Attached Link: http://home.comcast.net/~sielkes/

This is an addon but the rims could probably be used with another car, but it does reference original textures for the tires.

I just bought your "55 EU Econo-Car" as Daz so cautiously describes it. What a beautifully detailed model! Within the limits of resolution, everything is there and everything is right. The trafficators that I begged for are there. Even the suspension parts (torsion bars, kingpins, etc) are accurate. The only frustrating part is that I can't crawl into the computer and drive it!

"I just bought your "55 EU Econo-Car" as
Daz so cautiously describes it."

That puzzled me for a while last night — I had just come across the Auto Emporium site, and was checking out all the available models, then I looked at the pages on DAZ for more details...

"Huh...?"

These are great-looking models, and I'm tempted to buy one or two, but those names... is this one of those American weirdnesses that us non-'Merkins just don't get?

Daz is trying to be -very- careful about copyrights, by avoiding names that may be trademarks. It's silly, but the 'Merkin copyright law has gone so wild that this may help avoid lawsuits.

more.... I have very mixed feelings about the new copyright setup. On one hand, my income derives from copyrighted software, sold through a book publisher. So that part of me is happy to have solid protection available in case some other publisher pirates my work. But in the big picture, the law has become so strict that it just invites violation and scofflaws. The original purpose of copyright was to encourage creativity. Over many years, experience taught that the best way to maximize creativity was by a balanced approach. Give the original author an exclusive right for a few years, so that he can make money while the product is fresh; then let it go public so that others can use the ideas contained therein. This has worked very well. The new approach tries to give the original author exclusive use forever. This leads to the kind of silly stuff we're observing, and I'm afraid it may ultimately destroy the basic point. As the eternally untouchable text and art accumulates, authors will tend to feel that they're likely to get sued for just about anything.

Yep, we're a weird bunch over here some times. Several years ago Marvel Comics tried to pull a stunt on the Library of Congress when they submitted around 2500 mock-up comic book covers with computer generated titles based around the words "X-(anything), Amazing (anything), Astounding (anything)." At that time the rules for copyright said all you had to do was have a projected project and you could copyright its title and logo. They projected over 2500 new comic titles trying to keep anyone else in the world from using the above ideas. They got caught, they got, as my students say, "bitch slapped" by congress and a very substantial fine for their arrogance. We're even being told that we have to be careful citing material in scholarly research now because we can be sued for copyright infringment. That's going to make a huge impact on research in the future if the ruling is allowed to stand.

Aha, a light dawns — about as bright as the one that comes on when I open the fridge door...

I suppose this is also why one of the first things in the description in the DAZ pages is "based on" the Volkwagen Beetle or whatever?

Hmm... if this is the major problem, I wonder if their recent legal kerfluffles might help reduce Di$ney's influence on copyright law... or if it's just rolling on under its own momentum now. (No, I don't think it's All The Mouse Mafia's Fault, but they're certainly not helping.)

Disney has the most predatory legal department on the planet. They've been known to sue elementry school students over fund raising projects that had something that could be loosely interpreted as their copyrighted images on them. And yet, somehow, the current administration sees nothing wrong with allowing hundreds of millions of copyright violations in Disney images, software, music, and publications that come in from China...because they have "favored nation" status. Sue your own for a cookie sale, ignore the dragon at the gates.

The previous administration behaved just the same way toward China, maybe even more so. Any electable administration will do that, because so many American corporations depend on cheap Chinese labor.

When I started making car models a few year ago DAZ and I were naming them based on their actual factory names. Then much discussion, even within this very forum, began circulating about copywritten material and names. At that time we decided to name the cars on very generic terms. the actual year of the vehicle, place of origin (AM - America, EU - Europe, JP - Japan) and style (ie. Sportscar, Roadster, etc.).

Everyone has become sue happy, I doubt disney is the only corporation to do so, but has certainly become one of the best known for attacking "The little People". Well, outside the music industry and teenagers downloading MP3's. At one time they would only go after companies or people that were making large amounts of money off of their copyrights. Now our courts are clogged with Huge mega-corporation's going after little kids, like Microsoft vs. Mike Rowe for instance.

Funny, we didn't see this kind of cavalier attitude when it came to BMOK or Gothic Angel taking a few pixels from someone else's work.

Haveing worked for disney for 13 YEARS, I well know about their strong legal Dept... I WELL remember the "Howard the Duck" things from MANY years ago, and how Marvel had to then after draw pants on him to appease Disney, BUT in their defense, people will ALSO go after them for literally anything at all, because they don't see "Disney", they see "Di$ney". I remember having to be a witness for someone tripping an falling on a brand new walk that had JUST been poured about 3 months earlier. The woman claimed that the crack in the walk was high, and they it was Di$ney'$ fault. The "crack" was actually the cement spacer, and they actually had to come out with a micrometer to mesaure the crack! She totally lost, AND Disney then went after her for court costs.. but dropped it after a month, just to teach her a lesson. Kinda of amusing, actually...

Raders! Excellent choice. I've got a set stashed in a barn, but they're the Sears style without the centercap instead of Empis. VWOA is pretty protective of their copyright. I knew a mechanic that had a VW logo routed into the wooden door on his shop. He had to bolt a piece of plywood over it. To be fair, others get away with naming what they work on. Well, I need to get a money order off to DAZ.