Thief of Just Smart Thinking?

busyliving

Hey all

Just a quick question for ye.

Just say someone started up an online business selling t-shirts, and most of the designs on the t-shirts were identical to those found on other sites, would the owner of the business be guilty of thief?

But what if the designs were slightly alterd;

for example

Change this


To this


That would be same thing as thief?

Oink

Who owns the copyright for the design?
EDIT: Or is there an equivalent for artwork? IANAL.
EDIT2: I doubt if making such a small change in the design makes a difference.

Reloc8

What you're describing is likely to constitute the tort of 'passing off'. That's where one person sells goods which are deliberately meant to resemble another person's, to fool the consumer into buying the passed off goods.

The person whose goods are being passed off can sue and recover damages at civil law.

It may also constitute offences under the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 and allow the copyright holder to take action again at civil law under that legislation.

BrianD

TBH is I was in the market for a "Teach The Controversy" t-shirt I wouldn't have been able to see the difference between the two designs. So it's quite clear you want to pass off your designs for somebody looking for the genuine article.

BTW it makes no difference if you are passing off or breaching copyright online or offline.

MagicSean

Thief

NoQuarter

No you wouldnt be guilty of theft.

BrianD

NoQuarter wrote: »

No you wouldnt be guilty of theft.

The OP may have got the legal definition of his wrong doing incorrect. Ultimately, he's asking if his 'smart idea' is a wrong doing by law.

Plenty of people would view it as "theft" of another's work while it is actually 'passing off' or possible copyright breach as pointed out by others.

However you view it, the smart thinking is not advisable.

busyliving

BrianD wrote: »

The OP may have got the legal definition of his wrong doing incorrect. Ultimately, he's asking if his 'smart idea' is a wrong doing by law.

Plenty of people would view it as "theft" of another's work while it is actually 'passing off' or possible copyright breach as pointed out by others.

However you view it, the smart thinking is not advisable.

Cheers to all for your feedback I was 99% certain my example was against some sort of law, either it be copyright infringement or theft...

But now I going to ask would it be illegal to print shirts with funny phrases on them; with said phrases taken from an online t-shirt stores.

P.S
I would like to apologize for my many spelling errors

busyliving

Bump:D

not even wrong

busyliving wrote: »

But now I going to ask would it be illegal to print shirts with funny phrases on them; with said phrases taken from an online t-shirt stores.

Said phrases would be copyrighted so yes, it's illegal.

johnboysligo

as far as I understand copyright on clothing is purely logo's and designs ( i.e. brand name, symbols and slogans ) so yeah if you started selling shirts featuring very similar designs and logos you could open yourself up to some form of legal repercussions.

baalthor

Dunnes Stores were succesfully sued by Karen Millen over this ...