On 9/29/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net> wrote:
Monahon, Peter B. wrote:
Copyright infringement case law allow damages for
publishing look-alike
pictures, even if only in design, layout, or theme - not just outright
"copies".
What's the context for that? Surely there must be an intent to make it
look like something that already exists. Two independently produced
photographs that happen to look alike are not infringements.
Indeed. Copyright law is not like patent law, in which infringement
does not require intent or access. You have to show that actual
copying occurred, or at least that the probability of it was good.
Furthermore, it would have to be of something unique to the supposedly
copied work, rather than a common theme or indeed the appearance of
the subject itself.
-Matt