[rescue] Re: Making SS20 drive brackets

[Robert Novak]

On Sat, 4 May 2002, Bill Bradford wrote:

> On Sat, May 04, 2002 at 08:54:08AM -0700, Dan Canaan wrote:
> > I think it's a great idea- for yourself only.  The moment you start making 
> > them and giving them away to others, it's called theft.  And selling them 
> > on eBay is doubly dangerous- now you're a bootlegger by making counterfeit 
> > copies of a part and selling them for a profit.  It's definately lawsuit 
> > bait material at that point.  You do NOT want to go there.   Copyrights are 
> > there for a reason.  You can't cast a commercial item and then sell the 
> > copies of it without breaking the law.  And I don't think the moderators of 
> > this list want to see this list used for illegal activities- it tends to 
> > put them in the line of lawsuits as well.
> 
> Explain the 3rd-party SS5 drive brackets I have, then, that are identical
> to the Sun part except they're not purple?

I don't think you can copyright a piece of plastic. You can copyright the
blueprint, patent the process used to make it, and trademark the brand
name or logo on it... IANAL/IANAPA though, YMMV. 

I have used 2-3 varieties of 3rd parth Spuds (Silicon Gear and some MIT
unbranded one) as well. The MIT variety (Made-In-Taiwan) is identical to
the Sun original SPUD except that there's no barcode sticker and the
diamond where Sun puts its "bug" logo is just a recessed space. I love
these. 

Note, though, that just because something is done doesn't make it legal.
Doesn't mean it's illegal, immoral, or fattening either. However, I
believe that as long as Shawn doesn't represent these as Sun original, or
put a Sun logo on them, he should be okay. 

--Rob
-- 
Robert Novak, Indyramp Consulting * rnovak at indyramp.com * indyramp.com/~rnovak
	"I don't want to doubt you, Know everything about you
      I don't want to sit Across the table from you Wishing I could run."