anyone purchaced cab decals from spacies

[Homepin]

I think Rads is meaning 'discreet' due to possible licence infringement issues........and I agree with him

Is there any licensing issues here?  Love the work but shouldn't the whole saga have been more discreet? 

Rads, Without rehashing the whole saga, it was kept discreet for many months with private emails etc that went unanswered for months on end with no deliveries or refunds.
The only way things got sorted when was the thing wasnt discreet and made public which wasnt what we wanted to do, but all other options had failed. Its all fixed now, and the past is in the past.

Also, I am not sure who sent spacies the "I dont care what you do" message, but it certainly wasnt me. We all (well 99percent) of us do care what you do because the Dr Who decals would not have proved to be so popular and wouldnt have turned out so good without the talent and effort required to make them.
I was a frustrated detractor because of no product, but the second those decals arrived, I went back to being appreciative which is why I ordered the decals originally.

Take a break spacies, grab that valiant charger you spoke of, do that driving trip in the car, and start fresh in 2012 and do what u want, not what anyone else says.
No ones perfect, espescially me, so who cares about yesterdays stuff up. Its the future that matters. 

[Greg]

Studley, I have been told by spacies today that your decals have 1 million percent been sent as well.  I dont think it will be much longer.

** Also, for anyone elses interest, spacies and I are on good terms as apx 8 or so people have recieved their decals now. I have told spacies that I fully support his future artwork/decal efforts and I have provided a few ideas to spacies to help out in the future with decal distribution. I suggested he might want to contact someone like Greg from RTBB and organise for the bulk decals to be shiped to Greg for example, and let Greg take orders n sell them once Greg has stock in hand. That way, spacies only has one customer to please and this will make life alot easier for spacies and the end user.

As Greg is the only current approved AP sponsor, I suggested Greg from RTBB as an example, but spacies is ofcourse free to choose Mark C, or Bikecity or Bumper Action, Marco Specialties, Bay Area, or all of them etc. Anyway, it was a suggestion I made to spacies as an idea to help spacies out so he can continue to provide good artwork etc, after he takes a well deserved xmas/new year break etc.   The Dr Who decals are excellent. Perhaps spacies can hook up with a distribution company in 2012 and it will be well worth the percentage that the distributor gets from spacies, for the product to flow smoothly. Everyone wins.  

Does anyone else think this is a good idea ?

NO

I keep away from Lic/ copyright products unless they are 100% legal

and the last I heard (3 years ago) the Dr Who licensee wanted around the 100 grand for the right to produce plastics/ play field and cab art
which is why neither IPB or TPF never went a head 3 years ago.

and yes IPB do have the WMS/Bally art files from WMS.

so again........ No thank you

[Caveoftreasures]

Ok. fair enough Greg/RTBB. I didnt know anything about the approved issue on these decals.  But it would have been a good idea for a distribution company in 2012, if they were approved so to speak, you have to give me that.

I am sure there are many many parts that have been reproduced by sellers which have been done directly with new manufactirers that have had no imput/licensing with Bally/Williams. The pinball market is full of them. Perhaps its the accepted industry thing if the product is only $20 to $50, but when it gets to $250 to $300 people start to get nervous.


 

[rads]

I was talking about copyright.  Wasn't questioning your right to post Brett.  If I held the licence and read this topic I would be on the phone to my solicitor

[Greg]

Ok. fair enough Greg/RTBB. I didnt know anything about the approved issue on these decals.  But it would have been a good idea for a distribution company in 2012, if they were approved so to speak, you have to give me that.

I am sure there are many many parts that have been reproduced by sellers which have been done directly with new manufactirers that have had no imput/licensing with Bally/Williams. The pinball market is full of them. Perhaps its the accepted industry thing if the product is only $20 to $50, but when it gets to $250 to $300 people start to get nervous.


 

and thats the mine field....... knowing what is and what is not

and its got nothing to do with cost of item.

like Rads said  "If I held the licence and read this topic I would be on the phone to my solicitor"

and so would I .

[Olivia_jason]

i read allot about threats and what not with copy right infringements on cab decals and other parts, has any one actually been sued? wonders how much this is all just bs. ive looked around the net when googling pinball stuff and what not, and seen all this over and over again about you cant do this cant do that, big fights and all this sort of crap, really has any one actually been sued by any one.
i know people who reproduce car parts and sell them in car mags, and not once have they had ford knock on their door,in fact ford said having a wide range of after market parts help sell cars,
if apple cant stop some guy in china making fake iphones, some guy in his shed who has rights to some old out of business company wont have a chance with something like stupid decals.
 i bet all this is just bullshit and people bluffing. and worst you would get a nasty letter in the mail from some guy going stop making them.
as for dr who sueing any body, you could walk into your local shopping center and find dozans of placing selling un licensed crap. ebay sells millions of dr who unlicensed crap so i doubt you will ever see them bother with a bloody decal, i watched a doco on counterfeit products and most companies admitted they have given up and gone with the theory of people will buy genuine.

