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Jeff Mottle · June 23rd, 2008

I read the court ruling PDF in full and I do understand the basis for the ruling, but it left me with a few questions:

1. Why did meshworks not allow the second court to rule on the breach of contract?
2. Does copyright law supercede any contract law, assuming as the ruling suggested there is nothing original added to the model?
3. If they had been allowed to change out the car's emblem with say the Meshworks logo (modelled) or been allowed to texture it with a custom paint job, would this make the entire model now copyrightable, or is there a percentage of change from the original that makes something copyrightable?
4. If a company is selling 3d models of cars (for the sake of argument, exact replicas with photographs of the actual car being used as textures), does this mean I could steal them and then sell them as my own as they do not own a copyright? Or does the license agreement protect them? If so, how does the license agreement differ from Meshworks contract for "one time use"?

Very interesting case.

June 23rd, 2008	#7 (permalink)
Jeff Mottle President/Founder Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Age: 33 Posts: 5,170 Name: Jeff Mottle	Re: Digital Models Not Subject To Copyright I read the court ruling PDF in full and I do understand the basis for the ruling, but it left me with a few questions: 1. Why did meshworks not allow the second court to rule on the breach of contract? 2. Does copyright law supercede any contract law, assuming as the ruling suggested there is nothing original added to the model? 3. If they had been allowed to change out the car's emblem with say the Meshworks logo (modelled) or been allowed to texture it with a custom paint job, would this make the entire model now copyrightable, or is there a percentage of change from the original that makes something copyrightable? 4. If a company is selling 3d models of cars (for the sake of argument, exact replicas with photographs of the actual car being used as textures), does this mean I could steal them and then sell them as my own as they do not own a copyright? Or does the license agreement protect them? If so, how does the license agreement differ from Meshworks contract for "one time use"? Very interesting case. __________________ Jeff Mottle CGarchitect.com