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Those are both awesome. I so wish pink would come out as a production color. It would look so good on some of the dragons.
purplecat wrote:One last thing….In my defense. The spectral is mostly gold and red, if the purple wings are an issue I could easily do them red and gold on any future pieces…this spectral’s wings were broken, which is why he ended up with me, and that’s why I chose purple on his wing area, it masks my imperfect sculpting repair. It’s near impossible to smoothly blend from gold to purple directly, the purple layers over the red so I couldn’t really do much different with the spine and still have red in his paint job….Also, EVERY dragon I do anything to is clearly labeled, “repair and repaint by TDawn Maddox.” I’m really trying to be careful and not step on any toes. I’m soooo sorry for the confusion. 🙂
First, thank you for clearly marking your quite nicely executed pieces as repaired and repainted. Now, my carefully considered answer to the question about similarity.
The answer I have always gotten from our attorney to the question “what would infringe a Windstone copyright” in regard to repainted pieces is (as I understand it) the following. You can paint them any way you want but if they are offered for sale, published, or done as work for hire, they had better not look like a Windstone. Remember, the standard is not one of exactness in replication. The standard is “substantial similarity” and it is the patterns and shading of paint that give Windstone pieces their distinctive appearance. So, is your piece substantially similar to a Windstone painted piece? I would have to say it is and that Jennifer is way right in her call on this one. And the actual coloration is not the issue. Although it certainly lends to the infringing character of the painting you just have to look at the pieces and ask “would a jury find substantial similarity?”. Pretty gray concept? Maybe, but how else would you do it? And when a lawyer is pointing out and arguing all the aspects of similarity to the jury “substantial” becomes a lot less vague.
I know that this sounds kind of petty on one level but it is one of the property protections that has kept Windstone products as unique as they are over the years and has allowed us to continue to offer Melody’s work for sale. The PYO line and the forum were both somewhat calculated risks as we knew issues of use would arise but we decided that there would be the added benefit of a chance to help educate by example and, to that end, I hope we are making progress. We should all try to maintain a clear understanding of the objectives of this forum so I also do hope that nobody gets overly upset, defensive or embarrassed when they inadvertently become part of the process.
But every piece I’ve done has dorsal shading and dark shading on the legs, wings, crest, and tail. It’s a mimicking of nature, almost all animals will have a lighter underbelly and under-areas….The pink is shaded the same….By making this call you put me entirely out of painting any sort of dragon or fantasy creature….mostly due to my skill level…If I did really bad quality repaints it wouldn’t be an issue. Sorry to respond in this manner but this is my only income as I’m an at home mom. This manner of shading is really the only way to paint this type of creature and it be a believable color scheme.
I’d imagine if you atayed away from colors used by Windstone then you would be fine. Print out pictures of the OOAK and LE/LP pieces so you know how they look so you can avoid those.
I’m just wanting to be sure that repaints like the pinks and silver blue are okay. I’d like to make sure this doesn’t happen again and I can repair and repaint without huge amounts of stress. 😥
purplecat, please don’t be upset. 🙂
As John said, this is the sort of thing that all of us, even Windstone, is learning in a trial by error sort of way.
The issue at hand is not that you used similar colors (in this case, purple gold and red hues). It is your application that is nearly identical to existing Windstone work. That’s where the problem lies. You used the same colors in the same areas of the dragon.
I think I’m talking myself in circles here. 😉
Let me try to give an example. Here are four dragons, all done in blue:
by spark:
http://www.windstoneeditions.com/galleries/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=29
By you:
http://www.windstoneeditions.com/galleries/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=59
by me:
http://www.windstoneeditions.com/galleries/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=52
by dragonscavern:
http://www.windstoneeditions.com/galleries/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=0All of them are essentially the same colors, with counter-shading (lighter bellies). But all of them are unique and I don’t think they could be mistaken for one another.
Does this make a little more sense? 🙂
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My art: featherdust.comNo images are coming up…it looks like it takes me to the gallery and then it says “no image to display”….Sorry.
Sorry about that:
Spark’s:
yours:
Mine:
dragoncavern’s:
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My art: featherdust.comOkay…just wanted to make sure…we pulled up both the spectral and the sk and looked at them side by side….I’m SOOOOOOOOO sorry for this mess. I understand what you’re saying and I think getting pics of all Windstone LE and LP pieces is an excellent idea. I misunderstood the earlier statement. Thanks for being patient with me and letting me know. 🙂
I’m just very glad that we (or, Windstone that is) can address this with people that we know and are understanding, instead of having a real mess when these issues arise. 🙂
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My art: featherdust.comI was just concerned that the pink repaints and silver blue were gonna be problematic as well and I panicked. 😯
purplecat wrote:I was just concerned that the pink repaints and silver blue were gonna be problematic as well and I panicked. 😯
Repaints are discouraged (not to stifle creativity, but because it creates more work for Windstone and their legal protections) but I don’t see where the pink and silver blue ones are an infringement. 🙂
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My art: featherdust.com
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