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I had to get a couple of driveline bearings for our wheel loader today. They supply a lot of equipment for town and municipal highway departments, including road signs. I was able to come home with this advertising poster that was on the wall. Needless to say that I will be erecting many road signs over the summer. The yellow ones at the top are 5/8" across, others range from 1/2 to 3/4". Close enough for my layout. The whole thing is a vinyl like sheet, so they will be very durable.signs2signs4signs5signs6

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Last edited by John H
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John H posted:

I had to get a couple of driveline bearings for our wheel loader today. They supply a lot of equipment for town and municipal highway departments, including road signs. I was able to come home with this advertising poster that was on the wall. Needless to say that I will be erecting many road signs over the summer. The yellow ones at the top are 5/8" across, others range from 1/2 to 3/4". Close enough for my layout. The whole thing is a vinyl like sheet, so they will be very durable.signs2signs4signs5signs6

John, If you have a scanner we surely would appreciate If you would make a scan or do it in sections and post them here.  If you don't have a scanner I would do one and return the original to you.   j

ChiloquinRuss posted:

Friendly reminder folks, what's on the individual sign images is not copyrightable but the layout and production of that display sheet certainly is.  If you own the sheet you might be able to make a copy for YOURSELF, but you cannot make copies to distribute elsewhere either for free or pay.  Russ

Actually, it is the other way around:

Individual sign images certainly COULD be copyrighted, unless they are just trivial text (although, in practice most or all of these are probably in the public domain). OTOH, a simple collection such as this is unlikely to meet the requirement as a "creative work", and so is likely not eligible for copyright. As an analogy, the courts have ruled that a phone book is not sufficiently "creative" to be copyrightable, even though a lot of work is involved in creating it.  The line is fuzzy, but a simple sheet of images probably doesn't cross it. A counterargument might involve the fact that their logo is stylized in the background, which could push it over the line. The only way to find out for sure is to litigate.

Also, if we want to get technical, there is no exception in the copyright law for "personal use". 

Last edited by Avanti

Copyrighted material is subject to a balancing act between protecting the author's creativity and the public's right to use the material - what is known as the "fair use" exception.

"Fair use" is one of the exceptions in copyright which allows use of copyrighted materials without obtaining permission as long as the use can be considered fair. There is a four-factor analysis which must be applied to each use to determine whether the use is fair. Each factor is given equal weight. The goal is to achieve a balance between the rights of the copyright holder and the rights of the public. 

The four factors are:

1. Purpose - for instance, is it for commercial, profit use (which is more protected) or is it for non-profit, educational or personal use (which is less protected).

2. Nature of the Original Work - is it factual (which is less protected) or is it fiction/creative (which is more protected).

3. Amount being Used - is it a large amount of material being reproduced (more protected) or a small amount (less protected).

4. Market Effect - will publication of the work have a major (more protected) or minor (less protected) impact on the author's sale of their original work.  

Given that the requested publication (scan) here is (1) not for profit or commercial use; and (2) it is not a creative or fictional work; and (3) it appears to be only a small portion of the author's full catalogue of product; and (4) it will not have a major impact (if any) on the author's sales of full scale signs, I'd be perfectly comfortable opining that the publication requested here falls into the fair use exception and can safely be done without fear of retribution.

FWIW, the same analysis could also be applied to the once-in-a-while scanning of individual pages of the DCS Companion book series, which is a subject that has come up here with some regularity since Barry's unfortunate passing.

 

This is the company, but not really any good graphics on the site. I put in a request for a couple more posters, so it's a wait and see deal. The sheet is about 40" X 26", so I will have to cut it into 8" X11" pieces to scan. Since April 1st I have this 10 hour a day thing called a job, so my train time is narrowed up. As Gunrunnerjohn says, it's called work, the curse of the drinking class. I might see if I can get the whole thing copied first, and work from there. I won't forget about the interest here, and will try to make something available.

Members, here are  links to tons of free printable signs for model railroads:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/387450374175726399/

 

Road signs:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/426364289700554283/

https://www.pinterest.com/arved0720/road-signs/

 

 

Can resize these :

http://www.gatewaynmra.org/model-railroad-downloads/

 

You can drag selections to desktop, resize and print on the medium of choice.

 

Just a few of the links I use.

-Tom

 

Last edited by Tom Q Fan

More rain, more signs. Can't plant corn, so here are the rest. It would really make my day to see pictures if you find a place on your layout for some of these, so have at em.

 

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Last edited by John H

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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