American Kitefliers Association

Only problem with the post is that you seem to be combining at least two (perhaps more) issues into one. Namely, producing items over seas (not really an issue) and copying kites and selling them as orginals. Two completly seperate and 100% different things. Personally, I think by including them both as one issue almost kills your point.

Thanks for explaining the problem. I understand.  See ya.  Done here.  Have better things to do.

It seems that my post offended you enough to delete your post and be done with the Kite Talk forum. If that is correct, that was not my intent.

You mentioned two issues in your post... kites being copied and kites being made over seas for less then they could be made in America. I felt combining these two completly seperate issues was unjust and incorrect.  May times it's done to misdirect people into thinking that they need to agree with both or the disagree with the entire statement.

While everyone can have their own opinions on having labor done over-seas, truth is... most kite manufactures/distributors  have this done. If they did not, that $100 kite would cost $300. But I don't know of any manufactures/distributiors that would agree with someone intentionally copying someone's kite with the intent to market it as their own for a profit. Usually we see this being done by people in other countries.

If the Chinese can have copies of Kate's wedding dress out already (less than 24 hours after the event) what hope do we have of stopping them copying ANY designer's kites (without the owner's permission, of course)?!

Hey I copied a guys kite once and all kinds of kite nuts were coming loose about it. Mine was made better and flew better it ever looked better. It didn't bother me much what people thought I knew my kite was better made. I even sold a few.and gave it a cooler name. My point is it doesn't take much to upset some kite people. One might think the world couldn't exist without kites. Kites are cool and business is business !!!

-W-

Well, no you didn't "copy" the kite. You made changes to the design so it flew better, and looked better. Also, you told everyone that you had made it.
The issue with kite copies is that they are not better made, don't fly better, are often labeled with the original manufacturers name/logo, and sold as being original.
Kites are part of business. If we all made and flew only our own designs, then it wouldn't be an issue. That is not the case.

Since thier is not a huge amout of money to be made designing kites its not a large group of designers that we are talking about.

Most people who make kites dont make one and call it perfect.

Some people who make kites like to sell thier idea to support the purchase of fabric to make more interesting designs that have not been seen before.

That being said we need to make sure that people who invest time and money to provide us with the next got ot have one kite should be compensated to make sure they stick with it. If I was to invest my time sewing up three that kinda worked and altering them. Then on the fourth version incorporating all that was learned to make it work the way I want I should get something for it. Besides stealing the design and not compensating the designers its much worse in some cases. The copy is crap so anyone who see's it has no desire to buy the copy and due to the bad publicity the original that is a very good kite suffers from the same fate. The income is deminished and the reputation is damages so what would  make the designer want to do it all over again?

If you like it then buy the original. If you copy it for your personal use some designers are flattered and others would prefer you at least send them a royalty check. Take a min to think of all the Kite Companies that are no longer making kites. One of my favorites was the Van Sant family with Kites of the 4 winds. The company was mom, dad and the kids. If you never heard of them its no surprise since making kites is in the distant past when it comes to thier family history. We cant afford to keep headind in this direction.