I am not a lawer, but as I understand it, the concept of fair use would apply here. Fair use means, If you purchase a piece of copywrited material (book, CD, photo, video tape, etc.) you are allowed to reproduce, play, use, etc. for your own *personal* use. ie: You can play a CD at a party without having to pay royalties, but you are suppose to pay royalties if you charge admission to the party. Retail stores have to pay royalties for the music that they play, because that having music in the background is considered to add to the profits of the store and is a "necessary" part of doing business. I can tape a ball game off of the television and I am allowed to replay it to a group of friends, but I am not allowed to sell that same tape to them. I think you get the picture. In the case of a book or magazine that has a description or plan of how to build something, I think that I would work this way. You are allowed to make as many of the object as you would like for your own personal use. The building and selling of that object wouldn't be covered under the fair use clause and you would be obligated to pay royalties. Obviously, no one is going to come after you if you build a boat for yourself and one to sell to a friend. It's up to you to use your own moral compass to decide what is right. I personally would buy another copy of the book so that the author get's a little something and I probably wouldn't charge my friend any more than what the materials cost (no personal gain). Of course, any statments in the book to the contrary would override the fair use clause as well such as a statement saying that the plans are in the public domain or that an additional fee is charged for additional boats.

Using part of a design is more of a grey area. I believe that the defining concept is one of recognizability. If you use copywrited material in you own work you must give credit if the copywrited material is recognizable as the original work. For example, you couldn't lift a mold from a VCP Nordkapp, move deck fitting then sell the design as your own. Can plot the Nordkapp station lines, add 3 inches the the beam, subtract a foot from the length and modify the stern profile?. I don't know. I think it depends on whether VCP would recongnize that their design was the basis to your boat and would they want to take legal action. I would talk to the original designer and ask them what their feeling are before going to far. I would bet that you would get more help than you expected, if the commercial designers are anything like the rest of the people on this board.

Ken Vogel