kink wrote:But it is down to the client paying me to take that risk upon themselves. I am merely providing a service to them. The I.P issue is their problem.
The difference there is that you are paid the same amount whether someone directly copies your work or not, or whether your customer makes any money from your work or not.
I have been a professional engineering modelmaker for much of my life, and making engineering and toy prototypes. Similarly, how many of each production item sells didn't matter to me as I was working for the design companies not the manufacturers. But I have developed models of what should have been the first of a range of toys with months of work ahead of me and then have that modelmaking work cancelled because another manufacturer had brought out a very similar range that meant the design company wasn't making any money in royalties to pay for more development. Losing thousands of pounds worth of work because someone blatantly copies two months of your problem solving does tend to give you a biased opinion on direct copying.
I have been importing bodies from Japan and selling them in the UK for some time. The strong yen means they don't sell now because they are just so expensive. I could just back pour them and sell my own for a lot less but I consider that morally wrong and would be more prepared to make my own versions of the bodies that sell that are very noticeably different. Others obviously have no problem directly copying others work. Even PenguinRC who started by copying TBG bodies has quickly moved on to their own body designs. I also have to weigh up whether there is a chance TBG will get hold of a body and capture the biggest market for bodies by undercutting me, after all TBG won't have the cost of weeks of creating, adjusting and refining the pattern and forming the mould, just the cost of enough resin to pour into a body.
Also it is Ford who own the copy right to the original 1:1 Focus, not Traxxas. It may even be that Traxxas do not even pay Ford for rights. They could argue the full sized Focus was merely an inspiration to create a similar shape model (but not an exact copy).
Ahem.
http://traxxas.com/products/models/othermodels/7309kenblock2010
# NEW Officially Licensed Ford Fiesta® Body
With Ken Block Monster Energy® Graphics
# NEW Officially Licensed Volk® Racing Wheels
That's a lot of licence fees to pay out and recoup from sales, which is why the genuine shells are a lot more expensive.
That's why Protoform has more or less stopped making scale bodies these days, as it can cost them more than the profit they make on each shell.
Now look at all the other companies making copies of original RC10 products... MIP, RCS, Thorp, RPM, Houge, RC Carbon Works, plus many many others.. Some are very very similar to original products. See some similarities?
Actually, no. None of those vintage manufacturers made parts that were exact copies of the original parts their upgrades replaced, in fact if they were identical i doubt any of us would have upgraded from OE.
Again, I have no problem with TBG providing alternative designs, such as their TLR22 bodies that are quite a different style to the originals, but back pouring bodies that can be bought in your local hobby store is wrong.
