When buying a DVD what is right?
Once you have bought the DVD it’s yours and you can do whatever you wish.
True, but……..

If you lend it to a friend, is it right that they make the models from it, go out entertaining with said models and make money from the models and the originator of the said DVD does not receive anything.

My opinion is this is not right, if you use someone else’s designs you do need to thank them and purchase the DVD, again because they are helping to big you up in the real world.

Should you go around showing and teaching designs from a DVD or what you have learnt from a convention?

If you don’t balloon modelling would not have evolved to where it is today and will not carry on doing so if people refuse to share……………..but;

Where does one start and stop as without sharing the care & share days would not have evolved, but if everyone just passed on the knowledge from a DVD or convention is this fair on the designer of the models. NO it isn’t.

There is no easy answer to any of this but if you make money from using someone’s design surely it is right to credit them on forums when you post their models and to thank them by buying their DVD’s. Some will say that the DVD’s are expensive but you need to take into account production costs and the very small market place to sell the DVD’s, a balloon DVD is not like the latest blockbuster film that will sell millions of copies.

Like with all walks of life there are givers and takers but lets try to thank and give credit to those that take the time to give and come up with the designs and do give freely. They put their money into making the DVD, editing, advertising and promoting to help everyone in our balloon community and receive very little in return.
When you are out working and making money from someone else’s design surely they deserve to earn from it as well.

As the balloon world grows lets try and do the right thing, because as the balloon world grows hopefully you and your business will grow as well and in years to come there will still be those willing to give and help our industry grow.

Please try and give something back, it’s an amazing industry to be in with so many friendly, talented and truly giving people. The bond of friendship within our community is second to none and I believe we are all striving to keep it that way as it grows over the coming years. Just attend a balloon convention to see the camaraderie between people that do not even speak the same language.

Thanks for your thoughts Graham.

I agree with most of what you say but in the real world there are some people without scruples, or without money and will buy second hand DVDs or borrow stuff off friends.

What happens when the creators of DVD's/ new models and techniques cease to share their knowledge?

Already at TMJ one person I know said they didn't want to experiment in the  Jam room for fear of stuff being copied. Yet someone else created a new weave, which was then replicated, photographed...

My answer to this is simple.  Copy cats can only copy. If you are good at creativity, you will always create new stuff.

Must go catch a plane,
Danny  

I'm like Danny I pretty much agree with most of what you say but not completely     IMO there really is no such thing as a truely unique design as every model is based on the same techniques and the likelihood is someone out there has already come up with the same design before you did.  

I'm not saying that if I saw something and consciously copied bits from it I wouldn't, in a situation like this, credit the person from whose model I drew inspiration, however, I have now seen so many models etc I cannot possibly remember who or where I saw everything so when trying things out myself at home I actually manage to come up with something usable (not happened yet but maybe one day   ) I will probably be using ideas I have gleaned off of others without consciously doing so.  Does anyone understand what I am rabbiting on about? I think I am even confusing myself now  :roll:

Not sure where I stand on the second hand DVD/CD front though as I have never even considered looking for them.  I suppose it is not illegal but realistically how many people on here ever part with their dvd's and cd's?  Not many I would bet.  Even I have outgrown some of my stuff but I still keep it just in case.

A question or two to ponder?

If you make all the models from a DVD and then sell it on,
1, Is it still ok to make the models from the DVD and
2, Is it OK to buy a second hand DVD.

Another question...

If you see a picture of what is on the DVD and can make it without even buying the DVD in the 1st place is that OK?

IMO there really is no such thing as a truely unique design as every model is based on the same techniques and the likelihood is someone out there has already come up with the same design before you did.

I appreciate we would not be where we are today without all that has gone before in the twisting world and the new techniques that are coming out now have been inspired from everything that has gone before. But I have to dis-agree with you on this one Yvonne, there are still plenty of truly unique sculptures and techniques coming out from the balloon world. The balloon world is still so new, only last week at the millennium jam I saw a new technique on the tac-weave that had me buzzing and actually making the weave and I never twist at conventions, so it must have been good to get me twisting.
Sabina and her loop weave technique for her fish scales and flowers etc is new and all the animals and sculptures with moveable limbs come from the rabbit Sabina entered at the millennium jam in 2004 I think it was.

Okay Graham I concede but honestly anything I could come up with by myself I am pretty sure has been made by someone before me  

Yvonne, please don't concede. Everyone has opinions and yours are just as valid as anyone else. If you think that there is nothing new, that's fine but as the balloon industry as we know it is still so young, I have some balloon modelling books dated from
( I thought some were from around 1940 ) but can't lay my hands on them at the moment.
Balloon animals were twisted from animal gut in the Egyptian times but the 260 as we know it is relatively still new and around 60'ish years old.
Where is the balloon historian when you need one  :lol:

Hi, I am a continuous reader of this great forum but lazy in formulating my thoughts in english (sometimes it takes me too much time until the topic is not active any more

I guess it`s right that every model is based on the same basic twisting-techniques, and of course it´s not possible to credit everyone who may have influenced a certain figure. But I think it makes a difference to rebuild a sculpture more or less the same way we have seen it before, or to come up with new ideas and concepts, or to catch a certain famous character.
In that way I agree with Tonya that it`s nice and fair to credit people on a balloonforum if we can (remember), especially if it`s a currently used idea (e.g. Patrick van de Ven came up with a new basic idea for little figures; at millenniumjam people were playing around with this concept and they created some amazing characters – it was great and informative for me that they mentioned that these figures were based on Patrick`s idea ).
In my opinion it would not make sense to credit other artists  if advertising for our work. But definitely an artist should use his own pictures of sculptures he twisted himself  – otherwise he would fool the customer.