RE: Mercedes has Gullwing replica crushed
Discussion
This is utter nonsense! Another reason I' ll never buy a new Mercedes or do business with them... Actions like this are bad publicity and makes a brand nasty in its behavior. And NOBODY wins with this behavior. Everybody looses. It is a stupid policy...!
Any medicine or product looses the patent protection after 30 years, so other companies can copy the products... Why do they demand the right which is not even a patent AND they do not earn any money on these cars any more... THERE IS need for replicas because in 50 or 100 years time hardly anyone will use the originals because they will be so expensive. So that people can enjoy the history of the cars and see them on the road and in vintage racing REPLICAS are THE logic solution...! Look how relaxed PORSCHE or JAGUAR are handling this...! You get a 356 speedster, 550 RS, 718RS and 904, 908 and 917, C-Types and D-Types and even XJ13, although there was only ONE original example ever made and this is owned by the JAGUAR factory. Or look at the LANCIA Stratos... There are brilliant replicas by HAWK and ListerBell.! Replicas are the best BRAND PUBLIC RELATION for FREE for any car manufacturer. It keeps the brand in the minds of the WIDER popuplation because replicas are easily used in every day situations by ordinary people. It also keeps the brands likable and accessable. And it does not hurt the prices of the originals at all as we can currently witness again, which always was the main argument... Ferrari and Mercedes are plain idiots...!!! Copyright infringement is utter b
ks here as long nobody tries to sell a replica as an original...! But this has nothing to do with copyright. This is fraud... So replicas are brilliant...!
Any medicine or product looses the patent protection after 30 years, so other companies can copy the products... Why do they demand the right which is not even a patent AND they do not earn any money on these cars any more... THERE IS need for replicas because in 50 or 100 years time hardly anyone will use the originals because they will be so expensive. So that people can enjoy the history of the cars and see them on the road and in vintage racing REPLICAS are THE logic solution...! Look how relaxed PORSCHE or JAGUAR are handling this...! You get a 356 speedster, 550 RS, 718RS and 904, 908 and 917, C-Types and D-Types and even XJ13, although there was only ONE original example ever made and this is owned by the JAGUAR factory. Or look at the LANCIA Stratos... There are brilliant replicas by HAWK and ListerBell.! Replicas are the best BRAND PUBLIC RELATION for FREE for any car manufacturer. It keeps the brand in the minds of the WIDER popuplation because replicas are easily used in every day situations by ordinary people. It also keeps the brands likable and accessable. And it does not hurt the prices of the originals at all as we can currently witness again, which always was the main argument... Ferrari and Mercedes are plain idiots...!!! Copyright infringement is utter b
ks here as long nobody tries to sell a replica as an original...! But this has nothing to do with copyright. This is fraud... So replicas are brilliant...!B'stard Child said:
2 years ago it was a topical and entertaining thread
wrings hands - what has become of PH
All we need now is for someone to bump up the Ferrari's replica's in Italy Thread and I'd say I'd got a Pair
Beaten by 3 of kind but I can't remember a thread where any other replica was crushed in the same way - caterfieldwesterham manufactures could have a field day with Robin Hoods or any of the other copies.......
Oh wait they are all copies
BRILLIANT and so true... :-)wrings hands - what has become of PH
All we need now is for someone to bump up the Ferrari's replica's in Italy Thread and I'd say I'd got a Pair
Beaten by 3 of kind but I can't remember a thread where any other replica was crushed in the same way - caterfieldwesterham manufactures could have a field day with Robin Hoods or any of the other copies.......
Oh wait they are all copies
Nors said:
Hmmmm....That's very sad actually, looked very nice.
Wonder how that all fits with all the other replicas out there, GT40's Cobra's etc?
Also remember Lotus (I think) trying to do something legal with the original Esprit body being recognised by it's shape as some form of Copyright, and failed I think.
Also, does these Law's in Germany apply in different countries? E.G. If I made a replica rhere in the UK, could they also have it confiscated and crushed?
