Minis recast on ebay - copyright infringement

[knightkrawler]

Goldendboy's Yetis and Polarbears look like they belong in that Kickstarter.

[ampersand]

Actually, Goldenboys is 68 Euro total, while Bills is 75 Euro

Don't you dare comparing only their price tags!
We've seen the difference in quality. It is overwhelming how bad goldendboy82's recasts are and how much he rips off people.
Goldendboy's perceived quality is worth 6 Euro, Bill's 75 Euro. There's your comparison.

Actually, and in all earnest, you can literally sculpt your own minis with Fimo or Green Stuff or something, using almost exclusively your fingers, to achieve goldendboy's quality.
You don't need to follow all StratosVX's instructions, just go ahead with it, and prove us all that quality need not be as expensive as we're all as experienced hobbyists are willing to pay the price for.

It worked for these guys! xD
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/di ... ts/1022024

all of a sudden i see money to be earned for everyone and his dog! seriously though. if they can raise 21k on a kickstarter for something that my daughter could make just as well out of play dough...its worrying times
even more worrying that people throw their hard earned cash at it too lol

[StratosVX]

its worrying times even more worrying that people throw their hard earned cash at it too lol

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

[whitebeard]

even more worrying that people throw their hard earned cash at it too lol

These people were duped. If you look at the project's KS home page (link at the top of the page Thanos linked to), you will see several professionally crafted figures already set to go. So the risk was assumed to be low.

[asdxzdew]

It's f'ing frustrating.

I did some research, there has got to be 1- 3 pounds of metal in those 9 figures , this website sells pewter for 20$ a pound http://www.rotometals.com/Pewter-Alloys ... aQodiwsAwA
I have searched several websites, this seems to be the going rate. Despite hydro cost, and time to make the molds, you are only looking at about 30$ for your time spent on the figures after ebay fees. If anyone is even remotely educated in making figures, 9 figures are probably approximately 2 hours work, by the time it takes to cast them, then clean them (not to mention individually packaging them), and with metal you have to use a drill to create holes for the heads to fit in any multipiece (yeti, warbear, frozen horror) figures.

Not sure how some people on here are questioning 5$ a figure, perhaps for the mass produced warhammer/GW figures that aren't even worth their melting costs. The key word is mass production, it makes everything cheaper. They have probably a centrifugal caster and machine that can bang off 1000 figures or more in like an hour(not sure what they have,) People who think this is gouging kinda are sounding very uneducated. Perhaps they are conditioned for Chinese manufacturing? where they can hire workers at 1$ an hour.

I suggest no one makes any sort of stink about copyright infringement, the last thing I would want is this website being banned.

[TMU]

@FainFlynn: Take a look at my images, you will see why Bills recasts are way better than goldenboys, and worth every damn penny.

[Daedalus]

I have a kinda naive question about copyright and production of 3-D printed HQ copies. Is such a thing allowed at a 3-D print site, or are they hands off due to copyright, kinda like printing expansion materials at Kinkos? If copyrighted figures aren't allowed (I imagine they aren't), then I could see why a hobbyist would invest in a home 3-D printer when the cost is right. I wonder when and where the first scanned, computer-model HQ figures will show up for printing.

[Count Mohawk]

I have a kinda naive question about copyright and production of 3-D printed HQ copies. Is such a thing allowed at a 3-D print site, or are they hands off due to copyright, kinda like printing expansion materials at Kinkos? If copyrighted figures aren't allowed (I imagine they aren't), then I could see why a hobbyist would invest in a home 3-D printer when the cost is right. I wonder when and where the first scanned, computer-model HQ figures will show up for printing.

Well, first of all, I am not a lawyer (although you may qualify if your under-name title counts, Mr. Slacker-Ruleslawyer!), so take all of the following with a pound of salt, or as much salt as your doctor allows if less than that.

Now for my opinion. The ability to produce 3D-printed miniatures does not in any way supersede the copyright holders' copyright-granted rights. In the same way that recasters can get C&D'd by GW for doing so, they could presumably issue C&Ds against anyone who gets a copy of the file required to actually 3-D print one of their minis. So at least for the moment, going to Staples or whatever to print some GW figures is unlikely to be allowed by the employees.

However, if 3-D printing continues to grow in ubiquity, C&Ding every single person who ever gets their hands on the print file will become increasingly less feasible. Information wants to be free, after all. Even if copyright law remains as it currently is (plus any applicable extensions to keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain), people will share print files the same way they do video game ROMs now. If you don't shout from the rooftops that you print figures for your own personal tabletop dungeoneering, who would both be able to find out and care enough to take you to court over it?

In short, I say print as much as you are able to, and let the lawmakers work out how to bring the system of copyright into the 21st century.

[Goblin-King]

I am not a lawyer either, but I've actually read up on copyright quite a lot due to me being both an artist and game creator...

A miniature, painting, photograph, song, movie, poem etc etc etc all constitute a "work".
The rules are more or less the same for all of these. It is no more legal to scan and print a HQ mini than it is to upload and download music.
Every single person doing so is basically a criminal in the eyes of the law. No opinions - just facts.

HQ being an abandoned game doesn't make any form of copying or distribution legal. It just makes it pass under the radar.
This site is basically the Pirate Bay of HeroQuest - not that I mind

[Count Mohawk]

Well, there's also such a thing as "fair use", at least here in the US. In theory, fair use negates some of the otherwise unlimited rights provided by copyright if the use in question enriches the public and public culture (among other qualifications). Unfortunately, fair use is generally decided on a case-by-case basis, and if a big company decides it hates you, it can make it prohibitively expensive to defend yourself in court. Outside the US there is a similar, although weaker, concept known as "fair dealing", about which I know very little.