The Death of a Hobby

I used to love to build plastic models when I was a kid, mostly WWII aircraft and science fiction kits. I still yearn a bit to build them, but my eyes aren't quite so sharp and my hands shake a bit too much now. I still like to read modelling magazines and sometimes go to modelling shows. I'm even considering taking up yet another hobby, table-top wargaming -- that has elements of model building in it.

But the hobby as a whole is going away. It seems that the companies who make the real aircraft, tanks, cars, naval ships, etc. are demanding enormous licensing fees now. You can read more here.

For over half a century, kits have been sold that enable military history buffs to assemble scale models of military ships, aircraft and vehicles. But that era is coming to an end, as the manufacturers of the original equipment, especially aircraft, are demanding high royalties (up to $40 per kit) from the kit makers. Since most of these kits sell in small quantities (10-20,000) and are priced at $15-30 (for plastic kits, wooden ones are about twice as much), tacking on the royalty just prices the kit out of the market. Popular land vehicles, which would sell a lot of kits, are missing as well. The new U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles are not available because of royalty requirements. Even World War II aircraft kits are being hit with royalty demands.

These royalty demands grew out of the idea that corporations should maximize “intellectual property” income. Models of a companys products are considered the intellectual property of the owner of a vehicle design. Some intellectual property lawyers have pointed out that many of these demands are on weak legal ground, but the kit manufacturers are often small companies that cannot afford years of litigation to settle this contention. In the past, the model kits were considered free advertising, and good public relations, by the defense firms. The kit manufacturers comprise a small industry, and the aircraft manufacturers will probably not even notice if they put many of the model vendors out of business. Some model companies will survive by only selling models of older (like World War I), or otherwise “no royalty” items (Nazi German aircraft) and ships. But the aircraft were always the bulk of sales, and their loss will cripple many of the kit makers. Some of the vehicle manufacturers have noted the problem, and have lowered their demands to a more reasonable level (a few percent of the wholesale price of the kits).

It's a problem of creeping copyright protection. The concept is being so twisted and stretched these days it's ludicrous. Major corporations that produce the real thing used to view the plastic hobby industry as a free form of advertising, a way to interest people in their products and companies. Now, it's just another source of revenue, to be maximised and protected whatever the cost to society. What was intended to protect authors and songwriters and performers has been hijacked by money-starved entities seeking to secure revenue streams.

The entertainment industry is the worst. No longer is your purchase of a CD or DVD the means of support between performers/creators and their audiences. When you buy a CD, you are only renting the performance of that song in that format on certain hardware for personal, private use. Period. Change the format, you need a new license. Play in public, you need another license. Copy the song, you pay a license fee in the purchase of blank tape and, soon, in blank CDs.

So, an album I bought in the Seventies I've had to repurhcase for my 8-track player in my old car. Two license fees right there. When I switched to cassettes, another fee. CDs? Another one; that's four already. Dowload a copy of an MP3 file for a song I've payed for four times? Another fee! When does the greed end?

This kind of thinking is spreading, and in odd ways. Watch MTV and you'll see some products in music videos digitally fuzzed. It's to block product placements, except if the advertisers are paying MTV, then it's OK to show.

Remember singing "Happy Birthday" or seeing it in movies and television? It's gone now because the holders of the copyright insist on high fees for its use! Free use spread it far and wide, but that popularity fanned the flames of greed and have killed it off.

Mickey Mouse and Star Trek should be in the public domain by now, free for anyone to use any way they want. It's how ideas spread in cultures and take root. But changes in copyright law that lock up rights for the companies that own them and can pay to enforce them have extended those private right to 75 years. The public sphere is shrunk and the private, paying, sphere encroaches just a bit more.

Fanfiction is another, related, realm. Lots of fans of popular culture (television shows mostly, some movies and books) like to create their own adventures of their favorite characters. Or take two characters they love and put them into the romantic relationship the producers don't -- or won't! -- show. Harry Potter stories can be found all over the net. Same for Star Trek, Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Law & Order, ER, you name it. But doing this is illegal, since the producers still hold copyright.

At present, it's a grey area. Fans are careful to insert legal disclaimers and not resell their stories for profit. Companies, so far, are looking the other way. Some authors have banned it; Marion Zimmer Bradley (Darkover) and Anne McCaffrey (Pern), for two. Star Wars producer, Lucasfilms, does the same. How much long this will continue is the question worrying everyone in fandom.

But with the advent of fan-produced videos and movies, it's becoming a thornier issue. There are currently four groups producing Star Trek series. Star Wars has a whole industry of fan-made efforts. Batman is a frequent subject, too; and Robin / Nightwing. Look hee for some astonishing works.

Companies are beginning to take legal notice. At the nation's largest comics convention, which is also a showcase for upcoming Hollywood films that appeal to the comics audience (their largest demographic and revenue source), producers have demanded that fan efforts not be shown under threat of removing the many panels and film debuts they sponsor.

With prices for cameras and production software still falling, and with cable modems becoming more and more popular, the fanfilm cottage industry is only going to grow. So will MP3 trading.

Companies are fighting a rear-guard action, the most vicious kind. Huge profits are in danger of disappearing.

And so tiny hobbies like plastic modelling are falling to collateral damage. It's a shame.