What Did Your Architect Give You With Your Plans?

First of all, this is not a legal advice article. You should consult a lawyer for advice. However this is an Architect’s perspective. After thirty years plus in practice, and having my own firm for the several years, I have discovered something that appears to have become a rampant crisis throughout the construction industry recently; the unauthorized use of plans on projects that they were not intended for. This is when plans for one project are used on another project, without the permission of the person that created those plans. Other terms for this are “copyright infringement”, “piracy”, or simply “theft”. It is true it is a federal crime, with up to $150,000.00 in penalties. However, these are not the only issues that someone can face with these actions. In general a Registrant links every sheet in a set of drawings to a specific project. In order to utilize those drawings on another project, someone has to alter the title block, at the very least. If someone other than the Registrant or his/her bona fide employee makes any revisions to those drawings, the person that makes those changes can face prosecution by the Arizona Board of Technical Registration, which will bring civil penalties to the guilty party. It is also possible that the Registrar of Contractors could offer discipline under the right circumstances and arguments.

So what was really purchased with the plans? Just like computer software, what was purchased was a license, a limited license. That license allows the drawings to be copied and used on that one project only, if the plans were paid for in full. Use of those drawings for anything else is an infringement of the copyright that is held by the person that produced those drawings, whether the person that prepared the plans is a Registered Architect or not. Since about 1991, this copyright is implied; it does not even have to be noted on the drawings. Only if the copyright owner explicitly conveys those rights can one escape this infringement. The drawings that were printed and given are not a product, but they are instruments of a service. As instruments of a service they represent the provided service, not the “product” of the building. That service is the livelihood of those professionals.  It would be no different than a Contractor building a room addition and not getting paid or an owner finding out that all the materials used on their project had been used on a previous project.

In the days before computers, title blocks would be cut off and replaced. This would prove not the best way to change drawings, as the different lettering styles became very apparent. The advent of computers appeared to make this easier to conceal, as all lettering looked identical. This potential unseen now becomes a lot less hidden. There are electronic fingerprints that are left in the database that could be easily extracted in a closer look at the electronic file. Things like layer names, block names, style names, and pen table, just to mention a few. With such analysis tools available it becomes easier to determine when plans have been copied.

In general, a Registrant will offer the re-use of plans at a reduced fee. Why not spend that little money and get the plans for these other projects legitimately. It can cost more than these re-use plans if someone tries to bypass the fee.