I took this off of another forum, I'll let you decide if the news is depressing or not. http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/2005230.asp
So... the royalties on the Nazi models will go to Germany's army? The Japanese, Italian, and so on? Overall - sad - I agree
The phrase "intellectual property" and everything it entails are possibly the worst results of the computer age. As a programmer myself (and of course as a model railroader), I'm disgusted that this idea of copyright and trademark has been so distorted to drive legitimate businesses and hobbies out of existence. This is the same mentality that is behind railroads charging royalty fees for heralds and names that have been out of use for more than 50 years (a certain railroad with yellow equipment comes to mind).
Yes. And it will not stop, until our "colleges" get back to basics. Start turning out real creators, entrepreneurs. People who think up a physical product, and then bring it to market. We have far more than enough unproductive people, such as those who come up with these so often ridiculous intellectual property claims, long, long after the fact....... Meanwhile, I suggest that we all consider the concept of a freelanced home road. Buy undecs, and paint our own. And every time you use the name of your ficticious company, be certain to use (TM) at the end of it's name. Let the world know it's YOUR private trademark! YOUR intellectual property! But then someone will soon come up with the idea we should pay extra for a model of an old ALCo RS1...... Boxcab E50
What is wrong with people? This world is all about theory and politics. It ruins everything for everyone. MJC
The scary thing with the copyright law (tm) is that they use such loose terms as to define it that it is virtually impossible for a small company to fight and survive. For instance, the term " a facsimile or REASONABLE facsimile" of a said product comes to mind. What this means is that if a judge or jury determines that your product even vaguely resembles the original, you could lose your suit. There are no "parameters" set up to keep the term "reasonable" in check and it rests soley on an individual's own definition. Russ
Russ- Bummer. Sounds like what every attorney has ever told me, about such things as liability waivers. Not worth the price of that paper they're written on... So I always find myself worrying. At events such as model RR swap meets, train excursions, and so on. Probably if I create a model RR name, I won't be able to use the words "Railroad" or "Railway?" Argh. Boxcab E50
Thing is, that kind of move probably will add little to nothing to those companies' bottom line, but it would likely put people out of work when the model companies go under from decreased sales. Maybe the makers of the originals should go into the model making business, too - that's the only way they'd make any decent money from them. I think. -Mike
ROADAPPLES If we as the consumers let the so called sellers dictate the market we are lost. Hold the steady road, I hate litigators.
Rick- I am not depressed. I am pissed. MJC is correct. rush2ny is also correct. Words such as "minor" and "reasonable" in a contract will do nothing but get you into a court for someone else to determine what those words meant in the context of the contract and if parties were correct in their interpretation of those words.
I have no problem with the owners of this private intellectual property having the right to licence a kit manufacturuer, and demand a reasonable cut on the profit margin. If the Government can demand a 7% sales tax, then I don't have a problem with the owners of the intellectual property recovering something similiar. That is fair. Now the bigger can of worms, is when tax dollars are being spent developing military hardware, and then the manufacturers turn around and claim they have a right to recover dollars from the people that supplied the capital in the first place. That isn't fair
You are just not greedy enough to understand American Big Business of today Dan. If you guys had gone through Management School, you would have learned that the bottom line to acceptable business management, is to milk the customer for all you can get in any way possible, then shelter the profits and inventory from taxation and tariff at all costs. You would no longer find a way to cut cost then share it with your customers by coming down on prices like it used to wuz. "Make no usable guarantee or warranty, and hold out raises on your employees as long as possible". (Make them work over-time and call it "Comp time" so you don't have to pay the time and a half. You can usually talk them out of taking "compensated" time off later. Just tell them how important it is to "their" company that they must work, so they feel good about it). The stock holders will appreciate you for it, and you are allowed to carve out a few perks on the side, so long as you maintain or increase the profit margin every step you take. The company buys "your" car, sometimes "your" house, "your" yacht, vagations