I suppose it depends on what you want to do with the drawings, if it is just so you can make it in metric then no problem for personal use, if you start selling them then there may be issues.

If I remember right the design has to be substantially different from anything else. Merely making it look different, cosmetics, or imperial to metric does not make enough change. The design has to be a new way to produce the similar product. There have been numerous court cases on likeness of product. As said any drawings you create solely for your use commit no design infringement. Some companies in the real world require all copies of drawings to be returned to them on completion of a contract.

Copyright concerns itself with works of artistic merit and the drawings in themselves fit that criteria but the actual design they depict comes under industrial design which in this case can be deemed to be in public domain unless there is something special or unique about the design for which either a patent or Intellectual property rights exist. Basically, as long as you create wholly new drawings that are not directly derivative of CES's, you're in the clear.

<continued>

So 25 years after publication for the ME article, or 2001? There are also "unregistered design rights" which might apply which seem to last for 15 years after the design was made.

Frankly, I'd just do it – redrawing in a modern CAD package and making available as pdf's would be doing everyone a favour including CES.

CES seem to have stopped selling castings except for these. I suspect that's because almost no one builds them so they have unsold sets in stock. I must say it seems odd tome to be building an all-mechanical hobber these days when it can be better done with some electronics and a stepper driven RT.

(Pass me the hard hat.)

CES changed ownership recently so any rights may not have been aquired by the new owners.

Emgee

I'd need a really good reason for taking the risk.

There are grounds why someone in their right mind might start a fight. They might want to make an example of you pour encourager les autres. There's a financial opportunity too. If you copy and distribute the design and the copyright owner contacts you demanding a hefty out-of-court settlement or else, what will you do? Chances are it will be far cheaper to pay him off than to defend a court case, let alone to lose it.

Trouble with the law is it favours the big boys, who might be insured. They can afford to lose; the rest of us can't. Legal advice is expensive, defending is very expensive, and if the case goes badly you pay their costs too. Not a good idea to be on the receiving end unless you have no assets.

Copyright is a complete minefield and – if someone comes after you – the penalties are severe.

A better approach would be to ask permission. Alternatively, do the designs and send them to Mick. Apparently he's happy to take the risk of distributing them!

Dave

If you make up your own drawings, in metric, and distribute them for free to the very small handful of people worldwide likely to want a set, it's unlikely any copyright holder will spend the money to mount a serious legal challenge to defend the equally small handful of sales they might make worldwide in the next decade.

The usual first step in such matters would be they send you a "cease and desist" order. If so, you simply stop distributing your drawings. Unlikely to happen though, even if they think they could prove in a legal battle that your drawings were a rehash of theirs and not your own original work. Way too expensive and time consuming and the outcome would not be guaranteed for them.

Case in point: You can go on eBay right now and for 3.99 Pounds buy a two-CD set of copies of Model Engineer's Workshop issues 1 through 163. Obviously MyTime Media does not see it as worthwhile to pursue the abuse of their copyright. Perhaps the bootleg back issues might even promote the sales of subsciptions to the current editions?

Maybe CES would be happy to see your metric drawings out there? It might help them sell off their remaining stock of castings. Have you thought of offering your metric drawings for sale through CES? They might be interested.

You could try asking the question on the website copyrightaid.co.uk.

Peter