I was needing to ask the question as I am not well versed in copy right laws. I had blown up a paper craft ship to 1/144 on print out on printer paper 6 pages to make a full sheet. I added the name of the original source to all of the sheets, past that not sure what I would need to do be able to post in the resources sections.
Now Im not lawyer, but im.pretty sure since it is hobby use and would be free, where you arent charging or making a profit, it would be perfectly legal under fair use laws, as long as credit is given. But like I said, I'm not a lawyer so take my words with a grain of salt.
If you aren't the copyright holder or have their permission you shouldn't do it. Just enlarging a drawing doesn't make it a new original work. Adding the name just lets everyone know who's work you're giving away for free. If it's in the public domain or something like that it's ok, if you paid for the original it probably isn't.
Look at the copy right date anything after 20 years without being renewed is fair game. That’s how music works anyway. That’s why in books it will say copy right 1993,1999,2002,2008. So for example if it says copyright 1993 then the plans that you have were copyrighted in 1993 so you would have to check to see if they were renewed any time after 2000 if they were them you can’t use them if they weren’t then they are free game if it is the same way as music.
Check further, it's a bit longer than that for most media. If you have some information about your sources, that'd be great to share.
My source was my stepdad he is a music teacher and wrote a lot of music for marching bands all around the country and stated to me that they didn’t have to pay for the rights if the music was over 20 years old and the rights were never renewed. I mean he has been doing this for over 40 years so I trust that he has to keep up with the laws and such for copy rights as time goes on.
that's a good point. I was looking at it like the 3d printed minis for battletech. they are allowed to make the files and print them, and share, but can't sell the minis or the designs (huge thing with Patreon just went down a few months back, people were designing them and giving them away, but you had to be a subscribed member to get the models). they are based on other works, but because they did the work to 3d model them, then its fair use? I really don't know, and probably am wrong. But I did say I wasn't a lawyer lol. Doing such things like that is beyond any realm of stuff I'm ever going to do anyways.
It seems to me I should just Delft ship the hell out of the plans and make the correct changes for out Hobby purposes and there is no need for worrying about things by that point the plans will be too removed from the original.
US copyright law as it currently stands is an outdated and broken system that no longer achieves its intended purpose. Things that should be legal are not, and things that shouldn't be legal are, and congress can't update the system fast enough to keep up with changes in technology. If you Delftship the hull to fair the lines properly (a lot of published plans have issues), that is *probably* sufficiently transformative to count as a separate work.
Also keep in mind that anyone making plans probably doesn't make much if any money from them, so, maybe trying to circumvent an already small margin might have a negative impact on the number of plans being made or drawn in the community. If you draw them yourself from other material, awesome, but maybe don't trace/print/publish. It might be technically legal, but it might also be a dick move to the original plan's creator. It sounds like you're more using the plans as source material for a new work so probably ok. But I have to ask the question...why? Are they for a ship that doesn't have plans available through other sources? There are lots of free plans (mostly French and US) so adding one more so someone doesn't have to pay for plans is nice, but, that seems like a ton of work to save someone $20. Maybe I'm old school, but I used to (and still do) mail plans back and forth when they need to use them.
Basically this... I would reject a request to post an enlarged/cleaned up papercraft scan unless you had provenance clearly demonstrating that the copyright had lapsed and the material was transferred to public domain, or you had affirmative permission from the aforementioned holder of the rights. We allow copies of plans that are clearly public domain, such as ones released by national governments/their archives. We also generally allow highly transformed works so long as they don't contain the original copyrighted material (so you can upload 3d models you have designed based on hull lines, but you need to make sure not to upload the original hull line scans).
That is why I am asking this question to not step on any ones tows or being a blue falcon. The ship designs I am usually playing with there is a lack of content to start off with or what there is I do not like the format or I find to be a wast of time. I will be honest papercraft has some nice IJN ships just way under scale on start off, and larger scales are impractical for that particular hobby.
Hard at work, Wish I had a job... The move for the new job went bust so I'm occupying my self till I find a job.
