Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Stealing?

Well it's certainly been an interesting few days in the world of modern miniatures. First up, Mitchymoo Miniatures has done the first reveal of the swap parcel I (finally) sent her:(I nicked her photo without asking. I'm sure it's OK)

On a related theme,
Amazing Miniatures has been accused of counterfeiting, which brings up an interesting question of copyright: if the original is 1/1 scale and the item in question is 1/12 (or any other miniature) scale, is it still a copyright infringement? (Let's not even get started on the related issues with the seemingly ubiquitous sliced stag idea)
(Oops, there's another stolen image, this time from Amazing Miniatures)

And, the next day,
there's the news that modern miniatures have made it into a McDonald's ad:
(
Oops, I did it again)

If that's not mainstream acceptance, I don't know what is.

4 comments :

Pepper said...

Hey you big photo nicker ha-ha.

As far as I'm concerned, if a company don't make dollhouse scale items and I'm not taking from their sales then I would make copies of their designs. It actually draws attention to their full scale items so where's the harm? No one is stating that they designed it...in fact most if not all miniaturists mention the original maker and give due credit.
If this scenario gets any sillier, it will put a huge full stop to a lot of modern miniaturists =0(

AMCSviatko said...

Interesting point: so you're saying miniature versions of full sized pieces are like salesman's samples or advertising in miniature?

Ha! I just had a mental picture of full sized manufacturers begging us to make their pieces in 1/12th and providing us with the original plans, suitably scaled down...

Pepper said...

Oh my that would be so cool. Dibbsies on IKEA UK =0D

As you know, commercial miniatures started with carpenters/cabinet makers making scaled models of their designs so they could pop them in their suitcases and sell to prospective buyers. I think we should carry on the tradition *grins*

Unknown said...

*nods head vigorously on all above points*

YUH YUH.

i remember reading about the mini appliances too, like fridges etc....gosh *mind starts drifting into 1:12 mode* how wonderful that would be......