taken from the registering rulez.
To me it means noone can post any Trek Pics.
Unless StarTrek isn't copyrighted of course.

------------------
"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."

'make it so!'

AAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH *gets strangled by the BB's copyright guard*

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-- *GLARE* --

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Ah... Now I enter these hallowed halls a conqueror... Yes...

-Megatron, "The Agenda, Part Three"

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"I'll be the sky above the Ganges
I'll be the vast and stormy sea.
I'll be the lights that guide you inward.
I'll be the visions you will see."
--
R.E.M.

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-- *GLARE* --

I'm sure if people were in the street, looking at a picture of an Akira, and someone walked over an saw them, they couldn't sue them cause it was copyrighted.

SUITED MAN: "You there! let me see that book"
CHILD: "wha, what book s-sir!?!"
SUITED MAN: "that one"
suited man points
boy holds out a book with starship pictures in it
(the long awaited starships compendium ;o))
SUITED MAN:"a-ha! I thought so, its copyrighted. Police Police! these children a reading and discussing COPYRIGHTED material"
Policeman walks over
POLICEMAN "would you like to press charges sir, you are after all from viacom...?"
SUITED MAN "ummm..."
suited man looks around hurridly then bolts away.

events or persons depicted in this skit, are fictitious and bear no resemblence to any persons living or dead, and if they do it was not intentional.

Copyright. It means right to copy, reserved to the person of the material created, or reserved to the owner of the purchased copyright from the creator. In some circumstances the creator or owner may extend permission for another party to copy the material.

Remember that goofy band Green Jell-o? Green Jell-o was forced by Jell-o to change their name (to Green Jelly) because of a copyright issue. Green Jell-o wasn't making any revenue of the Jell-o name. (Who thinks, "Humm, Jell-o, must be a good band.") And surely Jell-o didn't suffer profit loses because Green Jell-o somehow defamed the Jell-o name. Now I can write Jell-o a million times and that is not a copyright infringement. However, a Jell-o class starship would be. The word Jell-o is property. I don't own it. I can't use it.

Needless to say but going full steam ahead anyway, every picture in all the Trek books and stills and videos from episodes are owned by Paramount. We can scan and photocopy, and download, and hand draw all the ships and whatnot for our own private pleasure--like recording CD's to cassette-- but we are prohibited by law from selling such copies. The internet is unique in that it is both private and public. The internet is the new legal battle ground for protecting intellectual property. Etiquette so far is ask for permission and give credit. When you don't, you are violating the copyrights of the individual, or company than either created the work or owns the work.
On my Starship Designs webpage, I have an image I scanned from a Paramount publication of the Enterprise and the DY100. I did not ask Paramount if I could scan the image--just like I never asked any record company if I could record a CD to tape--so I am infringing a copyright law. Eventhough I give credit to Paramount, I don't have their permission. Just like everyone else.
Only if you make a profit from coping will the law be enforced.
And yes, getting to the nitty-gritty, the famed Akira class is owned by Paramount. Any copying of the Akira class by any means is prohibited by law unless permission is granted from the owner. No ifs ands or buts about it.
Let's say that I painted two good counterfeits of the Mona Lisa. Then one of my friends decides he likes the rendering I've done so much that he steals one and hangs it on his living room wall. I say I want the painting back and he must remove it from his wall. He says no. Can I call the police and have it recovered? that is very iffy. If I do, I could be charged for forging a painting. . .for violating a copyright. I may not plan to sell the painting, but the potential is there, and the law will frown down upon me greatly. The paintings would be confiscated I would be out of two paintings, not just one.
It's cool that Adam's ISP agreed that the Akira models be removed, but they didn't have to. The situation could have gotten so ugly that even Tachy would have been forced to remove his models from his page, if Paramount got involved.

Let's even go further and say that I sell my Rapier class to Paramount. That would mean that not even I, the creator, would be allowed to copy the Rapier anymore. Even my personal doodling would be violations.

Well that's that. I don't claim to know the whole story surrounding the Akira crisis, nor do I want to, and if I hit things so far off mark, then I aplogize to all parties concerned of any misconceptions. But teh fact reamins never-the-less, all of us violate copyrights in some form or another. That's my main point.

Hey legal guy!

"All rights reserved. All unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws."

Pretty cut and dry ain't it?

I really don't know what most of your post is cocerned about re: akira models and isp's - I was just chatting, yet I assume it was me, you blast me out of the water, rather forcefully!

I was just poking fun at Viacom, too, just on their attitude to a lot of fan sites out there on the WWW. something that everyone one on the net has heard about.

you work for Viacom?

woah.

Andrew
didn't know what he was getting into, when typing a little funny skit involving a viacom suit and a little boy with a book with an Akira in it.

PS - I think thats the first 'full on beat up' post I've got on this board - including previous incarnations...

should i feel honoured )

PPS - thinks that on the net a ) - can mean the difference between someone taking a sentence with a grain of salt, or with personal insult.