Do you have more on that? At least, from what I've read, a colorway is not a legally protected item in the US. Someone could just submit a similar colorway under another name as far as I'm aware.
I mean legally they could, but they'd be crucified by the community most likely (which some would still risk), and there's always the chance that MD/SP wouldn't be willing to do it. But yes, the only thing the designer really technically "owns" is any custom doubleshot molds they buy.
Okay, that's what I thought to be the case. Actually, the designer would also own the various images created for the IC as, I believe, that does fall under copyright protection as a finished work.
Honestly, I thought it smart of PMK to put in the legal paperwork on that. It avoids any confusion on the part of the community. I just hope they get their site together better. Another thought is that they might extend that to any buys done via MD where MD would require you to sign the SP agreement.
Sorry for the tangent everyone. That's been bugging me and I've wanted to know more about it so started asking questions and looking into it elsewhere.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled IC; and one where I've got the money set aside.
Massdrop isn't doing anything special, it's SP that have changed the rules for the new PMK site and the way it works. Used to be that a designer would run a GB through PMK and SP would make it, but not have the rights to sell more without permission from the designer, just like with Massdrop currently.
PuLSE, Skull Squadron DSA and original Retro were all run through the old PMK and are all "limited edition" sets that SP does not have rights to run themselves. MiTo and Matt3o will not allow them to be run again, they're one-off and more valuable for that.
The new document hands over everything to SP, so they can do what they want with the design. The designer doesn't retain anything except the right to run the same design with another manufacturer. They still own it in that sense, but have licensed it to SP.
I'll put it this way: If one person lays down a few colours of paint on a canvas in a particular pattern that can be recognised and someone else comes along and copies it and tries to sell it, it's called plagiarism and it's fairly easy to spot and companies like SP don't want to be caught doing it. It's bad for business all round. But they do want the profits that come from selling a good design whenever demand for it is high. Hence the way they're running the new PMK. Any designer who values their design would not give SP as much freedom as the license document gives them, IMHO.
They're tempting designers to sign with the 5% royalty, though. Some will go for it, I'm sure, but I think the sets that become legends will not be run through the new PMK. Most designers don't design keycap sets for profit, they do it for seeing their vision become a reality. It's more art than business.
However they get run, SP still profits from every set they sell. I think they're being overly greedy with the new system.
They wouldn't force all their customers to sign an agreement like that, and technically MD is just another customer placing an order for caps. It's just their own GB system that they can do this with. If they do go so far as to make MD / designers sign such an agreement for a large order of sets, I think most designers would simply stop using SP as a manufacturer for their designs, and probably a number of their regular customers, too.
</rant>
