Aviv,

Pretty standard stuff the world over. A person or company that
develops something that is considered intellectual property, be it
music, a book, a machine, has the property protected by law so that he
is not ripped off. After all, it cost money to develop the thing, why
should someone else get it for free? Under the laws of most every
nation someone who wants to sell the music or image must pay to do so;
he should not be entitled to make a profit by copying someone else's
work.

If you go to the gym to work out and the place is playing canned music,
it must pay royalties; radio stations pay royalties for music they
play. I'm very surprised that model makers had gotten away with not
paying royalties, I'd assumed they were. I was aware that at least one
of them was doing so over 25 years ago. The royalty payments to the
manufacturers are quite small, pennies per model.

All the best,
Rick


Aviv Hod wrote:
I thought this will be topical for the piloting newsgroup because so
many of us grew up carefully assembling plastic aircraft models. How

many of us had them all over our rooms growing up, anticipating the
day
we can go flying on our own?

It seems that the ubiquity of models in kid's bedrooms might be
threatened by manufacturer's demands for royalties for the
intellectual
property.

http://www.ipmsusa.org/MemberServices/FutureHobby.htm
http://due-diligence.typepad.com/blo...ectual_pr.html

This isn't all that cut and dried in my mind - it just seems wrong.
Especially with military contractors that spent our tax dollars to
develop these machines, it seems to me out of line to ask for $40 in
IP
for a $15 plastic model. This could very easily kill the whole
industry, leaving thousands of kids that would otherwise spend their
time and energy constructing flying machines and imagining themselves

taking off into the wild blue yonder to do something else.

Yeah, it won't dissuade the kids that REALLY want to fly, but overall
it
could have a negative effect. We need more pilots, and I would argue

that building these models has a measurable effect on the number of
kids
(and adults!) that end up pursuing flying.

Any thoughts?

-Aviv Hod