| Why take free advertising when you can charge people to advertise for you? It's double income. VArious companies say charging for this or that is to cover costs, but it reality it is just another source of revenue, to line the already green pockets of those in command. Essentially this is going to make each and every hobby that pops up available only to the well to do, because nobody else can afford it. It is happening to the model building hobby as well. Has been for years. Only now are we actually starting to see it accelerate to the point that soon(within 5 years or so) probably nearly half of model builders will be quitting the hobby, and very few new people will be getting into it. This is typical of greed, jump in realize you can make some money, milk it for all you can until your greed entirely destroys it, cloe it down, and move on to the next. These type of greedy corporate gluttons, don't understand the idea of long term steady income, or word of mouth advertising, or free publicity, or getting repeat business by being reasonable, and kind(they would rather force you into paying their prices), they are not concerned if everyone can afford it. As long as there is a good portion who can afford it for a short time, thats what matters. These people think in quarters, and don't even understand the concept of lets lose 20 thuosand this quarter and we will get 200 thousand profit for each quarter thereafter, when we can get 200 thuosand this quarter, half that the quarter after and half the quarter after until we've exhausted it. Sorry for the long post, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Something in the copyright laws called FAIR USE! Fair Use has even been extended to the DMCA. While this won't allow people to make money, it will allow certain retailers and aftermarket to offer something up for free, and bring repeat business to them, and more awareness of their lines. You can take the graphics or whatever, and put them up on your site free of charge. If a company see's their image on your site, and you are saying, this image belongs to such and such a company and is sued here under fair use, they can't make you take it down. Sure you will get all kinds of threats from their lawyers but they are empty. Fair use ensures this. Make it clear that you are not misrepresenting yourself as beiing in ANY kind of relationship or endorsement of the product or company displayed. You can even offer instructions on how to print them out and ue them for your models. They cannot force you to get licensing and charge for decals or whatever. The use and printing of these items for our hobby, is for personal and historical use, and fall under the Fair Use Rights of United States Copyright laws. ALL companies threatan to sue when thigns are under fair use, and none of them are retarded enough to waste the money by going to court to have a judge show them the copyright laws and throw it out of court and fine them for wasting the courts time. It is worth it, to pay the lawyer 500 bucks a letter to make threats though, as majority of threataned people will comply. So if they say, hey you can't produce this product anymore unless you pay us royalties, offer the graphics available to be saved along with instructions on how to properly print available for free, and make money from your other products. Remember there is protection from unbridled greed. You are doing nothing more then offering the source free of charge, and instructions on how to make scale reproductions for personal use. If y'all want someone else to do it first, as a test subject, I am more then willing to be the one who does it. I have a model building site already that is hardly ever touched, and has virtually no visitors. Set it up, and I'll put it right on up on the site. Spread the word a little bit, I'll put a page counter up, and I'll even get the information for you, so you can call PM and tell them what I am doing and where. I would absolutely welcome sticking it to these greedy companies. I am more then willing to do this, if nobody else will step up to the plate first. To top it off, I couldn't afford a lawsuit for even 100 bucks. I deliver pizza, and I have a wife and one child with another child on the way. I am one of the guys who got nailed by Metallica for downloading MP3's on Napster. Simple flaw with their logic is they assumed it was all theft. Under standard RIAA licensing agreements, you can listen to music you have purchase in whatever form you see fit. I had purchased every album multiple times, and they had all been destroyed or stolen. So I downloaded them. RIAA doesn't even like to play by their own terms. I got sent numerous threataning letters, iincluding stating that if the original is lost or stolen, then so is the license, and that you do not have the right to listen to your legal music in whatever form you purchased(although it's right there on their website in their own language for all to see). I quoted their own agreements, and I never heard from them again. Too many people are terrified of copyright violation, not knowing what they can and can't do and taknig the word of the big corporations for it. After reviewing a fair use case such as I propose there isn't a single court that would even accept the case. I VOLUNTEER FOR THIS ONE! Michael |