Whenever this topic comes around, it always becomes many lawyers or
legal experts citing laws and statutes and about copyrights and
patents. Once we get there, we have missed the whole point.

The issue, as Bjarte wonders, is: "Where does one turner's original
work end and another's begin? When am I infringing on someone else's
turf?" Forget the legal definitions. What are the ethical boundaries
and how do we define them?

This same topic came up on the WOW group and I wondered out loud there
too. Can nobody ever use a puzzle motif because Art Liestman "did it
first"? How different is different enough? Can nobody ever turn a
southwest pottery shape with segmented turning because Mark Kauder does
such great work? Or is Mark plagiarizing Malcolm Tibbetts? Or is
Malcom plagiarizing Ray Allen? Or they all are stealing from the
native Americans from the southwest - no wait - they used clay so its
OK, at least for Ray.

Exhortations to NOT copy are OK, but until we have practical tools to
determine the boundaries, exhortations are inadequate.

I do have a couple of suggestions that I think all of us need to
ponder. First, plagiarism is about lost earnings potential and lost
prestige. If you copy a form as an exercise for your own satisfaction
and give it away, I don't think that is an ethical violation. If you
start to sell items that closely resemble someone else's designs, you
are leveraging their creativeity for your own profit. I think that is
wrong. But again, how close is too close?

Second, if you make and sell forms in a vacuum that end up looking
close to another's your ignorance of their prior design is not an
adequate defense in my book. You are obligated to know your profession
and your profession's history a little. Read books on gallery
collections. Visit the WOW group and other gallary-type websites.
Study other media for what is happening there (glass, pottery, fabric,
whatever). I think by doing this step, you begin to learn the ethical
boundaries for yourself.

Joe Fleming - San Diego