Copyright Laws

All of our house plans as well as our entire body of work at JHA LLC are protected under the United States copyright laws. Reproduction of the plans or illustrations are strictly prohibited.

The following statement is adapted from the House Plan Marketing Association. 

1. Just like books, movies, and songs, house plans are protected under federal copyright laws. The copyright laws prevent anyone, other than the copyright owner, from reproducing, modifying or reusing the plans or design without the written permission of the copyright owner.
2. When you purchase a set of plans, you are purchasing a license to build one house from these drawings. To build the house more than once without express written permission, violates this copyright. 
3. It is illegal to copy house designs found in a plan book, CD or on the Internet. It is a common misunderstanding that making changes to or redrawing a plan is permissible. It is not. The right to modify plans is one of the exclusive rights of copyright. It is also illegal to copy or redraw a constructed home that is protected by copyright, even if you have never seen the plans for the home. If you find a plan that you like, you must purchase a set of plans from an authorized source.
4. Do not use a set of house plans to build more than one house. Building more than one house from the plans without permission is an infringement of the architect’s copyright. If you are interested in building one of our houses multiple times, please contact us to inquire about our reuse fees. 
5. With your purchase of PDF plans, you are licensed to make minor hand-drawn changes to copies of the PDFs. If you need to redraw the plans for any reason, you must purchase a CAD File set of plans which includes a license to modify the plans. JHA LLC assumes no responsibility for any modifications made to our drawings by others. You may not reuse or sell the modified design.
6. CAD File House Plans come with a license to make modifications to the plans. Once modified, the files can be taken or sent to a local copy shop for copies to use in the construction of one house. Only one house can be constructed from any single purchased set of CAD File plans either in original form or as modified. Modified plans are still protected under the original copyright.
7. Modified designs cannot be reused to build another house. Even if you are licensed to make modifications to a copyrighted design, the modified design is not free from the original architect’s copyright. The sale or reuse of the modified design is prohibited. 
8. Any party who participates in copyright violation may be responsible. It does not matter whether or not the individual knows that a violation is being committed. Ignorance of the law is not a valid defense. Refuse to be a party to any illicit copying or use of designs, derivative work, prints, design features or houses.
9. Penalties for violating a copyright may be severe. The responsible parties are required to pay actual damages caused by the infringement (which may be substantial), plus any profits made by the infringer commissions to include all profits and from the sale of any home built from an infringing design. The copyright law also allows for the recovery of statutory damages, which may be as high as $150,000 for each infringement. Finally, the infringer may be required to pay legal fees, which often exceed the damages.