HOW THAT STARTED

Steve Zamboni: True fact: The first ISC spaceship was actually a heavily-overengineered office building with rocket motors strapped to the side. (Memo: possible movie script, attach rocket motors to London Gherkin, pitch to M:I and GI Joe franchises.)

Steve Cole: I wonder if we could legally make a line of starships out of famous buildings? Gherkin, Empire State, Malaysian twin spires, that sailboat thing in the Arab gulf...

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Saturday, May 05, 2018 - 01:46 pm: Edit

Any distinctive building is covered by the Berne Convention and that covers any building not in "public domain" by 1971. The US amended the copyright law in 1990 to comply with the Berne Convention. Photography of the building is permitted, but I suspect selling miniatures of it is not.

I am not a lawyer; this is merely my suspicion.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, May 05, 2018 - 01:47 pm: Edit

Jean reports: iconic buildings (those recognizable as a specific structure, e.g., Tower Eifel) are protected by the Berne Copyright Convention of 1971. Anything built after that is covered. It would violate international, British, and US law to do a starship miniature of the Gherkin. That doesn't mean somebody won't put it on Shapeways, but it won't be ADB.