RE: Lockheed and Boeing Copyright
Hi Jim,
Something like this happened in the Flight Sim community several years ago. One of the companies that produced add ons for MSFS went to American Airlines and wanted to know if they could have the exclusive rights to AA's logo, markings, etc for a licensing fee. AA never thought of getting into something like that but agreed. Once this guy got his agreement from AA, he had his lawyers contact all the web FS sites and freeware designers and threatened them with court action unless they paid him a royalty or removed the AA aircraft. Remember, this is a COMPUTER simulation, nothing exists in the real world. Well, the websites took of all the AA airplanes as they couldn't afford to go to court. To make a long story short, AA received so much mail about this, especially from business travelers, that they backed down.
I'm just worried that some model manufacturer will agree and set a precedent for all the others. I'm sure BVM could take them on in court if they gave him a hard time, but not many other companies have those kinds of resources. In fact, I'm kind of surprised they haven't gone after him as BVM is very well known and has relatively deep pockets, as modeling companies go.
I e-mailed Dave M. to see if there's an update on this matter.
Brg,
Jon