Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 10:25:30 +0100
From: Jan Lissens W 51737 <lissensj@access.bel.alcatel.be>
Subject: Re: balloon copyrite?
To: balloon@balloonhq.com

The Billion Dollar Question. Laws in Belgium and the States are probably
different, but it seems to me that it would be close to impossible to copyright
a balloon design. As you said, a design is easily changed by adding a little
something and could then be claimed.

I`m working on a book myself, and will only put in things that I came up with
(although it is off course possible that somebody else came up with a very
similar design). But all designs I come up with are based on the basic twists
that somebody else invented (locked bubble, pinch twist,birdbody,...) Are these
basic twists copyrighted ?? Who knows. The reason why I put in only `my`
designs is because I do not want to take credit for someone else`s.  As to
Arthur`s view on Paolo Michelotto`s book. Personally, I adore Paolo. I think
he`s a wonderful twister, but I agree with Arthur that if you publish designs
that are not your own, permission should be asked, and full credit must be
given, and not just in a list of references in the back of the book. (Which
does not mean that it isn`t a good book. On the contrary !)

The same thing goes for this list, although I must say that I have on occasion
posted instructions for design that were not my own. I will always try to
credit the inventor, but sometimes I just don`t remember where I first saw a
design.

Legally, I think copyrighting a design is close to impossible, and would
probably not have a very good effect on the sharing of ideas, especially on
this list. I think we should handle a kind of moral copyright: if a design is
not yours, don`t pass it of as  such. If you want to publish it in some form,
ask the creator for permission, and if you can`t discover who it is, give
credit to the Unknown Twister.

As to the basic dog, at least the one-balloon version, it was invented by the
early russian intestine twister Olga Blowstillitpopski, who fled russia after
the Revolution. There is some confusion as to the origins of the basic teddy
bear, but it bears (see the pun ? ahaha ?) a close resemblance to a rock
picture  of an intestine-twisted Grizzly, found in an ancient Anasazi cave. I
still need to do some research on this one.

And as far as that one-balloon santa-on-the-sleigh-with-the-six (not four)
reindeer is concerned: it  exists. The design is supposed to be in the book
`OPUSCULUS PARACELSI  CREATURE ILI` (Paracelsus` little book of intestine
creatures, a 560 page tome, published in the sixteenth century-`little` had a
whole different meaning back than). Since the only surviving copy is held among
the Apocryphical Books in the vaults underneath the Vatican, I can`t confirm
this, however. .


Jan The Historically Challenged Trekkie Twister