02-15-2008, 09:20 PM
Whilst I am somewhat less forthright than my Canadian colleague, I would have to agree with the core sentiments he expresses - the idea that somehow you can 'register' ( and please, not at RAT !! ) and 'own' a historical shield emblem is highly offensive to many ( including me !) and, frankly, ludicrous.
The informative posts here have emphasised that one cannot do anything at all to 'enforce' self-proclaimed 'rights' to certain emblema, so anyone may copy with impunity, and blow the 'owner' a huge
P P , yet others blithely ignore this !
The idea that organisers of an event might be fooled into dealing with the wrong group is also a ludicrous 'red herring'...most organisers wouldn't know what a 'shield design' was, still less that they were unit identifiers....and BTW, even that is not proven to be the case !
Treat imitation as the sincerest form of flattery !...I do ! Copies of versions of Roman shield designs that I have first published accurate drawings of appear in illustrations, on re-enactors shields and all over the Internet...and I take great delight that others have liked them sufficiently to copy...and BTW, were Dan Peterson( and I am sure he wouldn't dream of such a thing! ) or anyone else seek to assert proprietorship over the XIV Legion design, I might have something to say about such a claim, being how I was (AFIK) the first to make the tentative identification and publish it, more than 30 years ago !!
But I do agree it is courteous to ask a club etc if you are going to exactly copy their design........however, in all those years, no-one ( and there are many who have) has ever asked me for permission to use....and I couldn't care less.... 8) :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
The informative posts here have emphasised that one cannot do anything at all to 'enforce' self-proclaimed 'rights' to certain emblema, so anyone may copy with impunity, and blow the 'owner' a huge
P P , yet others blithely ignore this !The idea that organisers of an event might be fooled into dealing with the wrong group is also a ludicrous 'red herring'...most organisers wouldn't know what a 'shield design' was, still less that they were unit identifiers....and BTW, even that is not proven to be the case !
Treat imitation as the sincerest form of flattery !...I do ! Copies of versions of Roman shield designs that I have first published accurate drawings of appear in illustrations, on re-enactors shields and all over the Internet...and I take great delight that others have liked them sufficiently to copy...and BTW, were Dan Peterson( and I am sure he wouldn't dream of such a thing! ) or anyone else seek to assert proprietorship over the XIV Legion design, I might have something to say about such a claim, being how I was (AFIK) the first to make the tentative identification and publish it, more than 30 years ago !!
But I do agree it is courteous to ask a club etc if you are going to exactly copy their design........however, in all those years, no-one ( and there are many who have) has ever asked me for permission to use....and I couldn't care less.... 8) :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
