Scan??

[Stev0]

Originally Posted by Mark Crowel

Looks like you fellows have answered the question I was about to ask: "Is it legal/ethical to copy a printed kit as long as the copy is strictly for your own use, such as a backup or to save the original?" Evidently it's OK to do so.

Considering that it may be actually more expensive in time and money to scan and reprint you kit, scanning is not something some can do to save money. For me it's to save time as a lot of kit's are out of print and many kit's (in my opinion) need ''moiré'' replaced with solid colors.

As long as the copies remain with you, your good to go.

[Keds_Girl_Lala]

You can copy a kit for your own use. It is the same as you can make a video tape of TV show to watch later... But you can not selll it.

I copy some of my paper books beucase they paper is bad. I have Maly Modelartz Potemkin and Aurora and paper is soft and mushy. Plus I make mistakes a lot or like to try different techniques. So its nice to have extra parts or to make extra copies.

[whulsey]

Glad to see people bringing up the copyright deal. With an art degree and spending 20 years in the graphics-printing industry, I had some dealing with rights issues and copyrights. My initial question was mainly out of curiosity of how people where approaching the scanning/copying issue as they worked on a kit.

[Jan Hascher]

To be honest, as you see from the lengthy discussion, its quite difficult to get a proper usable scan in a given amount of time. If you do only need backup without scaling, just buy a 2nd kit. What is it? 20 bucks at most?
Cheers
Jan

[Keds_Girl_Lala]

I like often to see if I can make the part fold better, glue better, etc. So having extra part is handy. I can cut one out and work with it to see how best to use it. Then make a good one to glue on model.

And like my Modelartz kits the paper is so poor and mushy it is not usable really well anyway.

[markcrowel]

Originally Posted by jmueller

To be honest, as you see from the lengthy discussion, its quite difficult to get a proper usable scan in a given amount of time. If you do only need backup without scaling, just buy a 2nd kit. What is it? 20 bucks at most?
Cheers
Jan

My printed kits are old, and there weren't second kits available.

[Stev0]

Originally Posted by jmueller

To be honest, as you see from the lengthy discussion, its quite difficult to get a proper usable scan in a given amount of time. If you do only need backup without scaling, just buy a 2nd kit. What is it? 20 bucks at most?
Cheers
Jan

Try and buy some of the kit's ... I would guess HALF of the retail kit's out there in print are no longer in print or have a low print run at best. It would be EASY to just buy another kit.

Building a kit from a scan would assure that any reprinted pieces would match and that you get to help others their kits by having a reference to what they are talking about.

It costs me about $0.75-1.50 per page not including time to print a scans. Which is alright when you consider freebees.

[Zathros]

Geez, you guys most be buying ink retail. Try,

Inkjet Cartridges, Printer Ink Cartridges, Laser and Laser Toner, Refill Kits - LdProducts

I have been using them for a few years and their prices for Epson printer cartridges are 1/3 rd of retail.

[Sakrison]

On rare occasions, I have lost or trashed a piece of a printed, published kit for which I had no replacement. Example: Building GPM's F-4 Phantom Mig Killer, I used a felt tip to color the cut edge of a wing panel and it bled badly into the top surface of the wing.

I put out a request on the forum for a scanned replacement part and got it from someone else who had the kit and scanned the part for me. I'm ardently opposed to piracy of any kind; intellectual property is my bread and butter. But I don't consider what I did to be a violation of copyright or of the publisher's trust. I purchased the kit; I could have scanned it for my own use if I'd had a scanner (I do now); and it was just one part provided by someone else who had also bought the kit.

Was I within the letter of the law? I think so, under "Fair Use."
Was I keeping to the spirit of the law? Absolutely.

I'd consider this approach a last resort, but not an illegitimate one.
--David