Actually, Ed, and fellow flyers, it is not the evil lawyers doing this. It
is the evil bean counters and the corporate dilberts who seek to maximize
profit at any expense.
A certain linguistically challenged President is also currently
attacking lawyers accusing them (us) of junk lawsuits and causing a
malpractice insurance crisis. Wrong again. Same real bad guys, the bean
counters and the corporate bandits.
Tom H. Nagel
Columbus, OH
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Berris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>; "Jack Cooper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 3:47 PM
Subject: [RCSE] Lawyers are killing the kit business
> I found this article on www.instapundit.com. It tells what lawyers are
> doing that can hurt small model makers.
>
> Don Stackhouse already found out first hand what the impact of these
> "shakedown lawsuits) are all about but I thought you all might want to
read
> this. Here it is:
>
>
> "Lawyers Lay Waste to Military Models Industry
> by James Dunnigan
> February 3, 2005
> Discussion Board on this DLS topic
>
> For over half a century, kits have been sold that enable military history
> buffs to assemble scale models of military ships, aircraft and vehicles.
But
> that era is coming to an end, as the manufacturers of the original
> equipment, especially aircraft, are demanding high royalties (up to $40
per
> kit) from the kit makers. Since most of these kits sell in small
quantities
> (10-20,000) and are priced at $15-30 (for plastic kits, wooden ones are
> about twice as much), tacking on the royalty just prices the kit out of
the
> market. Popular land vehicles, which would sell a lot of kits, are missing
> as well. The new U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles are not available
> because of royalty requirements. Even World War II aircraft kits are being
> hit with royalty demands.
>
> These royalty demands grew out of the idea that corporations should
maximize
> "intellectual property" income. Models of a companys products are
considered
> the intellectual property of the owner of a vehicle design. Some
> intellectual property lawyers have pointed out that many of these demands
> are on weak legal ground, but the kit manufacturers are often small
> companies that cannot afford years of litigation to settle this
contention.
> In the past, the model kits were considered free advertising, and good
> public relations, by the defense firms. The kit manufacturers comprise a
> small industry, and the aircraft manufacturers will probably not even
notice
> if they put many of the model vendors out of business. Some model
companies
> will survive by only selling models of older (like World War I), or
> otherwise "no royalty" items (Nazi German aircraft) and ships. But the
> aircraft were always the bulk of sales, and their loss will cripple many
of
> the kit makers. Some of the vehicle manufacturers have noted the problem,
> and have lowered their demands to a more reasonable level (a few percent
of
> the wholesale price of the kits)."
>
> I guess model kit makers will have to rename their models to avoid these
> bottom feeding lawyers.
>
> Ed
>
>
>
>
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