3D - 2

Copyright issues on a house that no longer exists?

Ok, here's the deal. My grandmother used to own a big house that got burned to the ground. Now, I want to make a 3D model of this house using blueprints, however ; my family won't allow me access to these prints because they think it will affect copyright even though the building no longer exists and the owner is "incapable" of helping me. Ohh and one last thing, a few weeks before it burned down it was sold to someone else. can anyone help with the copyright mixup? dfgdgergerergergerg emanwelgwent: Basically the house was biuld around 200 years ago by an man who is unknown to me or my family who came from Canada. The scale model I wish to create is completley non-financial related; I'm a 3D student at college and thought this would be way of bettering my 3D skills. I don't know of any copyrights on the house but apparently there are on the plans, whether this would affect this or not I do not know. Ohh and for anyone who wants to see the house and info on it here's a website for it. http://www.riggbeck.org

Public Comments

1. How can you copyright a house? Or am I confused?
2. you can ask the person that bought it
3. I think you'd have a harder time with the architect who built the house, not the actual owner of the house. Might want to see if you can dig up who designed the original house, and contact them. If your family still has the blueprints, that would be easy enough to do.
4. I would've thought that the design copyright could be kept by the designer or, if he actually paid for the design outright (a one off house of that design) the owner. So the first thing you'll have to prove is that your grandmother actually bought the design from the designer. If she did, was it included in the sale of the house before it was burned to the ground? If the design copyright was retained by the designer, you'll have to ask his permission. If it's owned by the new owners, you'll have to ask them. Just because the house no longer exists (as you put it) doesn't mean to say that the design copyright is no longer valid.
5. Copy right protection (or intellectual property rights protection as it is more commonly referred to in regards to blueprints and architectural drawings) only prevent someone from taking those prints and building whatever those prints represent more than once. In other words, if you took those prints and built another home somewhere with them, you would be in violation of the protection rights afforded those prints. What is interesting is that being that your grandmother's house burned to the ground, you could legally use those prints to rebuild that exact same house in that exact same spot. Which brings us to the actual question. No, building a scaled model of the home from those prints would not violate or infringe upon any copyright laws. It's not likely that you are going to finish the inside of this model exactly as shown on the prints. (running water, lights that work)
6. Copyright in the house (if it existed) would not belong to the owner, but to the architect (or to the company for which he worked). Although you are attempting to reproduce or "reverse engineer" plans or designs similar to those the architect must have used to build the house, you could be infringing his copyright in the plans (there is some case law in this area to do with the recreate of art in different media from the original) and copyright infringement does not require an exact copy, only a copying of a substantial part (assessed by the importance of what is copied, not the amount) of the original. However it's possible that if the house was built long enough ago it might a) not have had an architect or b) the original plans for the house may now be out of copyright protection. It's also possible that there was licencing in place allowing the production of floor plans an similar. If you really want to over come your family's objections you should: 1) find out what, specifically, they think will happen if you do as you propose. 2) if the matter is of financial value, ask a qualified legal advisor such as a solicitor or trademark attorney (yes, there are "attorneys" in the UK...) . 3) if the matter is not financially valuable then you could try finding and asking a law student, though most will be warry of giving a categorical opinion. 4) armed with the results of 2 or 3 try to pursuade your family that their fears are unjustified.