Re: [MV] Ethical Question

DDoyle9570@aol.com
Mon, 23 Aug 1999 12:15:05 EDT

My other hobby (besides MV) is postwar era Lionel train collecting.
That hobby has so much repro stuff that even the cardboard shipping cartons
are being reproduced.
There is much concern about repros falling into the hands of the shadier
types, and then becoming forgeries. The major national collecting
organization has established standards of marking repros to keep this from
happening, and anything sold by a member, or at a club-affiliated show, MUST
conform, or are not allowed on premises.

If you just alter the name plate, then some enterprising individual will do
knock off original type plates to install on your unit to pass it off as
original (has happened in trains already), or NOS plates added, etc.

Better I think to emboss your mark in key components, on same place each
time, and let whole world know what you did where. This, I think best done
on unpainted or chemically blackened area (I know nothing about radios)
rather than painted to prevent use of bondo product and paint hiding it.

Or pehaps make slight design change...if there are cooling louvers increase
or decrease quantity by one, if there is a rolled seam, leave it unrolled.
Maybe increase or decrease some dimension slightly. Of course I suspect that
a laser cut part would have crisper edge than original stamped one, but that
is probably too subtle of a change for ID purposes.

I would keep as many small, removable parts as interchangeable as possible in
order to open market for replacement parts for originals.

Good luck on your project.

David Doyle

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