Dealing with IP owners and their fans

[tomasparks]

I posted on Twitter: "I am debating about doing a diorama".
the IP owner social media person replied with

do it! We'd love to see it.

and 6 fans have liked the reply.

How do I deal with this?

PS: I am not going to mention the IP or IP owner.

[Rubenandres77]

by "IP" you mean "intelectual property" or something like that?

Here in the modelling community it is agreed that, as long as you don't breach any law,
infringe copyrights, or profit from selling materials, you can do any model/diorama
for your own personal amusement and private joy.
And that's exactly what many people do in different modelling media.
Usually that never causes any problem (unless your significant other gets disturbed
by the huge size of your kit/diorama obstructing the transit on the living room/kitchen/bedroom/etc.).


There are some franchises that are quite jealous about their characters/designs/etc.
to be reproduced by people outside the company. They can be a pain in the a**.
And that's why you usually don't see kits or dioramas of their objects in any medium.
But some others don't care about it at all.

Now, you say a person from the company which owns the character/design/etcthat you are
thinking on building as a diorama reacted positively to the idea you expressed publicly in Twitter.
That's a good sign, and may indicate that they like common people like you to enjoy their product
and expand it on a personal level.

It doesn't exactly gives you permission to create a commercially exploitable kit of the object.
But it at least shows that they are interested to see that a fan produces a new object based on their product.
They may also like the idea of seeing their product has a positive impact on their intended target audience.
In this specific case: it sparkled your own creativity, you said it aloud, and apparently they are happy to see
that one fan enjoys their product as much as to create something for yourself.
Maybe they understand "fanart"/"fanmodels" etc. are a personal way of someone expressing how they like their product,
and do not consider this idea to be harmful to their specific business.

I avoid Twitter as much as possible as it is the source of many a headache and useless debate.
So my opinion may not be exactly an objective one, but here's my advice: Do whatever you wish to do.
Is your decision, and you can build kits or dioramas as you like.

What other people wish, think, or expect is just that and nothing more.
So you are not forced to follow their words, and much less obliged to please them.
It doesn't matter what 6, or 6000 people tell you what they think, or what you should do:
The only person you should please in your hobby is yourself.

Now, think about this: You wrote something in Twitter.
It was a personal thought you had. You made it public.
Now your personal idea becomes complex because others are interacting with it.
Would you still build the diorama even if the media person from that company
never got word of what you wanted to do in your free time in your table?

Why do you even care about what a bunch of random strangers you don't even know in real life think?
Even if they're fans of the same franchise you like they will all have different (and even contradictory)
thoughts and reactions. Some positive, some negative.


As I said above, the only person you need to please is yourself.
So why even considering how to deal with the other fans?
Do as you please. If they like what you do, then fine.
If they don't like it, then why care at all if you are happy with what you do?

Juts my 2 cents.

Regards.

[tomasparks]

thanks,
I knew I would have to get in contact with the IP owners after reading their Asset Use Guidelines, but I was hoping my Twitter post would disappear in the noise.

[Isaac]

Tom has started with a cryptic note that I ( and I am sure many reading the original post ) really do not understand what he means. Kind of short on details.

IP, is it the internet IP address? Is it Intellectual Property? What is the subject here?

Ruben has replied with a super sized "PHD thesis " response on what he interpreted as the subject.


I wish we knew what is this all about before launching on hypothetical.

What is the point Tom is making or asking?

Clarification please.


Isaac

[Rubenandres77]

Originally Posted by Isaac

Tom has started with a cryptic note that I ( and I am sure many reading the original post ) really do not understand what he means. Kind of short on details.

IP, is it the internet IP address? Is it Intellectual Property? What is the subject here?

Ruben has replied with a super sized "PHD thesis " response on what he interpreted as the subject.


I wish we knew what is this all about before launching on hypothetical.

What is the point Tom is making or asking?

Clarification please.


Isaac

Before my PHD answer I just typed his nickname in Twitter and found his post there.
He is talking about a videogame and a specific object in that game.
So I didn't "interpreted" anything. I found out what he was talking about and answered accordingly to the facts.
He was unsure about something ("how to deal with...") That was pretty clear.
And by reading his own response here, it seems to me he got a proper answer from my long dissertation.

[Butelczynski]

Way back I was wondering if I can use 3d models extracted from BF1942 game for building diorama (I wasn't planning on publishing them in any way).I asked around how to do it and in the process I was contacted by someone claiming to work for EA Games (owner of the BF1942) warning me from publishing any method for doing just that.So I stopped.EA are a@#$# of major caliber judging by their actions for last few years.Not worth it.

[sgoti]

Originally Posted by Isaac

Tom has started with a cryptic note that I ( and I am sure many reading the original post ) really do not understand what he means. Kind of short on details.

IP, is it the internet IP address? Is it Intellectual Property? What is the subject here?

Ruben has replied with a super sized "PHD thesis " response on what he interpreted as the subject.


I wish we knew what is this all about before launching on hypothetical.

What is the point Tom is making or asking?

Clarification please.


Isaac

Well, if you think about it, a diorama about an IP address would be pretty silly... (unless something "Tron"-esque is going on here).

[Isaac]

it is always nice if the first poster states the topic so the rest of us can understand without doing our own indepth research first.


Isaac

[FRD]

This may not be related but I try to, "avoid the hassle", "up front", when modeling a specific entity, (which is what I only do) the Inns for example, I always bring the concept and proposal to them first, this would often require designing a preliminary prototype just to, "illustrate the concept" to them before committing, I then present the finished concept for their approval.

Currently, after six years, I'm re-approaching the Inns to get their, "expressed consent" before re-publishing these models.

This approach is far easier than dealing with any potential legal issues occurred by publishing (for profit) without prior knowledge or consent on their part (but that's just me) it's good to have EVERYONE, "on board"...

[tomasparks]

Originally Posted by Isaac

Tom has started with a cryptic note that I ( and I am sure many reading the original post ) really do not understand what he means. Kind of short on details.

IP, is it the internet IP address? Is it Intellectual Property? What is the subject here?

Ruben has replied with a super sized "PHD thesis " response on what he interpreted as the subject.


I wish we knew what is this all about before launching on hypothetical.

What is the point Tom is making or asking?

Clarification please.


Isaac

sorry

Originally Posted by Isaac

it is always nice if the first poster states the topic so the rest of us can understand without doing our own indepth research first.


Isaac

How would you have written the Original Posting?


I have created a project blog for my papermodeling projects to document the work.
I posted on Twitter to have a written record of the idea of doing Project X diorama (I admit I should not have mentioned IP/copyright owner in the posting).
I did not expect to have a positive reply from the IP/copyright owner on Twitter (I was expecting legal letter saying PAY us or get lost).