Saturday, October 31, 2009

Firebowls, Copyright And Crowdfunding (Oh My); TechDirt, 10/30/09

Mike Masnick, TechDirt; Firebowls, Copyright And Crowdfunding (Oh My):

"Here's the summary of the situation:

Unger makes "firebowls" -- decorative metal bowls that you light a fire in (I had no idea such things existed).

He copyrighted the design of his firebowls.

He then discovered that Rick Wittrig was making firebowls that look remarkably similar, but are a bit cheaper.

Unger got angry and sent a cease-and-desist

Wittrig filed a lawsuit to claim that Unger's registered copyrights are not legitimate, as there shouldn't be any copyright on utilitarian objects.

Unger writes up his side of the story (small artist being ripped off!) and asks people to fund his legal defense using popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter"

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091030/0412566732.shtml

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