At least this explains something…
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/2005230.asp
To bad.
Shame that it has come down to this. I realllllllllllly want a stryker kit, especially when I see them day in and day out.
People have been talking about this for a while now, but I think this is one of the first times we’ve been able to single out the royalty issue for nixing a specific kit. Very unfortunate.
Such a great example of corporate greed, right there. I can’t believe there are companies out there that would put a flat fee ($40??? are they on crack?) on each kit. The percentage per kit, while still a slap in the face to modelers, at least wouldn’t price kits out of range and manufacturers out of business. Sad, really.
[soapbox]Aren’t military vehicles and equipment paid for by tax dollars? Military vehicles are public domain. Those planes and tanks are not the corporations. They are ours. I don’t see corporate logo’s on airplanes or tanks. Is it not enough they sell hundreds of multi-billion dollar weapon systems to the government? Are they in that much financial trouble that they need to charge a royalty for equipment they design? Maybe instead of royalties, we should do a telethon for the CEO’s of these companies. This is another example of the ripping off of the American public.(the modeling public anyway) It bothers me that these government officials and CEO’s of these oobercompanies think they can get away with this kind of garbage. We should start a letter writing campaign to these companies and our representitives telling them we will not stand for royalties on models of military equipment that we already own. Anyhoot, there’s my[2c][banghead]
Wow. It sucks. [V]
Even a $15 fee per kit would ruin the parity in prices: many would prefer a non-royalty subject because it’d be cheaper.
I hope vehicle manufacturers around the globe won’t follow the trend.
I guess that some of the big model makers are making a very good profit and that caught the attention of someone.
Maybe if the kits included some info about the vehicle manufacturer. I wouldn’t mind some sort of advertisement of general motors or lockheed inside the box.
what a joke. Darn lawyers
http://www.senate.gov
http://www.house.gov
If this is that big of a deal to folks, then exercise that 1st Amendment right and start petitioning your elected officials. No guarantees of course, but if enough people make some stink about it, ya never know what’ll happen.
I have all of my representitives addresses saved on my computer. I know, I’m a nerd. I make it a point to write my representitaves a letter ever term they serve. I started when I wrote a letter to President Clinton when I was in highschool. I save all my responses too. It’ll be cool to show the grandkids. It’s fun to give the government a piece of my mind. Give them a little common sense they seem to lack.
You mean the same government representatives put into office with heavy donations from those same corporations flogging the model industry?
time to start scratch building
DAMN IT!!! I hate these corporate money grubbing greedy sons of b!+c#e$ capitalists!!! Well, Soviet armor and modern russian armor is still open to those of us who liek it…
It’s easy to get disenchanted with such things. That’s when one must determine how important such matters are to oneself, and act/react accordingly.
If it means enough to a lot of people, writing them will help. Writing the holders of these alleged “IPs” can’t hurt either. I liken it to water; one drop doesn’t mean much, but 1e x 10~ water drops makes a difference. If more people took an hour or two a month to let their elected officials at all levels know how they feel (or just wrote for that matter, but anyway), things might change. That requires a level of effort most folks would rather dedicate to watching TV or washing the car, though. Our system of guvmint only works if it’s used, and right now “other influences” are using it better than Joe Lunchbox is…and Joe Lunchbox is as culpable as anyone else or that happening.
I’m trying my best to stay away from the whole “corporate influence in the government” issue, not to mention IP in general, though…those are imbroglios for other newsgroups.
[V][V][V] It is a true shame that the companies are more concerned with their greed than people learning and sharing pieces of history that their honorable equipment served in.
I wish it were easily clear that the public owns these pieces of equipment through their tax dollars, but I fear that the big companies probably do hold full design rights, which would make it pretty much null and void. As long as they own the design rights, they have the right to charge for use of the name…hmmmmm but do they have the right to a “similar” design under a different name? Like instead of releasing a “P-40 Warhawk” they call it a “sharkmouth”. Something to that effect will be the next move probably.
I hope that this gets straightened out soon…I just got into modeling, and do not wish to see it disappear so quickly.
I think GoatMonkey has the right idea… its scratch time. But what is a good base to start from? I know that in a previous Stryker thread, the Marine LAV-25 (or III) was ruled out, unless you do extensive modifications to the hull.
And I didn’t know that posting that would lead to such a heated political debate!! [:O] Go America! (Except the part that stops them from making Stryker kits)
And the article said something about WWII aircraft kits being hit with royalties! These huge companies must be hurting if they want money for a 60+ year old design. I guess ol’ Grumman and Boeing must be wanting some kickback for their F4F or B-17s.
Govt and corporate contracts and IP’s are a sort of deal with the devil. The govt allows companies to file patents and copyrights on technology/products developed with tax payer money with the understanding that the govt has a license to that technology/product as it sees fit. So…if a corporation develops a bit of technology that will, say, make a fighter jet invisible to a missile, under a dod contract, the govt can take that little bit of technology and use it on other jets, helicopters, commercial airlines etc. Its a trade off pure and simple and since we the public don’t have a say as to where our tax dollars go or how they are spent and on what (unless you vote but thats another place and time) its up to the players in this (govt and corp) to determine how they benefit.
As for unit insignias and markings etc. Congress tasked the DoD and its prodginy to become more cost effective and look to see where they could make money. This means licensing issues with markings and in some cases the products they go on if there is a recognizable attachment to that product and unit/branch. Only natural with the current heightened awareness of the publilc to the military, and the current pro military attitude for the military to ask for certain considerations in regards to licensing their products and IP. This coupled and tied in with the VE rememberances and awareness makes for fertile ground for entrepenurial endeavors in this area both current and past. In other words, there is no better timing to make money off stuff military.
As for the lengths of copyrights, patents and trademarks, that is changing faster than Tamiya changes scales and rules that were in effect a year or two ago have since been ammended. New laws and court cases recently have changed the laws to extend licensing, IP, trademarks and copyrights. (Disney paved the way when it successfully protected its IP of mickey Mouse that was going into public domain last year, extending its ownership. Since all law is precedence, this was a great precedent to rewrite the rules. The last 15 years has seen enormous changes in copyrights and licensing and anything you thought would circumvent these laws and protections has since been blocked and granted more rights to the original owners and producers. Sort of a Jeffersonian nightmare and wet dream all rolled into one bizarro reality.
Lawyers- did you hear that only 98% of lawyers give the rest of them a bad name ?
I wonder how much of Stryker is GDLS and how much is MOWAG? (on the argument of paid for by tax dollars)
If there’s any kits of a Pirhana III, that might be a good base to kick off of.
NTM
I haven’t seen any good kits of the Pirhana III, in fact this site is the first time I have heard about it, from a previous thread. Looks like that is all we got for right now… scratch time.
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=40723
This topic has been bounced around some of the other forums also, to end this problems write your Senators and Congressperson