poserpro opened this issue on Feb 21, 2001 ยท 55 posts
PJF posted Fri, 23 February 2001 at 9:05 PM
Ye gads, cas, if you give up speaking the truth, the idiots will take over. The whole western world is dumbing down because the intelligent, educated types are saying 'bollocks to this' and retiring to the hills. Can't say's I blame you though. Take the money and run, etc. ;-) There's a point worth making about trademarked items, and their owners. Although there are some infamous exceptions (Disney, for one) most trademark owners are remarkably tolerant of fans and hobbyists making and exchanging items based on their trademark protected work - so long as it is non-profit. Once people start turning a buck with it, they always clamp down hard - even if it's just a pathetically amateurish operation directly costing them nothing. The reason is precedent. If they are seen to allow anyone, even the most dweebie saddo, to make money off of their trademarked work, it can be used as precedent by larger, more threatening concerns to show that the trademark owner wasn't interested in protecting their trademark. They will not stand for it, any of it. And a whimsical indemnity clause stating that 'if you send me stolen goods, I'm not to blame' isn't going to protect anyone from hard-nosed corporate lawyers.