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This dragon looks nothing like a Windstone, but the colour is almost a perfect match for the peacock colour. Am I right that the colour is copyrighted as well?
I think the color and the patterning of gold accents together are copyrighted. So this dragon wouldn’t be an infringment. It’s not realistic for Windstone to want to copyright the coloring that they themselves took from a type of rock.
Actually this does look like a problem. The colors looks exact and the placement on the dragon is pretty much what the Peacock Windstones have. Please do send it to John!
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My art: featherdust.comI just wanted to add, that in cases like this in the past, they have simply worked it out with the creators to discontinue use of Windstone’s exact colors/patterning.
See the bottom photo on this page:
http://community.livejournal.com/windstone_ed/35936.html
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My art: featherdust.comI know Windstone needs to protect itself, but frankly, I think calling that kitschy thing an infringement is a bit of an exaggeration. Windstone can’t call dibs on the peacock (purple-blue-green transition) coloring. It’s a thing taken from nature. If we take that for granted, the only way to change the coloring on the dragon owuld be to either splotch the colors around on the sculpt, or do the chest green and the dorsal spine purple – which would still be similar to Windstone’s peacocks. There are only so many variations of basic animal colorings and markings. This dragon has no gold accenting, and the sculpt is nothing that could be mistaken for a Windstone.
Greater Basilisk wrote:I know Windstone needs to protect itself, but frankly, I think calling that kitschy thing an infringement is a bit of an exaggeration. Windstone can’t call dibs on the peacock (purple-blue-green transition) coloring. It’s a thing taken from nature. If we take that for granted, the only way to change the coloring on the dragon owuld be to either splotch the colors around on the sculpt, or do the chest green and the dorsal spine purple – which would still be similar to Windstone’s peacocks. There are only so many variations of basic animal colorings and markings. This dragon has no gold accenting, and the sculpt is nothing that could be mistaken for a Windstone.
I feel this way too….but didnt want to start a war on the subject.
actually I agree with Jen here… there are some gold accents GB.. and those gold horns are similar to the horns on the Winstone unicorns…
Now I do agree with doubting anyone would mistake it for a Windstone… but there are still new collectors out there that because of the similar color.. if the person selling it said it was a new sculpt by Windstone… might mistake it for one.. because of that coloring..
yes the color is naturally occuring and Windstone can’t claim every color like that is infringement… but the particular way this one is shaded, is very close to Windstone shading…
I don’t know how John deals with this stuff… but I know he’s pretty fair on his decisions.. so it’s up to him and the lawyers to decide to say anything or not.. but I think it’s always a good idea to send anything questionable to him…
Greater Basilisk wrote:I know Windstone needs to protect itself, but frankly, I think calling that kitschy thing an infringement is a bit of an exaggeration. Windstone can’t call dibs on the peacock (purple-blue-green transition) coloring. It’s a thing taken from nature. If we take that for granted, the only way to change the coloring on the dragon owuld be to either splotch the colors around on the sculpt, or do the chest green and the dorsal spine purple – which would still be similar to Windstone’s peacocks. There are only so many variations of basic animal colorings and markings. This dragon has no gold accenting, and the sculpt is nothing that could be mistaken for a Windstone.
Even thought those colors are found in nature, they are not found in nature with the exact placement that Windstone uses. When those colors, are placed on a dragon in that exact arangement, it is not because they saw it in nature(unless some one can find me a picture of a natural creature with that exact placement of colors). So if the compony were to allow this, when to others it is recognizable a windstone colors, other vendors could use this to claim why it is ok for them to use other known colorations winstone produces.
There are a LOT of ways to combine peacock colors in a pleasing way, with out it copying the pattern windstone uses them in, and windstone would be ok with that.
It may feel Nit Picky, but it is something important for windstone to be able to protect.
Greater Basilisk wrote:I know Windstone needs to protect itself, but frankly, I think calling that kitschy thing an infringement is a bit of an exaggeration. Windstone can’t call dibs on the peacock (purple-blue-green transition) coloring. It’s a thing taken from nature. If we take that for granted, the only way to change the coloring on the dragon owuld be to either splotch the colors around on the sculpt, or do the chest green and the dorsal spine purple – which would still be similar to Windstone’s peacocks. There are only so many variations of basic animal colorings and markings. This dragon has no gold accenting, and the sculpt is nothing that could be mistaken for a Windstone.
Windstone obviously can’t call dibs on the color brown either, but they can and did protect the example I linked to above, because the exact shades of brown and placement was the same as a Windstone.
The dragon above does seem to have gold accents, and the actual hues used look amazingly alike the Windstone peacock colors- right down to the champagne color on the chest. It is entirely possible to paint a dragon in peacock ore colors that are different in hue and placement than what Windstone does. I have seen people here use them on PYOs in a way that is entirely new and pleasing! It can be done.
In the end, I don’t have any weight in the decision- that is up to John and their lawyer, who has far more experience in these sorts of things than we do. 🙂
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My art: featherdust.comI kinda agree with Jen, as long as it’s not occurring in nature in that exact color. Like, they can’t complain if another company does a white unicorn, or Pegasus (not including the wings here) since those are naturally occurring colors, and they can state (perfectly accurately) that they were following natural horse colors.
Also, Windstone shouldn’t be able to complain about a green frog sculpt, because of the fact that green frogs do exist. It’s only if the sculpt looks like theirs, in this case.
It’s kinda a nitpicky thing, though I agree completely with Jen in this particular case. That color placement is not (as far as I know) found in nature, and you can rearrange the colors. Instead of that transition, you could have a green chest, instead of purple, and that would be different enough (provided it didn’t look like they used the same paint).
ruffian wrote:This dragon looks nothing like a Windstone, but the colour is almost a perfect match for the peacock colour. Am I right that the colour is copyrighted as well?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dragon-Tidal-Wave-Fantasy-Figure-Sculpture-Collectible_W0QQitemZ110270039244QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item110270039244&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318
Wow. Peacock infringement or not, that is one ugly sculpture.
Eeeuw.Wow. Just hideous.
And not very well done, IMO. If one must infringe, one should at least do a proper job of it. 😉
And on a humorous note… Kind of ironic; discussion whether or not a color scheme is found in nature, when dragons are not “natural”. LOL. (Or any of the “fantasy” figurines repped by Windstone for that matter.) 😆
By natural I meant… well for the pegasus or the unicorn, horse colors! Or for the frog wizard, well… I think you get the idea.
And another animal (such as a lizard) could have coloring that a statue has on it, or something like that. That could be transferred to the very lizard like dragons, right?
also by “natural” they were talking about the stone Melody said she got the peacock coloring from
forgot what it was called… it was talked about a few times a while back..
considering the dragon isn’t a peacock (bird) color…
it’s like a black stone with kind of and oily look to it, making up those colors…
I’m sure Jen can explain it better…
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