Red Bull Causing Problems

[grundski]

Well after all the crap us modeler's went through with the cigarette advertisers, now it's RedBull's turn. It seems their lawyers are after every single kit, decal whatever. Sending out cease and desist orders, laying down royalties due blah blah blah. It's FREE advertising you MORONS! I know I won't be buying that urine colored and tasting drink.

I think it even extends to ebay. So I won't be able to sell my transkit for the Ferrari 360. I won't build it now.

[ScaleCentral]

Which transkit is it, the Scale Productions?
Nic

[AustinMartin]

Originally Posted by grundski

Well after all the crap us modeler's went through with the cigarette advertisers, now it's RedBull's turn. It seems their lawyers are after every single kit, decal whatever. Sending out cease and desist orders, laying down royalties due blah blah blah. It's FREE advertising you MORONS! I know I won't be buying that urine colored and tasting drink.

I think it even extends to ebay. So I won't be able to sell my transkit for the Ferrari 360. I won't build it now.

Don't have that mind set. If you still obtained the kits while it was legal, you can still build them.

[grundski]

Yes, the scale productions.

My mind set is: Red Bull are greedy jackasses and I don't want to help "support" them. I don't want to build it, not that I think I can't.

[sam01contact]

Well, Scale Production´s site is down at the moment!! Something to do with this??

[Decs0105]

Yup heard that before...
Well what about progress threads? Anybody knows what they think about that?

[Mikezibit]

HI

I heard in Japan are problems too with F1 models ???



Mikezibit

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by grundski

Red Bull are greedy jackasses and I don't want to help "support" them.

Don't have that mindset, either.

Originally Posted by grundski

It's FREE advertising you MORONS!

The 'free advertising' argument is long since dead and irrelevant. And the issue is not greed for Red Bull- it is protection. No major corporation today believes it can afford the risk of allowing unauthorized, unlicensed use of its trademark. Red Bull does not really care about a few thousand Euro for licensing- but they certainly will use it to discourage unauthorized use of their logos. It is not about 'supporting' a hobby for them- it is about protecting their interests, and they will be protected vigorously.

This is why we see no new kits of modern F1 or WRC cars. Take the 06/07/08 Ford Focus WRC. Fantastic car, and it would be a very popular seller. But not only would Ford's participation have to be purchased- each sponsor would have to be individually appeased, also. BP, Castrol, BF Goodrich, Karcher, etc would all have to allow use of their trademarks. And in the current global market, it simply isn't practical.

Thinking of it as companies out to destroy modeling or being greedy is rather smallminded. They do not care about modeling, nor could they. Companies simply cannot allow the sorts of liberties with their trademarks that were overlooked a decade ago. And the fact that it effects our hobby is purely incidental.

[grundski]

From reading rants on other hobby sites, it seems there is a fair amount of "dropping the dime" on each other out there. Someone pointed Hugo Pratt towards the Ace (think it was Ace) Model of the Hugo Pratt Ligier which opened a can of worms. If you think about it though, it's not fair to the companies like Tamiya that pay for licenses. That's why I switched from S27 F1 kits to any other manufacturer of sports cars. More kit for the buck and not so "super secret".

I'm sure it is why Scale Productions is down, he has other RedBull items that are from other vendors on his site. They are clamping on everybody.

[grundski]

Nice well thought out analysis Mpower, but I'm not buying it. It is not about protecting Identity. We aren't applying their logo to a "drink RB and Jaegy till you puke" rallies.

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by grundski

We aren't applying their logo to a "drink RB and Jaegy till you puke" rallies.

That's certainly true. Our usage is probably one of the most benign ways their logos would be used. But they have to draw the line, and they really don't have the time and resources to consider every use. It's far cheaper, more practical and legally safer for them to ban all such uses. Small and harmless as we may seem, they can't really allow some exceptions and prohibit everything else.

And yes, they're aware it may piss us off, and that they may loose our support. But that's maybe potentially thousands lost, as opposed to the potential millions that a major copyright problem might cost.

Wow, Red Bull and Jagermeister? It really wouldn't take much of that to get me puking.

[Spike2933]

Originally Posted by grundski

Well after all the crap us modeler's went through with the cigarette advertisers, now it's RedBull's turn. It seems their lawyers are after every single kit, decal whatever. Sending out cease and desist orders, laying down royalties due blah blah blah. It's FREE advertising you MORONS! I know I won't be buying that urine colored and tasting drink.

I think it even extends to ebay. So I won't be able to sell my transkit for the Ferrari 360. I won't build it now.

its pretty sad, they ceased the production of the STR3/RBR4 models and decals already. and S27/FS models were going to produce the STR2/RBR3 models also. but now thats dead in the water, such a shame.

I just hope I the model in my sig will still come to my doorstep, but goodnews is that it went through customs :

[voyageur]

As far as I know they pursue it in the EU only, at the moment. This means you could still buy stuff in countries outside the EU and/or Switzerland. Still, instead of sending multi-page-lawyer-speak documents to small model manufacturers and retailers (which could go bankrupt, btw) they could just send a fax, politely asking that the items concerned be removed from the shop. I bet most shops would accept that and stop selling the unlicensed products immediately. I'm really looking forward to what they want from ebay. Compensation payments? There could be a huge lawsuit on the horizon - and I bet RB will rather suffer than succeed. Maybe that's only wishful thinking...

Anyway, I wish all the small manufacturers and retailers all the best. All we can do is support them by buying the products w/o licensing issues (decals).

[blubaja]

grundski- But if you did build the unlicensed model, that would be the complete opposite of supporting them.

I guess that means I'll just have to use my generic RB decals in place.
Red Thunder!!! The logo is not as flashy, but at least my model won't be in the sights of RB's legal department. Just imagine

[DasWiesel]

Originally Posted by MPWR

It's far cheaper, more practical and legally safer for them to ban all such uses.

And it surely protects them from thinking or using their brain in any way.
Sorry, but this whole "protection" thing is just bull-shit to me.

it´s ridiculous, not less or more...

Fortunately, i do not buy this disgusting Swiss dishwater and for sure won´t do now!