I extensively studied copyright and patent law when I started selling products. This was directly due to Wayne bullying anyone who was trying to sell anything related to WMS intellectual property at the time. While I was never in any danger from his keyboard C&D's, it did motivate me to learn and understand the law.

With that in mind, here are the basics rules as it relates to circuit boards (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer - please consult a real one if you have to):

Don't copy a circuit board verbatim. The artwork, (and by that I mean the physical representation of the PCB that is the copper traces, text, part numbers) IS covered by copyright.

Example: If you were to strip an original circuit board down to the bare board, scan it, then have that manufactured, you would be violating copyright law.

Also, don't think that you can just move a trace, or change the value of a part, or alter text in some minor way and not be violating copyright law! Copyright law does account for derivative artwork and it is NOT easy to understand what may or may not be a violation. This could potentially work against you if you were taken to court.

What isn't covered by copyright is the placement of parts on the circuit board. So connectors and lamp sockets that HAVE to be in a given place (in order for a replacement board to work) are not covered here. In theory this kind of thing would have to be covered under a design patent, but I'm not aware that it has ever been done for a (pinball) circuit board.

So in regards to lamp boards, you can make a lamp board and NOT violate copyright law. Even though the end product may look very much like the original board (because all the lamps and mounting holes and connectors are in the same place), as long as the artwork is different (traces, text, etc) you should be fine.

Again, disclaimer: I am not a lawyer - please consult a real one if you have to.

Hope that helps.

Tony