[Greg]

i read allot about threats and what not with copy right infringements on cab decals and other parts, has any one actually been sued? wonders how much this is all just bs. ive looked around the net when googling pinball stuff and what not, and seen all this over and over again about you cant do this cant do that, big fights and all this sort of crap, really has any one actually been sued by any one.
i know people who reproduce car parts and sell them in car mags, and not once have they had ford knock on their door,in fact ford said having a wide range of after market parts help sell cars,
if apple cant stop some guy in china making fake iphones, some guy in his shed who has rights to some old out of business company wont have a chance with something like stupid decals.
 i bet all this is just bullshit and people bluffing. and worst you would get a nasty letter in the mail from some guy going stop making them.

 why not simply send a email to WEG (thats Williams and there still in business) and tell them what your going to do, I'm sure they will tell you its ok

[Olivia_jason]

I think this would be the first hobby i have been involved in that as soon as some one mentions reproducing parts that are no longer made, some one always drops in the words you will be sued, and lawyers lol, its stupid, its holding back the hobby imo

[Homepin]

I think this would be the first hobby i have been involved in that as soon as some one mentions reproducing parts that are no longer made, some one always drops in the words you will be sued, and lawyers lol, its stupid, its holding back the hobby imo

You're right - it 'IS' holding back the hobby. It would have been FAR better for all of us if Bally - Williams and Gottlieb went broke all those years ago then 80% of these issues wouldn't exist.

Then you have the second 'layer' of problems with licence owners such as Addams Family Trust & (as in the current example here) Dr Who (whoever owns those rights) and numerous others.

I have taken legal advice (for what it's worth) and I was told that if you want to reproduce ANY part or ANY graphics for the purpose of repairing/maintaining your OWN machine then this is 100% legal and no rights owner would be able to stop you or do anything about it. Even if they tried (my advice was) it would never make it to court.

The problem comes in when - let's say YOU - design up the artwork to repair your own XXXZZZ machine and then decide "this is too good to waste all this effort - I think I'll offer some extras for sale" - you are then potentially placing yourself in a difficult and possibly very costly position.

I still maintain that if you want new decals on your Dr Who machine you should "sell the machine" to me - I will design, print and install new decals but then I might "decide" that I don't like this machine anymore and offer it up for sale - you may choose to buy it back because now you are so happy it looks like new. I truly doubt anyone could do anything about this nor do I think they would bother trying.

If you blatantly offer decals for sale however to all and sundry then I think you will be in for a nasty surprise.

 

[tonyt]

Bottom line is that these companies have spent many millions in either developing and or purchasing the intellectual property involved and they have every right to protect it. I know I would.

[Olivia_jason]

a company would asses the worth of suing vs legal costs. on a scale like this it wouldnt be worth it, no company would bother except out of stupidity, esp when they have them selves worked out there is little reason to reproduce these products them self.
and here we are scaring the shit out of people who can provide us with parts we need or may need in the future, again this is the only hobby i have been involved in that carry's on with this crap. ive never heard of a hobby where we mention lawyers every time a part is talked about being reproduced

[studley67]

my two cenys worth on this of topic is,if you have a machine that you own.then you can resstore it to original.my dr,who has homepin flipper boards,tones of after market transistors,diodes,etc.
where do we draw the iine.???

[studley67]

p.s. still no decals.will wait for mail to resume after merry christmas

[spacies]

Okay, FWIW the owners of the DW rights know all about this. I told them straight up I was asked to do this for a couple of friends and printed 10 extra sets after they seen a comment somewhere. They said that's fine so long as that's it. And yes, that's it from me.

Also, I have had threats in the past from someone else threatening lawyers etc but my uncle is a patent lawyer so I asked for complaints to be sent to him. Needless to say nothing was received even though I have all contact details. I am not saying what I did was right though but I only posted a thread asking if anyone wanted a plastic redrawn, not printed, and I got a hell of a nasty pm within minutes. I mean if the pm was a bit more polite I would have been a bit more understanding but because it was rude I told him to send the cops, the same goes for the DW.

Although I said I am not going to do anymore I told them to pull there finger out of their ass and do something, keep people updated about licensing etc  or else more black market gear will come out of the woodwork.

Studley, I sent them just standard post so there was no tracking number. I did manage to get some more headbox decals done yesterday so  i do have a back up now.

[Olivia_jason]

Okay, FWIW the owners of the DW rights know all about this. I told them straight up I was asked to do this for a couple of friends and printed 10 extra sets after they seen a comment somewhere. They said that's fine so long as that's it. And yes, that's it from me.

Also, I have had threats in the past from someone else threatening lawyers etc but my uncle is a patent lawyer so I asked for complaints to be sent to him. Needless to say nothing was received even though I have all contact details. I am not saying what I did was right though but I only posted a thread asking if anyone wanted a plastic redrawn, not printed, and I got a hell of a nasty pm within minutes. I mean if the pm was a bit more polite I would have been a bit more understanding but because it was rude I told him to send the cops, the same goes for the DW.

Although I said I am not going to do anymore I told them to pull there finger out of their ass and do something, keep people updated about licensing etc  or else more black market gear will come out of the woodwork.

Studley, I sent them just standard post so there was no tracking number. I did manage to get some more headbox decals done yesterday so  i do have a back up now.

exactly its all bs and bluff. if it was deemed worth while by these people theywould be producing them their selves. and then you would have the other threat is just another bloke doing what you are doing saying he has the rights when he doesn't, hoping you frea kout to much and stop