[Strange]

Originally Posted by palmimports

The Cracked Chip Casino and Drycleaners, Las Vegas Nevada

I think I stayed there once.

Originally Posted by palmimports

Limpduck

Hang on a minute!!!!!!!!

[Harlequin011]

Originally Posted by palmimports

Cracked Chip gets pissed- calls up their law firm of Goldstein Goldstein Shapiro and Oreilly and files a lawsuit.
Named in the suit is:
Limpduck
Mrs Chips
Calm Imports
AND.............. Greg- the owner of Chiptalk since his site contributed to this whole mess

food for thought

Hey! Palm you're infringing on my intellectual property! I already said that in my post!

I'm calling my lawfirm... Duey, Cheatum, and Howe.

[palmimports]

Originally Posted by Harlequin011

Hey! Palm you're infringing on my intellectual property! I already said that in my post!

I'm calling my lawfirm... Duey, Cheatum, and Howe.

There was a big argument with them- it used to be howe duey cheatum but the senior partner, Duey- won the argument thus the name change

[tikipirate]

Joe's brought up a lot of good points. Thank you for giving your position, because you are the critical link in the custom chip process

I think your position is what we all would find exceptable; As I understand it Ten's proposal is a voluntary step past this. What I am unclear on is how, and to what extent this is going to change CT; because I think without a doubt it is.

How will the C5 have any teeth? Is it going to come to not allowing non-C5 member's participation in GBs? Will they be able post thier "copy cat" chips for auction? Pictures? What will happen if they do try and do any of these things? Who gets to police this? These are the questions we need to answer before anything else happens

Let's get a draft going. I think it is important to review the entire contents of this thread and make some compromises so we can get as many memebers on board for this as we can. Otherwise, if we take a straight and narrow approach, we are just going to splinter our CT community, and no proposal is worth that (at least to me). Let's proceed with caution and an open mind.

[kmalsom]

My concern is how do we define what is considered too close. Look at Senator_Thack's avitar for example. It's obviously based off of the Belagio inlay. To me, we're saying this would be against the code of conduct, when in reality the belagio inlay is a really simple inlay that if you told someone:

I want a 7/8" circular inlay, with my name on top, my location on the bottom, and a denom in the middle, they'd probably come up with almost exactly the same thing. Add a fade and some artistic elements and it is the same.

How do we determine where to draw the line? I look at the afore mentioned Senator_Thack's inlay and it doesn't say Belagio or anything even close. I don't see it being confused with an actual Belagio chip, so I personally don't see the problem with the design.

Are we going to do something like this? (From trademarkpoker's website)

These poker chips are copyright protected and registered with the U.S. Copyright office and are only available through us the manufacturer or our authorized dealers. It is unlawful for any of our competitors to sell a copy of this chip's style or characteristics. Therefore, this chip will not be widely available in any form except through our warehouse. These valuable chips are rare and will maintain or increase in value throughout the years.

If I want to make a chip that is in the shape of a cylinder, with a diameter of approximatelly 1.5" and a height of approximatelly .13", I'm technically in violation of their copyright. Now if it has a molded die in it, and doesn't have a metal slug, stacks well, etc,.. I've copied their design. (I'd like to see them enforce this btw... )

well, just my $.02 --- back into my corner to kick the cat...

[TenPercenter]

I'm not looking for "let me ask my lawyer what I can get away with." I'm not looking for "how many points of difference can I get away with to make this legal?"

I did not intend to propose a legal question, I meant to start the discussion about the ethics of copies.

[TenPercenter]

For the record, I'm not pointing at ANY design, past or present. The only one I brought up was one I myself took part in (Key West). THis is a new idea for all of us, and not such a new idea to traditional collectors.

I am looking for discussion around should we or should we not avoid copying other designs, not pointing fingers or condemning past or current runs of production. I want to avoid folks feeling like they have to defend copying because they promoted, sold, or bought copies in the past.

[TenPercenter]

Maybe we should focus on the Pros and Cons of copies (or "strongly inspired"'s, or replicas... choose your euphemism). Joe started that a few posts back. Let try that approach, and I'll update the original post as we go. That'll give us a perspective of where people stand and that will lead us to drafting the Code.

[TenPercenter]

Originally Posted by tikipirate

How will the C5 have any teeth? Is it going to come to not allowing non-C5 member's participation in GBs? Will they be able post thier "copy cat" chips for auction? Pictures? What will happen if they do try and do any of these things? Who gets to police this?

• I am not suggesting that ANYONE do policing. I'm suggesting a code that we can choose to agree with or not. If it is a good code, and people agree with it, that alone is enough to get folks aware that there is a problem with copies.
• I am not proposing "TEETH" in regard to enforcement of any type. No bans, no thread deletions, nothing official done by ChipTalk. I am looking for a Code that we can be proud to accept

If the Code is there, and some/most/all of us are happy with it and accept it, it will permeate the market. It will become something in the back of people's minds before they introduce a new group buy for the next cool looking casino chip.

[kmalsom]

Originally Posted by TenPercenter

I am looking for discussion around should we or should we not avoid copying other designs, not pointing fingers or condemning past or current runs of production. I want to avoid folks feeling like they have to defend copying because they promoted, sold, or bought copies in the past.

I think before we can discuss how we should handle copies, we need to discuss what would constitue too close of a copy. This is the grey area I see in the code of conduct. I personally feel that just misspelling a name (ie Riu or Plums, etc) is too close, but what about If I take the WSOP design and change all the wording to something completely different like Kari's Poker Tour, Aurora Colorado, etc... Are we still saying that that is too close of a copy? Or what about taking the Belagio inlay, a fade around the outside, a big stylish M faded into the background in the center, My name along the top, Aurora Colorado on the bottom and a denom in the center? is that too close of a copy?

This is where I see the problem, in defining what is too close of a copy or a knockoff.

offtopic: shouldn't this thread be in Site Discussions instead?