A notable (and legally correct) decision from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals was just handed down that is well worth a read -

Meshworks Inc. v. Toyota [PDF file]

It essentially says if a digital artist independently creates a depiction of a copyrighted object that is too realistic looking, then his or her creation loses independent copyright protections since there is no 'originality' involved. This is so, even if it took hundreds of hours worth of labor to get the virtual object to look as realistic as possible.

This case is well written and serves as a great primer on the law of copyright in regards to the constitutional requirement of 'originality'. Anyone involved in the debate over IP should definitely check it out.

News coverage of the decision can be read [Posted at 06/18/2008 11:11 PM by Justin Levine on IP Law comments(0)]

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