Well, shit gets out of hand and then it hits the fan. This is not aimed at any one individual. It's going on much too much. While I'm loath to stop it, STOP it must.

CUSTOMIZING OUR KITS HAS ALWAYS BEEN ENCOURAGED. Period.
Lets be crystal. If all your doing is copying and pasting, you are not drawing anything. Then if you circulate it free or not, and don't giving credit for source, sorry but you are worse then pond scum. I don't want your business (your not giving it to us anyway).

I AM an artist. 30 plus years learning, studying and creating. And to have anyone disrespect my effort by cutting up MY work and calling it their own is more than an insult, it's a crime or it would be if I chose to take it in that direction.

Most of you are fantastic craftsman and fellow artists. I can't get enough of your beautiful work. For me, to be a small part of your hand crafted creations has always been an honor. Love you all and I'm pretty sure you know who you are.

But I'm fed up and it wouldn't take much for me to nuke this whole thing. People make requests and I spend dozens or hundreds of hours creating the art. My brother spends similar amounts of time building test models. (those of you who have built tests for us know its true) Only to sell ONE kit. Things are going to change...drastically and soon. And to those who have threatened to "go elsewhere", yeah really, where ya gonna go? Seriously, no other source comes close and we know it. (Your not showing support now, you won't be missed.)

If the only way to stop this behavior is to take it out of your hands, I might just do that, but I can't quite bring my self to punish the good folks who are honestly buying and enjoying the materials of OUR labor. Those who show their support with a few dollars. (If you would rather send me groceries or pay my electric bill, we'll work something out.) This is MY ART. ONLY Building it makes it YOUR art.
Peace and Love

Ah, man! This is not good. I remember a couple of years ago seeing someone called out for offering a bunch of textures, including many of yours, for free download. I am sorry to see such abuses of your generosity in making your creations available to us.

Thom, you and I have had this discussion before, but copyright infringement is something that is a criminal act. Even giving credit but distributing for free is still copyright infringement. I have enjoyed every one of your kits and it has been an honor to do test builds for you. I hope that you will continue to produce your wonderful kits but I would certainly understand if you decided to trash the whole thing.

If this is me you are talking about then I think you should contact me direct and not use public media to vent your anger I have always supplied you with copies of my models in hopes that you would use them or the ideas in them to create new models I have always given you credit for the art work and yet you have never given me any credit for using it to make different models you are quick to post photos of others who have kitbashed your models and the first thing you do is take credit for the art work and how proud you are that someone used your art to make something new Its true that I do give my models away and for the most part the people I give them to are on this dissusion page Because I wanted them to give you feed back Again because I wanted you to consider them for production It was never my intent to undermine Clever Models only to improve them I would be more than glad to work with you to develop a new model and help in any way I can this has always been my intention But you have never looked at that aspect I think I have many good ideas that could raise the bar and provide modelers with a real show piece I have much more to say but wont use public media to post things that I think should be personal So if you want to continue please contact me

So why are you feeling guilty? All I get from your comments is that you think your designs are better than ours. That your good ideas would raise the bar and give modelers an opportunity to build real show pieces. So what? Our stuff is chopped liver. I happen to like our models. I suggest that you take my brothers advise and start your own company. I think we could use a bit of good competition. Maybe you want to buy this company?

With respect to copyright, intellectual properties, and such, in December of 2014, I commented to Thom: "You and Dave have been too helpful and supportive for me to get 'crosswise' in any way." "Any way" includes copyright. As a rather infrequent modeler, I may not know exactly what is expected. Might it be worthwhile to be explicit in what "giving credit for source" means?

I have used the Clever Bros kits, Paul's modifications, and probably ideas from Dave Rarig and Jim Gore. When posting to the public, I give credit, at least informally, to the source. Do I need to put the source on structures printed out, do I need more than a comment like "see what you think of my modification to the Clever Bros' shed", should I refrain from attaching ideas I've used for my modeling to an E-mail exchange?

It's difficult not to share a customization of a kit with interested modelers -- how should the source be credited?

I certainly hope cooler heads prevail in this. I enjoy my occasional participation in cardstock modeling!

Since copyright has been mentioned, I would like to clarify what we can do with models we build from your designs. I assume that I can make multiple copies of a particular model for my own use, but it seems to me that if I sell or give away a model based on one of your designs, I need to purchase another copy from you to accompany that model. I put a number of your models on a club module, but club members retain ownership of the modules they built, so I feel safe there. Aside from legal requirements, I think that it is only fair to you that we not distribute either printouts of designs or completed models without compensation to you.

A number of people are following this with interest so I will do a follow up 1st when I started this I asked you if it would be OK to use your textures to make models with and give them away and your comment was as long as I made mention of using Clever Models textures it would be OK Well sir I have done that and I know you have redeived free word of mouth advertising because of some of the things I have done You seam to be under the misconception that my models have to come up to your standards well as you like to point out they are my models made with your textures after all isint that why you market the texture CDs Only if you decide to market the bldg as a Clever Kit does it have to come up to your standards I have always left this option open to you Now lets get back to that saw mill I use your texture sheets to make a saw mill and I come up with a design that pleases me I then send you a copy to see if you would like to rework it to your standards so that you can market it Not me because my models are free and dont have to meet any standards but mine You show no interest should that not put the ball back in my court How does me giving away my saw mill in any way affect the sale of your church I have never said my models are better than Clever only that I am using different subject material that Clever doesnt offer This in no way should affect the sale of your production models and my list of friends is far smaller than your list of coustermers So the only impact here is in your mind Now lets get to the copyright issue arent you breaking that same rule every time you use a coke sign in one of your kits or some other form of advertising We all do it in some form or another in orser to advance the hobby and has been an excepted practice in the 50 years I have been modeling