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Corporations who use another corporations trade names and logos for profit must surely be liable to pay for that use (if the first company is willing to even allow it under license). So Atlas (say) who make models for profit, pay Union Pacific or CSX for the use of their logos. The license fee either eats into their profit margin, or more likely, they pass it on to the end consumer if the market will bear it. If however I go to my workshop and make a model of something I have seen (maybe even taken some photos of) for my own use thats art - I'm not doing it for profit. It would be a brave lawyer who tried to sue me for making a representation of something which is already in the public domain. Profiting from copying something, and publishing it in the public domain, are two of the cornerstones of copyright law (both here in the UK, and as I understand it in the US also). At the moment it seems that this is only affecting the US market - I have heard no rumours of this affecting either German or British models. It seems that the big railroads and loco manufacturers have taken a fairly sensible line in terms of the level of license they are demanding (unlike the aircraft industry it would seem), as its only adding a dollar or two to the price of a loco, car or decal sheet - it isn't the end of the hobby as we know it. I believe copyright controls cease after 50 years, so if it does get crazy we will all have to look back to the late steam era for royalty free models (I guess that takes in some of the early diesels too now).
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