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If its for personal use and you paint it WHO is going to know or do something about it?

Finland may be one exception. In the UK and USA(the majority of the "GW hobby") recasting of GW parts is illegal in every way shape and form and does in no way count as personal use.

Aerethan wrote:Finland may be one exception. In the UK and USA(the majority of the "GW hobby") recasting of GW parts is illegal in every way shape and form and does in no way count as personal use.

Ok, I am fine with this. But US. Law(I dont actually know what legal system it is or is it unique), common law and civil law are all different and I believe that other civil law countries might share a similar ruling

I'm sure there are countries that allow it. China couldn't care less about it that is for sure as they have companies doing it and selling on the internet(and at pretty low prices I may add).

But like I said, to the majority of us playing GW games, it is illegal in our countries.

Interesting replies as usual, except the blatant trolling by a usual suspect of course.

Here's a question along the same vein, is it illegal to knowingly/unknowingly purchase a recast? We all see items from the countries that are known to have very little enforcement of copyright law on eBay, and I always speculate that they're recasts, and wonder if the buyer can take any legal heat from purchasing.

I'm not aware of any laws about purchasing recasts, that comes down mostly to a moral decision if it is knowingly purchasing a recast. It's not like buying drugs.

derek wrote:Interesting replies as usual, except the blatant trolling by a usual suspect of course.

Here's a question along the same vein, is it illegal to knowingly/unknowingly purchase a recast? We all see items from the countries that are known to have very little enforcement of copyright law on eBay, and I always speculate that they're recasts, and wonder if the buyer can take any legal heat from purchasing.

Most companies will give you the original product for free if you turn over the recasts to them and help them track down where you purchased the counterfeit product.

They do this both incentivize people to help turn in counterfeiters as well as prevent sub-standard knockoffs from harming their reputation and possibly if they are unsafe, getting them off the market.

The police may confiscate counterfeit products and then the person is simply out their money and have no product. You may not be prosecuted but you can have your product forcibly taken from you. Happens all the time in New York. New York is also moving to making the BUYING of counterfeit goods, even unknowingly a crime which can be prosecuted as a way to put the fear into consumers to make sure what they purchase is genuine.

If you tried to use an illegal recast in a GW store, they could call the police who could, if they choose confiscate your models. Would they? Probably not. But if you came in with hundreds of dollars of recasts, there would be motivation for GW to do something about it. There is always a risk to buying counterfeit products, just because the guy selling it to you broke the law doesn't always mean you get to keep the result of the illegal crime.

nkelsch wrote:

If you tried to use an illegal recast in a GW store, they could call the police who could, if they choose confiscate your models. Would they? Probably not. But if you came in with hundreds of dollars of recasts, there would be motivation for GW to do something about it. There is always a risk to buying counterfeit products, just because the guy selling it to you broke the law doesn't always mean you get to keep the result of the illegal crime.

This of course assumes that 1: you are telling people they are recasts; or 2: that you didn't prime your models before going to the store, at which point you deserve whatever happens to you.


Interesting that some companies give you free replacements, as you could theoretically buy FW for cheap from china then have FW replace it with the real deal for free, thus saving you money and getting a FW dreadnought for all of $18.50!

Well then, don't go down your GW store shouting loudly about your recast army.

Do what modellers have done for decades. Recast for home use as part of the hobby as a means to an end. Don't sell and don't boast.

These threads often start the same way... people desperately looking for some loophole or justification to make it legal... it's not there in most western countries, the copyright is sewn up. Strictly speaking it's not legal, get over it. If you want to recast, do so knowing that legally you are in the wrong, because there's no other way. But weigh this up against the fact that what you are doing simply doesn't matter in the wider scheme of things - you are very unlikely to be caught and even less of being prosecuted unless you do something dumb like distributing them. Whether you feel justified is dependent on the circumstances, your behaviour and whether you feel you are being reasonable in your approach.

Howard A Treesong wrote:Well then, don't go down your GW store shouting loudly about your recast army.

Do what modellers have done for decades. Recast for home use as part of the hobby as a means to an end. Don't sell and don't boast.

These threads often start the same way... people desperately looking for some loophole or justification to make it legal... it's not there in most western countries, the copyright is sewn up. Strictly speaking it's not legal, get over it. If you want to recast, do so knowing that legally you are in the wrong, because there's no other way. But weigh this up against the fact that what you are doing simply doesn't matter in the wider scheme of things - you are very unlikely to be caught and even less of being prosecuted unless you do something dumb like distributing them. Whether you feel justified is dependent on the circumstances, your behaviour and whether you feel you are being reasonable in your approach.

