Legal or not?

**sparrowhawk** · #1 07-31-2015, 07:56 AM

I do not know if this is in the right spot. If not, please relocate it to another part of this forum:

On MOD EDIT: REMOVED LINK TO UNFORTUNATELY TURNED PIRATE WEBSITE I found some very neatly recoloured models of the P-51D Mustang. This design was originally a papermodel by Dr. Emil Zarkov, but it was repainted by Iulian Fratelanutela.
I tried to contact Dr. Zarkov on behalf of this via a Pm on papermodelers.com, but I have yet to receive a reply.
Can anybody able tell me if Dr. Zarkov has authorized this or not?
I am something of a stickler for copyright and I want to build one or more of these models some day, together with a building report. - But not if this kit is pirated!

Many thanks already now,
Martin

**N96HBK** · #2 07-31-2015, 08:01 AM

I used to contact 3Turner whenever I experienced this kind of situation (After I got fooled by some Betexa and Hobbymodel pirates).

**YankeeBoy** · #3 07-31-2015, 08:49 AM

To the best of my knowledge Dr. Zarkov has not authorized distribution of any repaints of his designs with the exception of a couple P-51Ds that I did as "Old Troll's Workshop." They were distributed by Moshe when he was still the primary point of sales for Dr. Zarkov's designs. I have seen several of Fratelanutela's repaints on a Russian pirate site in the past. I believe what you have encountered are, in fact, pirated designs.

**Vermin_King** · #4 07-31-2015, 08:52 AM

I believe that P*******e is losing touch on what is acceptable. More often than not the posts have links to his own dropbox for the templates.

I'm terribly disappointed that this formerly excellent blog is now becoming a pirate haven

**sparrowhawk** · #5 07-31-2015, 09:26 AM

Thank you all for your replies! Pity, but then those repaints are not my thing.

**gotham** · #6 07-31-2015, 01:39 PM

Warning - I went onto P************e site a while back, and within seconds my tablet's internet security went nuts and I think some malware tried to get in. Basically, leave alone for 2 reasons, pirating and malware.

**elliott** · #7 07-31-2015, 07:21 PM

Same here. Tried to check out a model several weeks ago and McAfee warnings went into overdrive. Since I get false positives from time to time I didn't think too much of it. Guess it wasn't a false pos after all. Shame really.

**3Turner** · #8 07-31-2015, 09:48 PM

Those would be pirated. The owner of P**************e is responsive on removing links when asked to remove them. If you don't receive a response from Dr. Zarkov, try contacting Moshe to inform them off the unauthorized distribution the rejoined
The last conversation email exchange I had, the owner of P*********e claimed to not know the kits I reported were not meant to be shared for free. I explained to them the website they mentioned as the source is a known pirate website and that ALL kits from said website were pirated.

**goodduck** · #9 07-31-2015, 10:45 PM

That is a pirate site. I recognize some are paid models and some you have to get password to download from designers.

**sparrowhawk** · #10 08-01-2015, 12:51 AM

Looks like I really stepped into a hornet´s nest.
Problem with those sites is: You can not be really certain if the kit you just dl´ed is a legal one or not.
I guess I will stay with sites like PAPERMAU oder paper-repilka.com. Those seem to be O.K.
With the P-51s it really is a pain because those repaints were executed superbly and had some really attractive originals.
Why doesn´t the author contact Moshe or Emil so they can share profits? Would be a lot better in the end. Chris Gutzmer of ecardmodels.com actively encourages this, which I think is a good thing.
Still, copyright is copyright and if a designer does not want to have his models changed, you have to respect this. After all, he was the one who probably put a lot of effort into designing a specific model.
Period.

BTW: Emil Zarkov also is on linkedin.com