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This Guitar Looks Familiar


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Heh, yeah, definitely familiar. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Don't think you can copyright/trademark a camoflage paint job with hazard paint (the yellow/black), though... and if I'm a guessing man, Perry wouldn't have bothered to anyhow.

Wonder where this one came from?

Perry's paint job certainly paid better attention to the "little things" like the airbrushing between panels and the appearance of the rivets.

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Heh, yeah, definitely familiar. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Don't think you can copyright/trademark a camoflage paint job with hazard paint (the yellow/black), though... and if I'm a guessing man, Perry wouldn't have bothered to anyhow.

Wonder where this one came from?

Perry's paint job certainly paid better attention to the "little things" like the airbrushing between panels and the appearance of the rivets.

If I was one to gossip, I'd tell you that I found it here. If I was one to gossip. :D

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Heh, well there ya go. It really IS flattery. Instead of doing a Zakk Wyle, EVH, or any number of other possibilities, he did a WOMD imitation. To me, that's a feather in the cap more than anything. :D

Greg

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LOL, as you said it is flattery especially considering how it compares to perrys paint job(as in not even close). Anyhow, anyone know what happened to the last fret on that thing? Did someone sneak into perrys shop and sneak that thing out for a pic during mid fret?

Edited by jmrentis
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The guy even went as far as copying the actual layout of the panels, and the shapes of the darker colours. Insane. For the record all my work is copyright. I make sure of that.

The plot thickens... i just did a search for Ericgarza, the file name. Seems he got me to quote him on a custom guitar early last year. You'd have though he would at least email me with some pics... maybe i should email him?

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What the heck man! Pmarlin, I did see your guitars and I was going to say that, but in case you were friends or something I didn't want to say something bad about him. Now that it seems that he is copying everyones guitars exactly, I think maybe some action is in order, especially considering Perry's copyrighting and the exact duplication of the paint job. Anyhow, good luck with that stuff guys. BTW Pmarlin, is that your actual picture as well. It actually looks like he just copied your picture and didn't even paint his own version. Just curious? Jason

Edited by jmrentis
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Oh yeah those are actually mine I gave him permission to use them. Those are guitars that people have painted using the book. I bought the book and painted the Texas flag, then I found this place and restored the iceman and painted it with rattlecans using the book. Now I am on to building my own.

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Gotcha, thats why I did not say anything because he might be your friend or asked for their use. I don't know though about perry's situation as his are copyrighted and they are about exact duplications of his paint job. I'm glad that it seems just Perrys is the only one copied now, although not good for perry. I know I have seen and even spoken with that guy on this site before, I believe. I searched for his name and couldn't find it, but I know he is or was a member. Hopefully, there won't be any problems. I wonder why he just didn't do his own version of Perrys design, instead of basically copying it. Well, as Phil said lets see if he will show up and work this out with Perry.

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Heh, well... if it's a one-off for himself, one can chalk it up to flattery. :D Obviously the original WOMD is superior.

OT but seemingly on-topic: Perry, if a commercial establishment ripped off the WOMD (including such giveaways as exact placement of panels), does that mean you could litigate? That's reassuring that you can do stuff like that. I guess it makes sense-- EVH probably has the Frankenstrat-style paint-job copyrighted, too.

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I'm not sure that copyright of a paint job is possible otherwise I bet Zakk Wylde wishes that he'd copyrighted the bullseye...I've seen almost every type of guitar with that finish. The problem that all guitar companies face is that a tiny change stops one guitar from looking like another...even if those two WOMD guitars had the exact same finish the slightly different body shapes, bridge, knob locations, headstock etc. would prevent them from being identical.

I dunno, I might have it completely wrong but I can't see that it would hold up.

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Speaking only to the "paint job" side of things, it's important to distinguish between identifiable design and general design. You can't copyright polka-dots or bulls-eyes because they're just generic designs. The EVH 'stripes' are pretty distinctive, so he MIGHT be able to copyright that.

I honestly don't know how that part of it works. Designs can be patented but not generally copyrighted. Distinguishable visual characteristics (headstock shape) can be Trademarked but not patented (unless the headstock adds particular unique functionality as well... I'm only talking shape). It's all very confusing to me. I always think of copyrights as pertaining to works such as music, literature, and movies, in addition to specific unique paintings that are protected against random reproduction.

To add to the confusion, each country is different.

No wonder there are lawyers who specialize in all these specific branches. :D

Greg

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If I would have found this forum before college, I very well may have gone into law to study up on patent, copyright, and trademark law. There is definetly a huge market for it. Heck I could have made a fortune by offering services on this board and the MIMF board alone.

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I honestly don't know how that part of it works. Designs can be patented but not generally copyrighted. Distinguishable visual characteristics (headstock shape) can be Trademarked but not patented (unless the headstock adds particular unique functionality as well... I'm only talking shape). It's all very confusing to me. I always think of copyrights as pertaining to works such as music, literature, and movies, in addition to specific unique paintings that are protected against random reproduction.

These are off the top of my head, but you can look them up.

A. Copyright generally applies to written work, excluding titles. Think poetry, prose, music.

B. Patent is for inventions, or original or modified design. Think Tremol-No.

C. Trademark is what you're looking for here. It's for an easily identifiable shape, pattern, etc. that is associated with an entity. Think Fender headstock.

Sorry, but confusing those terms is one of my pet peeves.

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I pulled this from Wiki, purely to save me writing something very simular myself: (yes, i broke copyright law!)

Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. At its most general, it is literally "the right to copy" an original creation. In most cases, these rights are of limited duration. The symbol for copyright is ©, and in some jurisdictions may alternatively be written as either © or ©.

Copyright may subsist in a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms or "works". These include poems, theses, plays, and other literary works, movies, choreographic works (dances, ballets, etc.), musical compositions, audio recordings, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, software, radio and television broadcasts of live and other performances, and, in some jurisdictions, industrial designs. Designs or industrial designs may have separate or overlapping laws applied to them in some jurisdictions. Copyright is one of the laws covered by the umbrella term intellectual property.

Copyright law covers only the form or manner in which ideas or information have been manifested, the "form of material expression". It is not designed or intended to cover the actual idea, concepts, facts, styles, or techniques which may be embodied in or represented by the copyright work. For example, the copyright which subsists in relation to a Mickey Mouse cartoon prohibits unauthorized parties from distributing copies of the cartoon or creating derivative works which copy or mimic Disney's particular anthropomorphic mouse, but does not prohibit the creation of artistic works about anthropomorphic mice in general, so long as they are sufficiently different to not be deemed imitative of the original. In some jurisdictions, copyright law provides scope for satirical or interpretive works which themselves may be copyrighted. Other laws may impose legal restrictions on reproduction or use where copyright does not - such as trademarks and patents.

Copyright laws are standardized through international conventions such as the Berne Convention in some countries and are required by international organizations such as European Union or World Trade Organization from their member states.

Furthermore, the Berne Convention:

Under the Berne Convention, copyrights for creative works do not have to be asserted or declared, as they are automatically in force at creation: an author need not "register" or "apply for" a copyright in countries adhering to the Berne Convention. As soon as a work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work, and to any derivative works unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them, or until the copyright expires. The Berne Convention also resulted in foreign authors being treated equivalently to domestic authors, in any country signed onto the Convention.

----

The guitar, as all my guitars (artwork) has a © symbol marked on it, although this isnt required by law.

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