12 replies to this topic

[SolarFusion]

So, I was just wondering, are there any rights issues when it comes to making a Homemade designed by someone else? I really haven't built one yet but let's just imagine that I have and would like to mass produce a particular design and sell them. (By mass-produce I mean hand assembly, not factories).
Let's say I wanted to build RainbowPups. Do I owe anything to Ryan? Any royalties for using and selling his design?


I await your responses, and remember, this is all hypothetical, I'm not in any shape to be doing this for a looooonnnngggg time.

Edited by Aeromech, 23 November 2015 - 01:36 AM.

[Daniel Beaver]

No, there's no issue. That would sort of defeat the point of this forum (which is an marketplace of ideas).

[SolarFusion]

However I imagine that if I started selling a design that was already being produced it would create bad feelings which should always be avoided.

However, if I were to start mass-producing through a factory and selling to the public the original designer might then request recognition for their work in the form of royalties.


I'm just kinda speculating now.

[Drev]

It would be the nice thing to do to credit someone, but unless people have patents, or copyrights , or something along those lines, there should be no issues. However, if you were to start selling a bunch of ESLTs, I think that MHA would get upset and you probably wouldn't get that much business.

[SolarFusion]

'Drev', on 15 Dec 2014 - 3:09 PM, said:

However, if you were to start selling a bunch of ESLTs, I think that MHA would get upset and you probably wouldn't get that much business.

Yeah, that's kinda what I was talking about. They would feel (rightly) that I was stealing their business. If I were to start doing that I'd probably negotiate an agreement bforehand.

But I'm extremely unlikely to do this anyways. This was just for looking into the idea.

[cheerios]

I would say if the original creator is currently trying to sell their designs, then you shouldn't sell any of that product (ie. ESLTs). However rainbowpups haven't been sold by Ryan for a while and it probably would be Kosher to sell them.

Or, you could just PM or Email the builder and ask them if they have a problem with you selling their product.

[Aeromech]

Additionally, if there was a tradition of royalties in this hobby, virtually every design would need to cough up to the Rainbow clan for their magnificent catch. Again, can't be a bad thing to PM the creators, etc.

[Buffdaddy]

Basic rule of thumb: DON'T BE A DICK.

[SolarFusion]

'Buffdaddy', on 15 Dec 2014 - 6:27 PM, said:

Basic rule of thumb: DON'T BE A DICK.

^This is essentially what all the replies to this thread boil down too as an answer. Lol

[Daniel Beaver]

It saddens me how much this concept of owning ideas has permeated society.

If you guys really want to go down the route of defining how people own ideas, then you can take a look at the creative commons licenses. I use the CC Attribution license for all my website and youtube stuff (which includes all my writeups, and so by extension the original Rainbow writeups). Basically, it just means that you can use it for whatever the hell you want (re-post it, modify it, sell it, whatever) as long as you credit the original author. It's about as lax of a license as you can have without actually just totally winging it out into the public domain (which means that you don't have to even attribute, you can just use it for whatever). This only applies to actual "works" - e.g., videos, pictures and text. The actual mechanical designs for stuff you would have to patent if you wanted to gain a temporary monopoly on it (which is all that "intellectual property" is in the end - you don't "own" ideas, you're just granted a legal monopoly for a temporary period).

Edited by Daniel Beaver, 15 December 2014 - 03:10 PM.

[roboman]

'Daniel Beaver', on 15 Dec 2014 - 8:01 PM, said:

It saddens me how much this concept of owning ideas has permeated society.

If you guys really want to go down the route of defining how people own ideas, then you can take a look at the creative commons licenses. I use the CC Attribution license for all my website and youtube stuff (which includes all my writeups, and so by extension the original Rainbow writeups). Basically, it just means that you can use it for whatever the hell you want (re-post it, modify it, sell it, whatever) as long as you credit the original author. It's about as lax of a license as you can have without actually just totally winging it out into the public domain (which means that you don't have to even attribute, you can just use it for whatever). This only applies to actual "works" - e.g., videos, pictures and text. The actual mechanical designs for stuff you would have to patent if you wanted to gain a temporary monopoly on it (which is all that "intellectual property" is in the end - you don't "own" ideas, you're just granted a legal monopoly for a temporary period).

All of that is useless, too, if you can't afford to defend it. Even if somehow, somebody here managed to get a patent on their design, it would be absolutely pointless to try to defend it in court because the legal fees (not to mention the filing fees alone) would be an order of magnitude larger than the amount that person is profiting off of the blaster sales.

[Snoop Doggy doge]

I think it's more of an honor code thing, and again each case is different. Contact the original producer,

[KaneTheMediocre]

'SolarFusion', on 15 Dec 2014 - 1:57 PM, said:

So, I was just wondering, are there any rights issues when it comes to making a Homemade designed by someone else? I really haven't built one yet but let's just imagine that I have and would like to mass produce a particular design and sell them. (By mass-produce I mean hand assembly, not factories).
Let's say I wanted to build RainbowPups. Do I owe anything to Ryan? Any royalties for using and selling his design?


I await your responses, and remember, this is all hypothetical, I'm not in any shape to be doing this for a looooonnnngggg time.

Legally, you don't owe squat unless there's a patent, which is not financially possible for most inventors. Doesn't matter who designed the blaster, if they are selling it, or if they are OK with you selling it. That is a fact, not an opinion, unlike the rest of this post.

It is a good courtesy to at the very least acknowledge the inventor where the blaster is sold if it's a close copy. It would also be courteous to offer a small royalty to the inventor. But small is the key word here, and really only if it's a close copy - For instance, Ryan never offered Stark royalties for rainbowpump sales because the blaster was mostly Ryan's design, but he did offer Captain Slug royalties on +bow sales (Captain Slug declined because he is a super classy guy).

Another factor is the originality (Sort of kind of patentability) of the blaster being copied--A couple people have asked permission / inquired about royalties to build HAMPs commercially (Pretty sure nothing came of it) and I told them they could build and sell as many HAMPs as the like. It's not a sophisticated, new or interesting design for toy guns, but I happen to be the guy that first wrote instructions for it on the internet. However, if someone wanted to build and sell Aabows or ESLTs with the exact same design that I use, I'd probably want for a buck or two per blaster.