– Are DIY instructions on the internet subject to copyright?
Every week, a TCS legal expert gives you the answer to a legal question.
Vera Beutler – Lawyer at TCS
Published today at 11:01 a.m.
Illustrative photo.
LUCIEN FORTUNATI
A DIY instruction is an individual creation and therefore a work protected by copyright. Anyone who creates a product using someone else’s DIY instructions cannot sell it in all cases.
The person who creates a DIY guide is its author. She therefore has, on the one hand, the right to be recognized as an author. This moral right of the author is in principle not transferable. It is therefore not permitted to copy DIY instructions from a third party and designate oneself as the author. This is regardless of whether the author has marked his DIY instructions with a © copyright sign or in another way.
On the other hand, the creator of the DIY instructions has the exclusive right to “decide if, when and in what way her work will be used”. If the author publishes the DIY instructions online and without restriction of use, she tacitly consents to general use. The situation is different if the DIY instructions can only be downloaded against payment: in this case the author clearly indicates that she only accepts the use if the user pays her.
Attention: even if the author is okay with a user tinkering with something using their instructions, that doesn’t mean they have carte blanche. In particular, she does not agree to the user selling the work she has created.
“Latest news”
Want to stay on top of the news? “Tribune de Genève” offers you two meetings per day, directly in your email box. So you don’t miss anything that’s happening in your canton, in Switzerland or around the world.To log in
Did you find an error? Please report it to us.
0 comments
