Realizing that this puppy has been flogged to death, I still think there is a side bar we should consider. If UP gets its way and starts charging for copyright, so be it. After all it’s their legal right and we will have to endure it. What we, the hobbyist much be aware of is how the manufacturers pass this increase to us and how the other Railroad Corporations percieve this.
Cosider this:
If the manufactures and /or retailers hike the price on UP and only UP equipment there should be no problems with regards to other RR corps getting feathers rumpled. After all it makes UP look like the bad guy, not a good corporate image.
However if the manufacturers/retailers decide the copyright charge can be absorbed, cost shared or or spread out across the board on all their product line then other RR Corps may take offence. After all why should UP profit from the sales of their competitors logos?
As far as I’m concerned if Uncle Pete wants his cake let him have it along with everything that goes with it. Just make sure he’s not getting everyone else’s cake. Or else we will be doing alot more baking.
[xx(] I would’t be buying the UP from now on, not less they are on SALE with a 50% off !!.. I am in Omaha Ne, the news paper show something about UP running the price up!!
I will stay on BNSF, I always see that train passing by my home town in Aurora Ne.[:D]
In every, and I do mean EVERY, other hobby where one collects items with a specific design on them, i.e, NASCAR, Disney, you name it, a premium is placed on finding and owning only those items LICENSED by the manufacturer. The hobbyists don’t want products made by manufacturers who just put the corporate name on them without authorization.
You’re talking about another genre when your talking Nascar and disney. Those people are for the most part collectors, people who collect, store and sell at a higher price, in a way, commodity traders. where as the vast majority of us Railway Enthusiats are “operators”. once we get a piece home it comes out of the box and hits the rails, very few pieces are limited additions, everything massed produced, ergo the value of our assets, like a car depreciates as quick as the dust collects on the shelf. few exceptions apply.
But the point is still valid anyway: no license means no guarantee the paint is done correctly, because anyone can do anything and sell it Which is always a problem to those who care about quality.
It is time the whiners, carpers and rug chewers moved on to another faux outrage d’ jour.
It is unquestionably the UP’s right to charge a licensing fee for commercial use of their logo and other copyright materials. Further, it is both good business and good legal practice. It is also usual practice for other corporations to charge for commercial use of their logos etc. WIth this as background, I come to my point: Does any adult seriously think for a second the management of the UP, or any other large corporation, care for a similar second what the endusers of their images think of their licensing agreements? Of course they do not. It is the particular delusion of the scuts attempting to wag the dog to think otherwise.
The options of the individual modeler are two: one, continue to buy UP merchandise; two, do not buy UP licensed merchandise. Whichever choice an individual modeler makes it is time to let this over-worried bone drop and move on.