paid expenses plus, etc. you know, perks! One good way to save on costs, is to hire a young guy to work with an older seasoned craftsman until he has learned (Picked the brains) of the older man, then demote the old guy to a lesser paying job for a month or two just before his retirement comes due, then retire him at the lower cost to the company. (Do this and you usually would get 2% of the saved amount). The young guy made maybe 30K, the elder guy had peaked at maybe 50K while as manager, you of course made the 250K+, and could show the stockholders the 20K profit/cut in cost, you had made for them, so you were due the 2% of the 20K. Simple, and legal, but dirty. (Later on pensions were simply abolished). "The wise manager will always keep in mind that he must maintain"- some other place to land as soon as he can no longer cover his butt, fail to protect his stockholder's reputation, or maintain fiscal growth. "He will also prepare who will be his patsy"- should the auditors or IRS arrive. Back when we still had mostly honest government and businesses, we were a Leader among nations with a respectable reputation for "Quality made in America". Patents and all that were to prevent others (third world manufacturers) from making cheap imitations of our high quality products, then selling them back to us for less than we could maintain our quality. Our companies did indeed ask our toy and some modeling companies to make toys to represent their products so the children would grow up and buy that brand. The logos and advertising were given to us to put on the toys, and they paid for the tooling and assembly. Auto dealers had pedal cars that looked like the company's real cars for kids of parents who bought certain model year cars new. My Dad got me a Chrysler Air-Flow pedal car in 1935 that had (battery) head and tail lights and a "honky" horn! (Now days its worth more than I am!) When real craftsmanship died and mass production came in, prices were cut and the whole nation prospered. But then "whiz kids" grew up and began trying to get around the "good honest" way of business ethics and began slowly raising prices while advertising to children that higher prices would buy them prettier paint colors, and they would be a stand out in the crowd. "You surely mustn't be just another faceless nameless Goober wandering through life unknown, why you wanted to be a somebody, a Big Shot! Now isn't that true?" No it was not true, but as the kids have grown up, they have learned it is OK to steal, cheat, fail to pay debts, shoot someone, have babies out of wedlock, punish or kids, and generally be dishonest. By failure to boycott exorbitant prices and practices, we have allowed the "unclean and ungodly" to make us the laughing stock of the world. We have more attorneys that file more cases, mostly frivolous back in the older days, than any nation on earth. Why? Partly because we pampered our criminals allowing them to become Lawyers while serving time for crimes, and because it was an easy way to make huge amounts of money from one or both sides, for little actual work. Because you each continue to pay the price, and more at auction, you continue to allow the money grubbers to thrive and prosper. You may run out of money someday, and then is when sales will fall, and prices will follow. The shady money bags will lose their jobs, by laying you off, and you sure don't want to work for what people do in the third world countries, I suspect. You are now beginning to see the crash coming, but you haven't really been saving money for it that you could have. The crash will come from within, and most of you will still be alive to try and live through it. You may not have to salute the American flag any more because the ACLU will see to that, and churches and general goodness wont bother you either, because they wont exist then. You may, however, get used to wearing your shorts on your head, and marrying what you hope is a girl that is covered in a black sheet if you are not blown up or die as being too old and therefore useless, so your food is cut off. If you guys don't like the idea of paying for a logo, then simply keep your money and the logo wont sell. Buy the undecorated model if you just have to have one, paint it pink and run it, just don't try to sell it. One other thing you could do if you feel like it, is write a nasty, but kind letter to Uncle Pinko and tell him how you feel about his precious logo, as a purely personal matter. Just be careful to not say things like his company is no good, or crooked, etc, because that would hurt his feelings and he might not be able to eat his supper. Worse yet, you may make him cry.
We need a revolt. The situation is clearly getting out of hand. One more reason manufacturers are moving off shore. Did you know Lear Jet moved to Scotland, because it couldn't afford to operate in American and it's lawyer invested waters. What a sad situation this is becoming. Theft of an American past time, by American big business. Why put up with it???
