I have no idea, maybe someone should ya know, ask him about that and rerunning it before just going ahead? I mean, in the past it seemed that there was usually some sort of unspoken rule that when rerunning a set you asked for permission of the original designer/runner before going ahead with it. Maybe we're past that, but just seems like the right things to do, if at all possible.
(Not speaking on behalf of TKC, just as myself)
Emphasis added. I think, for me, this is the crux of the issue.
This isn't Karura's design. One could argue that the specific layouts offered were Karura's, but there again if you look at the render in the IC this is definitely not R2 of SKIDATA (Which I will expound further on in a minute). These are stock colors, and if they belonged to anyone they belonged to Cherry which means GMK acquired them with the tooling.
If this were an original design, or we duplicated the layouts 100%, or we duplicated original novelties, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly that IP was being stolen without the permission of the original designer.
I don't think simply running a set entitles you to anything. Does Originative own White on Black? Because that's what you're implying here - that simply by running WoB Originative has some sort of control over it's future - which to me is insane. Running or rerunning a public domain set is no different that 16 different publishers running editions of Gulliver's Travels. Or what about situations where the designer and runner are different people. Is MiTo obligated to run Laser at MassDrop until the end of time because they ran it once (Setting aside any contract issues we would have no knowledge of). Is Cocobrais obligated to continue to run Signal at the site that's running it just because they are running it now? I think the answer to both, both personally and by the community is no.
Going back to the genesis of this set, I looked at the crazy prices SKIDATA and the color kit was commanding and said to TKC that we needed to put something together. My thought was this:
Base alphas plus color kit was obviously the more popular choice - by virtue of the premium it commands. We put together one large kit with high compatability and offer it for a fair price. TKC already had the Terminal layout which has a ton of compatibility features so I just skinned it with SKIDATA colors and ran with it.
Obviously with the feedback we're seeing here, we need to rethink the mods situation. I didn't expect there to be so much demand for the normal mods based on the r/mm pricing.
I will say though, that I don't think a bunch of child kits is the way to go. They don't sell well, generally, and they drive the price up into the stratosphere relatively speaking. I've still got my SKIDATA R1 extras receipt - north of $300 for all the kits. That's nuts. Even on Massdrop, a ton of child kits can dobule+ your price - looking at you Nautilus.
Anyway, that's my $0.02. I'm going to rework the KLE and see where that gets us.
Giorgio, you're going to be disappointed.