No! Don' t worry!Wonder how that all fits with all the other replicas out there, GT40's Cobra's etc?
Also remember Lotus (I think) trying to do something legal with the original Esprit body being recognised by it's shape as some form of Copyright, and failed I think.
Also, does these Law's in Germany apply in different countries? E.G. If I made a replica rhere in the UK, could they also have it confiscated and crushed?
JohnGoodridge said:
IMHO the replica business (Cobra, GT40) usually increases the awareness and cachet of the originals; from which enthusiasts, and the market clearly differentiates.
Bit short-sighted of Daimler AG IMHO, unless of course they want to get into the replica business themselves.
AGREED !!!Bit short-sighted of Daimler AG IMHO, unless of course they want to get into the replica business themselves.
bobberz said:
B0llocks! The hundreds of thousands of Shelby Cobra replicas out there haven't hurt the value of the real ones, which still go for $500,000-$1,000,000+.
Do you really believe that someone who is in the position to buy a 300SL would mistake a fibreglass replica for a real aluminium one?
EXACTLY !!!Do you really believe that someone who is in the position to buy a 300SL would mistake a fibreglass replica for a real aluminium one?
For my pennies worth, I think the replica/kit cars help these old original cars in the fact that owners USE them, take them to shows and joe public gets to see them, they know they are not real but what harm does it do, the owner feels like a million ugandan dollars wafting around the streets in the replica, my friend has a RS200 kit and is always a crowd puller and people know it is not a real one.
over and out.
over and out.
Very heavy handed action that ought to bring lots of 'Bad Press'! Are they still making this car? Are they considering a re-launch of this model? A chum has an original one - highly overated, drives like a pregnant roller-skate and breaks down on a regular basis! But then, so does his Testa Rossa...........
vintageracer01 said:
EXACTLY !!! A very short sighted policy which does not serve anybody...
I beg to differ. It most certainly serves the interests of the companies who may have paid Mercedes to be allowed to produce replicas.If I ran one of those companies I would be expecting the copyright holder to address any unlawful use of something that I were paying for.
Even if Merc hasn't licensed it to anyone else then it's still their copyright and they are perfectly entitled to stop people using their work if they so choose. It's about brand image; if they feel that unauthorised reproductions of their copyright work might harm them then they will do something about it.
ajl.
vintageracer01 said:
This is utter nonsense! Another reason I' ll never buy a new Mercedes or do business with them... Actions like this are bad publicity and makes a brand nasty in its behavior. And NOBODY wins with this behavior. Everybody looses. It is a stupid policy...!
Any medicine or product looses the patent protection after 30 years, so other companies can copy the products... Why do they demand the right which is not even a patent AND they do not earn any money on these cars any more... THERE IS need for replicas because in 50 or 100 years time hardly anyone will use the originals because they will be so expensive. So that people can enjoy the history of the cars and see them on the road and in vintage racing REPLICAS are THE logic solution...! Look how relaxed PORSCHE or JAGUAR are handling this...! You get a 356 speedster, 550 RS, 718RS and 904, 908 and 917, C-Types and D-Types and even XJ13, although there was only ONE original example ever made and this is owned by the JAGUAR factory. Or look at the LANCIA Stratos... There are brilliant replicas by HAWK and ListerBell.! Replicas are the best BRAND PUBLIC RELATION for FREE for any car manufacturer. It keeps the brand in the minds of the WIDER popuplation because replicas are easily used in every day situations by ordinary people. It also keeps the brands likable and accessable. And it does not hurt the prices of the originals at all as we can currently witness again, which always was the main argument... Ferrari and Mercedes are plain idiots...!!! Copyright infringement is utter bks here as long nobody tries to sell a replica as an original...! But this has nothing to do with copyright. This is fraud... So replicas are brilliant...!