A man after my own heart!

I think the point is that "Fair Dealing" might be used as an excuse to cast a single or perhaps "a few" copies, as it could be argued to count as educational use. You are learning how to make moulds. (I'm not sure I would like to argue that in court but it isn't obviously invalid.)

However, the cost and trouble of casting only a small number of models makes the endeavour pointless as a means of saving money.

Thus, the real point of recasting is to produce lots of cheap models, which clearly is against copyright law wherever the Berne Convention has been implemented.

Janthkin wrote:
More fundamental answer: you're asking for legal advice on a forum dedicated to conversations about toy soldiers. If you really need legal advice, go find an attorney IN YOUR JURISDICTION.

To be honest, i didnt expect this to be entirely productive and heres why... comments like this...
I simply asked the question... im not going to base my life around what the reply is, but simply take the gist of it and considering if i want to look into the subject further... This never made the question useless right?

Nevertheless, this is good advice, but not what i was looking for. Your simply pointing out the obvious.

Kilkrazy wrote:I think the point is that "Fair Dealing" might be used as an excuse to cast a single or perhaps "a few" copies, as it could be argued to count as educational use. You are learning how to make moulds. (I'm not sure I would like to argue that in court but it isn't obviously invalid.)

However, the cost and trouble of casting only a small number of models makes the endeavour pointless as a means of saving money.

Thus, the real point of recasting is to produce lots of cheap models, which clearly is against copyright law wherever the Berne Convention has been implemented.

This is another good point to make. A cheap start up molding and casting setup runs about $60 IF you already know what you are doing(how to make molds and properly cast the resin). So if you are trying to make 25 heads, you are looking at $60 provided you don't make any mistakes and thus don't run out of rubber or resin. So add this weight in with the weight of the risk.

Aerethan wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:

Worglock wrote:Short answer: Don't get caught.

Longer answer: you're going to do it anyway, so don't get caught and quit looking for validation on the internet when you feel the need to be a bad person.

you are just an angry mean spirited person. Haven't seen a polite post from you yet.

You forgot "vindictive" "hateful" and "jerk".


Automatically Appended Next Post:

derek wrote:Interesting replies as usual, except the blatant trolling by a usual suspect of course.

Here's a question along the same vein, is it illegal to knowingly/unknowingly purchase a recast? We all see items from the countries that are known to have very little enforcement of copyright law on eBay, and I always speculate that they're recasts, and wonder if the buyer can take any legal heat from purchasing.

knowingly? Not sure. Probably depends on the area.

unknowingly? No. The seller is engaging in fraud by selling you a fake under the false pretenses of it being a legitimate item.

Just don't be a gaping anus about it. If you're looking to make a full cast army, I would suggest you make them out of a cheap, non-plastic material such as liquid-mache that can be semi-easily identified as fake. Play with these figures as needed, but be sure to continue to collect a "real" army of GW sanctioned figures.

If you really don't care that much, cast knockoffs, as I highly doubt anyone else cares unless they want to vent their anger at having spent X dollars on their army while you spent considerably less.

But really, don't be a gaping anus.

GamzaTheChaos wrote:

jbunny wrote:

GamzaTheChaos wrote:As long as you don't start trading the bits for stuff or selling them you should be just fine. just keep it to personal use only. also how are they going to ever find out that 1 person out of billions is recasting a few figures UNLESS IT COMES FROM YOUR MOUTH!!! so do what you like just don't make word of it.
also I doubt any court would take it to full effect of OMG THIS MAN DID A RECAST!! AND HE USED IT FOR PERSONAL USE!!! OMG!!! 1BILLION IN LEGAL FEES TO THAT MAN!

You sir have never heard of Napster.

That's the internet.

can they track a man in his home for the sake of casting models for his own use? lololloo

My comment was more to the legal fees you joked about. Napster sued and in several cases won large judgements from people that only downloaded and listened to music. While it is hard to impossible for GW to find a recaster, if they did they can sue you, and they can get large legal fees from you.

This thread really didn't need to be bumped.

jbunny wrote:
My comment was more to the legal fees you joked about. Napster sued and in several cases won large judgements from people that only downloaded and listened to music. While it is hard to impossible for GW to find a recaster, if they did they can sue you, and they can get large legal fees from you.

Your facts are wrong. The RIAA and Metallica both sued Napster, but Napster hasn't sued any individuals.

I think this thread is about done, if we've moved on to discussing Napster now.