Selling origami--legal or no?

[steingar]

So you can see also this :http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichJur ... &fastPos=1

particularly this extract : "Pour ce qui est des oeuvres telles que la sculpture , l'auteur est celui qui est à l'origine de leur création c'est-à-dire celui qui les conçoit, les dessine et choisit le matériau de réalisation" meaning (my translation) : "for work like sculpture, the author is the person who is at the origin of their creation, is est, the person who design, draw them and choose the material of ther realization"

Forgive me for continuing this, but the actual legalities are quite interesting. You may be quite correct. However, "as for works such as sculpture, the author is the one behind their creation is to tell him who conceives, designs and selects the material embodiment" is how I (or more accurately the internet) translates that phrase. But again, is the author the one who wrote the instructions to make the thing, or the one who selected the materials and actually created it. We're referring to the physical thing here, and not the abstract instructions that were written down. However, I am painfully conscious that I may be missing something in the translation.

[KittenBazooka]

"...presuming that the piece is not under copyright (that is, it is pre-1923)"

I don't know if anyone pointed this out, but I think you've given us the answer.
Models created before 1923 have become a part of the public domain and therefore are not under copyright.
Models created after 1923 (most likely) are copyrighted and cannot be reproduced for profit without the creator's permission.

I have the same hopes for selling my origami, mostly to pay for more paper and to make space for new models
I think you'll be OK if you stick to traditional models.

[dbstraight]

Please forgive a newbie (both to this board and origami) for continuing an old discussion. It is new to me.

Understand first that I fully accept and will abide by the laws that govern origami. I don't pirate music or books or software or anything else, and I won't pirate origami.

However...

The analogy I had in mind when discovering origami was not music, but cooking. Recipes can be copyrighted (actually, technically only the instructions can, not the ingredient list), but food cannot. Imagine the following situation: I learn a dish from a cookbook. I love it and cook it all the time for years. I make small adaptations to it along the way (derivative work). At this point I have completely memorized the recipe and don't even remember where I found it in the first place. Now I decide to open a catering business because cooking is what I love and I want to make my living doing what I love. But I can't. Because my signature dish is "not mine," and either I have no way of tracking down the owner or I'm too small for the owner to care about whether or not I have permission.

Understand that often when people show reluctance to contact a copyright owner it is precisely *because* of how highly they respect the owner. A normal peon like me doesn't imagine in a million years that a real author will respond to their emails. They're an author. They don't have time to answer emails from "normal people." So I'm just out of luck.

[Foldingsmith]

either I have no way of tracking down the owner or I'm too small for the owner to care about whether or not I have permission.

Understand that often when people show reluctance to contact a copyright owner it is precisely *because* of how highly they respect the owner. A normal peon like me doesn't imagine in a million years that a real author will respond to their emails. They're an author. They don't have time to answer emails from "normal people." So I'm just out of luck.

My experience is that this is not the case in the origami world. The community is fairly small and it's pretty easy to be put in touch with creators- especially if they are well-known (a number of them even navigate through this forum). Easy to approach and meet at conventions. I've communicated with Eric Joisel, Fumiaki Kawahata, and others I've not personally met simply by obtaining an email address.

It's not like you're trying to harass Charlie Sheen or stalk Angelina Jolie. Origami celebrities are very approachable.

If you in fact respect the artist and his work, contact him first.

[HankSimon]

Ditto - There are many experts on the Forum who started out years ago, and respectfully contacted many of the authorities and authors around the world, in order to learn the models.

Even humble little me has contacted Robert Lang, Michael Lafosse, Yoshide Momotani, David Lister, and Quentin Trollip ... and they were friendly.

So, if you have interest in using a model, I suggest posting in the Forum, or sending a request directly to the author, if you know his email.

- Hank Simon