Piracy: why it hurts us all.

I’m sure miniature piracy has been address here a few times, but some how it seems that most people think it doesn’t affect them as long as they don’t do it. I can understand that, a little, but from my perspective it’s hurting us all, in some ways. Here’s how, right now there are people on Ebay selling pirated miniatures we know them, they are not hard to spot. Sure, they are selling items that are old and out of print, and maybe the copyright is a little nebulous, but the more they sell the less incentive there is for a company to put out a new product.

For example, I’m a Traveller, Star Wars and general Sci-fi gamer, and I want new high quality Sci-Fi figures, but the pirated figures are only hurting the rightful owners of the license, especially Traveller, and preventing newer and even better figures from being produced. Ebay is fine, I use it, and I hope, miniatures makers pay attention and use it a marketing tool, after all the computer gaming industry does, if secondary sales on Ebay are high enough they re-release the game or produce a nostalgic version of it.

So what can we do? Let our voice be heard, write, and let the gaming industry and the license holders know we want the golden age of miniatures to come back, we have to demand and support it. There was a time when Traveller had some thirty blisters and box sets from various companies. Currently we are forced to scrounge and choose lines and companies for bit as pieces, when the bits should be the spice in our miniatures collection not the entire bulk of it. We are all, so use to making do, that when someone raises the clarion call for what we could have, or even should have, the general response is you can use these miniatures here and others there. If we want our cake we should asked for it, pay for it and leave the crumbs for those who don’t know better.