And that, with respect, is bAny medicine or product looses the patent protection after 30 years, so other companies can copy the products... Why do they demand the right which is not even a patent AND they do not earn any money on these cars any more... THERE IS need for replicas because in 50 or 100 years time hardly anyone will use the originals because they will be so expensive. So that people can enjoy the history of the cars and see them on the road and in vintage racing REPLICAS are THE logic solution...! Look how relaxed PORSCHE or JAGUAR are handling this...! You get a 356 speedster, 550 RS, 718RS and 904, 908 and 917, C-Types and D-Types and even XJ13, although there was only ONE original example ever made and this is owned by the JAGUAR factory. Or look at the LANCIA Stratos... There are brilliant replicas by HAWK and ListerBell.! Replicas are the best BRAND PUBLIC RELATION for FREE for any car manufacturer. It keeps the brand in the minds of the WIDER popuplation because replicas are easily used in every day situations by ordinary people. It also keeps the brands likable and accessable. And it does not hurt the prices of the originals at all as we can currently witness again, which always was the main argument... Ferrari and Mercedes are plain idiots...!!! Copyright infringement is utter b
ks here as long nobody tries to sell a replica as an original...! But this has nothing to do with copyright. This is fraud... So replicas are brilliant...!ks. The issue is not one of people passing something off as an original. We know that no one does that with cars and probably never could. It's the use of someone else's property - in this case the shape of the car - which he has sought to have protected in law.They haven't made Spangles since the 1970's but you can't just decide to produce sweets today and call them Spangles even if you made it clear that they were nothing like the original without permission from whomever owns the name.
The point which I think people are missing is that Merc has to do this as if it isn't actively protecting its copyright then it could use it.
ajl.
B'stard Child said:
All we need now is for someone to bump up the Ferrari's replica's in Italy Thread and I'd say I'd got a Pair
Here you go - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...Another link - http://www.europics.at/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=c...
A bit more detail in the second one. Car was bought in the UK and imported into Italy - so not a visiting tourist who has had his car lifted by the Carabineri! So, was it shipped over with a view to selling it on at a profit (how many Italians, who presumably are more likely to be able to tell the difference, would be fooled by it) or for purely personal use by 'R.S.'? A RHD car from the UK is a bit of a give away too.
I'll declare an interest here as I'm an MR2 owner. My take on it is that a F355 bodykitted car with SF badges etc. etc. suggests you can't afford to buy the real thing (or finance its running costs). It will never sound like one either. All a bit sad really. It might be more reliable and a great deal cheaper to insure though.
But that's just me. If it makes the owner happy, let him be. Far too much overt aggression on this forum currently.
Gorbyrev said:
Switch said:
Ferrari do the same thing if you take a rep to Italy don't they?
That would have a lot of MR2 owners very nervous 
hole and that was the end of that.They even provided a certain TV show with a Testerossa if they stopped using a replica.
MonteV said:
There are some clever people about.It's all Clff Richards fault!
He was the one that was principle in extending the song copyright to 75 years after death.
FFS.......You write a song, people sing it, what's to copyright?
Patents/copyright running beyond 5 years are just bullst. If a company can't get a head start in 5 years then 10 years/20 years/30 years won't help.
And if you copy a car body and make it .0001 different in a single direction, is it a copy/ replica/fake/new car?
The whole concept is scandalous and everyone should be producing crude replicas in their garage in the hope that Mercedes will march in, declare it an infringement and crush it, despite it being made of paper mache.
Systems fked!
He was the one that was principle in extending the song copyright to 75 years after death.
FFS.......You write a song, people sing it, what's to copyright?
Patents/copyright running beyond 5 years are just bulls
t. If a company can't get a head start in 5 years then 10 years/20 years/30 years won't help.And if you copy a car body and make it .0001 different in a single direction, is it a copy/ replica/fake/new car?
The whole concept is scandalous and everyone should be producing crude replicas in their garage in the hope that Mercedes will march in, declare it an infringement and crush it, despite it being made of paper mache.
Systems f
ked!Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff