Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Things Made, and Things Done

Intellectual Property isn't just for the Wealthy or the Legalistic.


Copyright protection arises automatically when an "original" work of authorship is "fixed" in a tangible medium of expression.

Registration with the Copyright Office is optional (but you have to register before you file an infringement suit, and registering early will make you eligible to receive attorney's fees and statutory damages in a future lawsuit).

Here's what "original" and "fixed" mean in copyright law:

Originality: A work is original in the copyright sense if it owes its origin to the author and was not copied from some preexisting work.

Fixation: A work is "fixed" when it is made "sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration." Even copying a computer program into RAM has been found to be of sufficient duration for it to be "fixed" (although some scholars and lawyers disagree with this conclusion).

Neither the "originality" requirement nor the "fixation" requirement is stringent. An author can "fix" words, for example, by writing them down, typing them on an old-fashioned typewriter, dictating them into a tape recorder, or entering them into a computer. A work can be original without being novel or unique.

Example: Betsy's book How to Lose Weight is original in the copyright sense so long as Betsy did not create her book by copying existing material - even if it's the millionth book to be written on the subject of weight loss.

Only minimal creativity is required to meet the originality requirement. No artistic merit or beauty is required.

A work can incorporate preexisting material and still be original. When preexisting material is incorporated into a new work, the copyright on the new work covers only the original material contributed by the author.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Friday, July 17, 2009

Chaos versus Marines: Historicon 09

The Southern Wing of the Chaos Fleet shadows the Comet Cohutex and sneaks into the Mallaverne System:




The sanctioned Imperial Rogue Trader Williphan defends Mallaverne IV:





The Northern Wing of the Chaos Fleet descends on Mallaverne at flank speed:





Commodore Richards flag ship, and the Marine Fleet arrive to relieve Mallaverne.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Space Marines versus Chaos




Gigantic Fleet Action!

Space Marines, Rogue Traders, and Imperial Navy
versus

Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Trader.









Top to Bottom:
Admiral Krigbaum consults the book of armaments.

Admiral Davis determines just how screwed he really is.

Commandant Turnitsa, Admiral Krigbaum, and Commandant Borucki cheer on Commodore Richards.

Admiral Davis and Commodore Richards disagree sharply on the radius of the warp core explosions and their effects.

Commodore Richards verifies the awesome firepower of the Space Marine Battle Barge.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

EAST COAST, REPRESENT: USA 50 Miniatures

Miniatures based on the heroes of USA-5O (LINK)
Click on a picture to see it expanded.


Miss Providence, GreenTech
Rhode Island, Vermont


Jersey Devil, Independence-1
New Jersey, Delaware




Granite, Bucherondeau
N.Hampshire, Maine


New York and Connecticut

USA 50 Miniatures

Monday, July 06, 2009

Marvel Babies


for the Atari 2600

USA 5O - Book Progress


Well I commissioned the artist today for the Western Book of the USA-5O

She is Femme-Turk on Deviant-Art

and she does wowzers like her --->
(art is copy right FemmeTurk)

so she'll spruce up the generic illustrations like him:
even as nice as all the pix we made, the book will still need cover art and dressing up.