What are some of the thoughts of the "Experts" here on GCA regarding this new bill in Congress that seeks to extend copyright protection from the design of golf holes?
I figured something like this would already have been in place and covered by copyright law. Apparently not.
When I say "Experts", I'm not even sure I know what I mean. However, I do know that I mean architects and folks who work for architectural organizations, and even copyright attorneys that are in this forum who would directly be affected by this bill.
Please state, if you reply, if you are.
I am not.
I'm a law school dropout, ex D1 player, and 57 year old fan of golf course design be it golden age, classic, new, mom and pop, amateur, etc. In fact lately, what I find most interesting are the courses I've learned about that are mom and pop or amateur/amateur-ish designed courses by folks who have not really had any design experience or very little. I like hearing about those folks and those courses when others say, "hey, they did a good job here and the course is pretty decent." (There's a recent thread that addresses this a bit.)
I grew up playing a course NW of Chicago that sort of fit the bill of a Mom and Pop family operation that was like this. And, looking back on that place, although I used to call it a goat patch...It was pretty good and I miss it. It had some interesting design features I've never seen anywhere else.
So anyway, interested to hear what some of the people who would be directly affected by this think.
Would the good Dr. or CB say, you can't copyright what Mother Nature laid out in front of me? Would current stallions of design that frequent this forum say the opposite? Or vice versa?
Should there be compensation for someone who completely duplicates someone else's work? Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Or is taking that work and putting it into your own work a form of theft?
I don't know what I think about any of this really, except that on some level, the originator and creator ought to be at least offered some form of compensation or have the power grant or cease an operation from directly copying their own work.
https://sports.yahoo.com/birdie-bill-expand-copyright-protections-105500636.html