Hi,
before I make my copyright statement, I feel the need for a little explanation first.
My name is Graham Bevins and I am the web developer who created armybikers.co.uk way back in April 2008. This all came about from meeting an old ex-army guy who called himself Doug Mangan. Doug was annoyed about the disrespect towards the armed forces overseas and told me about his idea to create backpatches for bikers. He was keen to point out that it was a great way to raise money for various charities such as, Support Our Soldiers.
Although I has never served in the armed forces, I could appreciate Doug's altruistic sentiment and offered to help him create a website to sell these, as yet undesigned, patches. Since the site was going to be donating to charity from the proceeds of sales I offered my services gratis.
The armybikers.co.uk website has now been taken down by me. Anyone disputing my right to take down that site need simply perform a whois on the domain name to see that I own all rights to it.
I feel that, in light of recent events concerning Mr. Mangan, I have to make a statement regarding copyright of the old armybikers website and the content contained within it. I claim the copyright purely to ensure that the existing patch wearers and armedforcesbikers.co.uk can continue to support the troops.
What is copyright?
Copyright gives the creators of certain kinds of material rights to control ways their material can be used. These rights start as soon as the material
is recorded in writing or in any other way. There is no official registration system.
The rights cover:
- copying;
- adapting;
- distributing;
- communicating to the public by electronic transmission (including by broadcasting and in an on demand service);
- renting or lending copies to the public; and,
- performing in public.
In many cases, the author will also have the right to be identified on their work, and to object if their work is distorted or mutilated.
taken from Copyright: Basic Facts by the Intellectual Property Office
Copyright Statement
The original patches depicted on armybikers.co.uk were designed by me (Graham Bevins) under the instruction of Doug Mangan. I am legally entitled to claim the copyright of these designs since I have never been in the employ of Mr. Mangan and, as the IPO states, I am the original owner of the digital work. I have all the original artwork archived and timestamped. I only claim the copyright on these designs in order to allow armedforcesbikers.co.uk's administrators to sell the patches on a not for profit basis to raise money for armed forces charities. I am satisfied that ALL PROFIT from sales will go to charity.