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Subject: Plastic Aircraft models
WinsettZ    1/31/2005 12:21:59 PM
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Odd. By charging license fees you kill demand which kills profit. Alternatively, you charge *lower* license fees for "prototype" aircraft so that they get public exposure in models, and maybe some general's kid in Procurement has one, and it looks nice, and maybe it gives them the edge.

Companies that want to get their products exposed should minimize licensing fees for exposure. Companies with failure vehicles (Osprey) should do the same, perhaps to change public opinion (or somehow make profit on their broken toys.)
 
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giblets    RE:Plastic Aircraft models   1/31/2005 2:32:26 PM
I knew the likes of British Airways have charged some companies in the past for using their logos, but had not realised the shape itself was also copyrighted.
 
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WinsettZ    RE:Plastic Aircraft models   2/2/2005 12:59:14 PM
You'll begin seeing "scratch conversions" and guides on how to make scratch conversions rather then the models themselves. It's more work, so the hobby's amateur crowd will die out.
 
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AlbanyRifles    RE:Plastic Aircraft models-What was the first one you made   2/3/2005 2:06:31 PM
Mine was a B-17G with over 120 parts in 1965. My Dad was ticked when he realized that Santa had given me a model with so many parts and he was gloing to be busy helping me!
 
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giblets    What cause the controvery the 1./32 Tamiya F-16!   2/6/2005 6:40:18 AM
News flash: the new Tamiya 1/32 F-16, which is being marketed as the ?Lockheed-Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon,? is the product of a licensing agreement between Tamiya and Lockheed-Martin, as stated on the first page of the kit instructions. Folks, there?s no need for me to run around yelling ?The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!? It?s fallen. This agreement by the World?s Largest Maker of Plastic Model Kits is the precedent the aircraft manufacturers have been waiting for. Up to now, all the kit manufacturers were united in refusing to deal with the airplane companies on this issue. Whether they might have prevailed in court if pressed was always a question no one could know, but now we do know. With this precedent, any aircraft manufacturer operating under U.S. Copyright Law will only need to serve papers on any kit manufacturer commanding them to cease and desist or appear in a U.S. Federal Court - and they win. This really does signal the end of the limited-run kit industry and the aftermarket industry, not to mention the small eastern European companies - at least as regards the production of models of airplanes originally designed and built in the United States. It?s not because of the cost of the licensing fees. That they could deal with. It?s the insurance. In the weeks since I first published my editorial here on this topic, I have been Receiving An Education on the subject from a number of knowledgeable sources. The most knowledgeable of them all is a guy whose name you would recognize were I to publish it here, a guy who has had an impeccable reputation for his beautiful limited run kits for a long time. Since he has requested I not use his name (since he doesn?t want to draw attention to himself by the corporate legal departments), you?re going to have to trust my journalist?s judgment that he is indeed a model industry ?Deep Throat.? As he explained it to me, when a company like Lockheed-Martin comes calling and offers a licensing agreement, the licensee also agrees to obtain Product Liability Insurance. Not for the licensee, for the licensor!! This is in order to protect the huge deep-pockets corporation and hold them harmless when Little Johnny decides to find out if the pieces in Mr. Licensee?s kit are edible or not and gets a scare when Mommy and Daddy have to take him to the Emergency Room to have his stomach pumped. As ?Deep Throat? explained it to me, the licensing fee is no problem - it adds cost, but not a prohibitive sum. But product liability insurance is nearly unobtainable nowadays, and it?s definitely unobtainable at a price a small company can afford without pricing themselves out of business trying to cover the additional cost. For the World?s Biggest Plastic Kit Manufacturer, the liability insurance is No Big Deal. For MPM, for Roden, for all the others, it?s going to be another matter entirely. This is not just a problem for those of us who build little plastic model airplanes. It has killed the limited-run car model business. It has put a stop to the guy who likes playing the ?Pacific Fighters? Flight Sim game and wants to write his own program for an airplane. In fact, ?Pacific Fighters? has stopped publishing any upgrades that include Northrop, Grumman, Boeing, North American, Curtiss, Chance-Vought, Lockheed or Martin aircraft - which makes it pretty hard to play ?Pacific Fighters? indeed. I guess I?m lucky that I like British airplanes, since British Aerospace isn?t covered (yet!) by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But as far as American airplanes are concerned...
 
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Carl D.    RE:Flight Sims    2/7/2005 2:56:47 PM
Product liability insurance for flight sim software needed based on little Johnny eating a plastic model part so that some giant like Lockheed Martin won't be sued? For what, carpal tunnel syndrome, eye strain or lost of affection? WTF!? When this kind of stuff gets standing is court my only thought is "God help Western Civilization"! As for the kits, naturally all of the age recommendations and warnings already printed on the box aren't enough apparently. So when do you need to sign a release of liability, if that is even binding, if you want to buy a box of rubber bands, paper clips or scissors at the store? Oh, I'm sorry we can't let you sign something, you might put an eye out with the pen! Gerrr...
 
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