Friends, we didn't mean to start such a ruckus. We have always tried to keep things as simple as possible, EVEN IF IT DOESN'T MAKE US A LOT OF MONEY. Although money is a good thing and I'll personally take any you can spare. (If your feeling guilty about now, see the Donate button to the left.) So, this is what I expect if you use our products and share them with others. TELL THEM WHERE YOU GOT THE REALLY NEAT KIT (TEXTURE) Even better, tell them to visit the website <www.clevermodels.net>. I don't need you to make a written statement or sign a release. Tell people where you got the neat stuff, verbally, in writing, whatever, but let them know. What I don't want is for you to build something really neat and then say "LOOK WHAT I CREATED." Better to say "LOOK WHAT I CREATED USING CLEVER MODELS KIT XYZ." There are even a couple of guys that buy our kits, build and sell them. I expect them to buy a new kit each time they sell one. I don't need a cut of the sale other than the purchase of the kit. Nobody out there is making a ton of money building and selling our kits. Just use a little bit of common courtesy. Let people know where you got the kit and show (tell) them where they can get one. I am not relinquishing any rights to our artwork. It is ours. We own it. Remember, you can use any kit or texture that you have purchased for any personal, non-commercial use as much as you like. If you share with others, think about keeping us going and encourage them to visit our site. If you want to go into business building and selling our kits, we need to talk. This is probably not the last I will comment on this, but I hope it is. BE FAIR. DO WHAT YOU THINK IS RIGHT. Remember, we can't keep going if we give everything away.

Dave, I hate to add any fuel to the fire, but I have to take exception to one of your comments. When you sell a "kit" which is essentially artwork, it ceases to be your property; it belongs to the purchaser. When you sell your artwork, you are relinquishing ownership. Whatever the new owner chooses to do with it is his business, not yours.

If you truly believe that you have sole rights to the artwork, then don't sell it. You should return to the "old" way of doing things by actually printing a physical kit and selling that instead of selling the artwork.

Further to my comment.....I don't know a damn thing about copyright law, so please ignore anything I say! It just seems to me that you face a problem similar to the music industry. It is much too easy to pirate anything that appears on the internet. Now- if you could add a digital lock on your kits so they could not be re-posted, and could only be printed once from a download so any subsequent copies would have to be re-purchased, that would go a long way towards reducing the piracy, 'course, that might reduce your customer base as well.

Dave Rarig, the creator of artwork (and any other original work, including a performance) automatically owns a copyright on that work. Thom and Dave can sell you a copy of what they have created, but the copyright remains with them. You may not sell or give away that creative work without permission from them. If you modify their creation, you own the copyright to your modifications, but they still own the copyright to their work, and you can not distribute the modified work without their permission. They have given buyers permission to make copies for personal use only. If you give away or sell copies of their artwork, whether or not you have modified it, you are in violation of copyright law.

Thanks for the clarification, Donald. How long does a copyright last? What I mean is if Thom as an artist/illustrator sells a painting he has created, and the purchaser of the art work decides it doesn't fit the decor (or his wife doesn't like it) does he have to get permission from Thom before he can sell it or give it to one of his friends who happens to like it?

Currently, in the U.S., copyright for materials created by individuals lasts until 70 years after the death of the creator. Copyright restricts the distribution of copies of the material. Physical copies of copyrighted works that you purchased, such as original paintings, prints, and books, may be sold. Material in digital format is a problem. In my opinion, the only way you could sell a file you had purchased from Clever Models would be if you made sure that you deleted every copy of that file from any system where you had ever placed a copy, and that all printouts and models based on that file are either transfered to the new owner of the file or destroyed. Distributing copies of a model from Clever Models, in any format, without their permission, is illegal and disrespectful of their right to earn an income from their labor.

I have similar concerns to Clever Models, and thank you Donald for your very apt perspective on copyright law as it applies to businesses like ours. I know what it's like to invest hundreds of hours on a project, as we do at ScaleModelPlans, and I'm sure the good folks at Clever Models do, where your only hope of compensation is legitimate sale and distribution of the product. We are fortunate that model railroaders, for the most part, are honest, law-abiding citizens, and in the rare cases where plans or printable kits are pirated, it is often a result of merely not being aware of the fact that it is theft. Education is important. I'm sure that as more model railroaders and diorama artists become aware of copyright issues, the problem will diminish. I support Clever Models and other similar sites in addressing this concern.