Hand made Mostly Harmless pin
- Thread starter airikr
- Start date
I have 2 responses to this.
1) People shouldn't be selling Elite Merchandise, I'm pretty sure it's illegal, but it's definitely not cool
and 2) FD needs to work on the Merchandise it has on offer. The Mug seems rather underwhelming, and I'm not a fan of the T-shirts. I actually had my own collared t-shirt (a golf shirt?) made with Frontier Logo on the sleeve, and Elite logo on the breast.
The pins like you have, some nice subtle collared t-shirts, and perhaps a key-ring that says (my other car is a cobra Mk.III) would sell like hotcakes.
1) People shouldn't be selling Elite Merchandise, I'm pretty sure it's illegal, but it's definitely not cool
and 2) FD needs to work on the Merchandise it has on offer. The Mug seems rather underwhelming, and I'm not a fan of the T-shirts. I actually had my own collared t-shirt (a golf shirt?) made with Frontier Logo on the sleeve, and Elite logo on the breast.
The pins like you have, some nice subtle collared t-shirts, and perhaps a key-ring that says (my other car is a cobra Mk.III) would sell like hotcakes.
They have the IP sure. But I would seriously question harassing some woman who is hand making a few badges.
If Hasbro started churning out thousands of them sure, but a few dozen by an individual.... who cares, fdev might be missing out on about £5 of royalties, and it would cost many times that to have their lawyers right a cease and desist letter.
So some perspective needed.
P.S. Yeah, looks cool.
It's not like she made any ernings. Cash I sent covered poststamp and metal. So feel like you are overreacting here.
I wonder what the legality in doing that was - particularly if you paid somebody to make it.
I pad a shirt maker to make it, but It's for personal use not financial gain.
20 years scrubbing the landing decks on Lave station sounds much better.
Nonetheless a financial gain may have been made - by the shirt maker.
FD may also have rules that govern logo usage.
Lugalbandak
Banned
Yes, it all sounds pretty harmless (just realised what I have written :smilie: ) but:
(my bold)
and therein lies a difficulty. Michael has already commented wrt a Shapeways pin that their issue (if any) would be with a manufacturer, and the OP has used the word "orders".
She may indeed be doing it as a favour with no profit involved, but the word "orders" ... that's skating on thin ice as far as IP is concerned.
(my bold)
and therein lies a difficulty. Michael has already commented wrt a Shapeways pin that their issue (if any) would be with a manufacturer, and the OP has used the word "orders".
She may indeed be doing it as a favour with no profit involved, but the word "orders" ... that's skating on thin ice as far as IP is concerned.
We didn't see FD clamping down on the building a large scale Cobra did we?
No, in fact they were using it on their stand at E3, why would an individual making a few of these be any different?
If it was a commercial scale operation then yes I can see an issue.
It is about trademark infringement and whether or not the holder is actively enforcing it. My knowledge of the law is not great, but as I recall if the trademark holder fails to take reasonable steps to enforce it, then they can potentially "lose" it.
Look at all the Elite novels: in order to publish royalty-free, the author has to pay £4k IIRC, hence why so many have sourced funding from kickstarter. I think Frontier should introduce a licensing scheme for such situations.
I would like to suggest that we collectively moderate the tone of any comments here.
From a personal level, there is a very talented person who has obviously put a lot of time and effort into making some custom Elite memorabilia for fans of the game. The workmanship looks magnificent.
They have doubtless asked for nothing more than enough funds to cover raw materials and postage.
A reasonable person would come to the conclusion that their efforts are a non-commercial "labour of love", and absolutely not any way to earn any income or revenue from someone's IP.
Given the niche-of-niches we've found ourselves in with this game series, I think it's a very nice gesture on their part to put their time and skills to work making these for people. I would wear one with pride.
I'm positive that the talented individual who made that badge will be forwarded a link to this discussion very soon. I therefore think that in order to avoid ruining that person's day (and making them wish they hadn't bothered doing something nice with their skills), we leave any more pontificating about the pseudo-legals to FD themselves.
In the meantime, I'm going back to look at the workmanship in that close-up one more time.
From a personal level, there is a very talented person who has obviously put a lot of time and effort into making some custom Elite memorabilia for fans of the game. The workmanship looks magnificent.
They have doubtless asked for nothing more than enough funds to cover raw materials and postage.
A reasonable person would come to the conclusion that their efforts are a non-commercial "labour of love", and absolutely not any way to earn any income or revenue from someone's IP.
Given the niche-of-niches we've found ourselves in with this game series, I think it's a very nice gesture on their part to put their time and skills to work making these for people. I would wear one with pride.
I'm positive that the talented individual who made that badge will be forwarded a link to this discussion very soon. I therefore think that in order to avoid ruining that person's day (and making them wish they hadn't bothered doing something nice with their skills), we leave any more pontificating about the pseudo-legals to FD themselves.
In the meantime, I'm going back to look at the workmanship in that close-up one more time.
Well yes, but again …perspective…
Let’s say a IP as valuable as Spiderman was being copied by 3rd parties to such an extent over such time that Marvel/Sony loose the rights as they are deemed to exist in the public domain, is a big deal, and it is worth getting the lawyers involved.
But this? Talk about a totally out of proportion response, I mean seriously, the woman has made a couple of badges. It is so utterly and completely not remotely near the scale that even an IPR mega business would bother responding to, let alone a small company like fdev.
EDIT: IPR= Intellectual Property Rights business, Marvel being a great example.
With the expansion in 3D printing anybody trying to enforce IP on low volume manufacturing is going to end up in the same place as the music industry.
I agree with everything you say and common sense dictates that such steps (should Frontier choose to take them) shouldn't be necesary, but since when has common sense ever been part of the legal system?