Spent a few minutes trolling around the McPhat Studios site today and I couldn't find any mention of them being a licensed company for copyrighted liveries. I've always looked upon community sponsored liveries as "ok" by the airlines they represent since money was not changing hands and royalties were not involved. Does anyone know if McPhat, a company known only for their re-selling of copyrighted liveries (i.e. NOT an actual A/C, they are selling the paintjobs) is licensed by the airlines they depict to SELL their works to the public?

Spent a few minutes trolling around the McPhat Studios site today and I couldn't find any mention of them being a licensed company for copyrighted liveries. I've always looked upon community sponsored liveries as "ok" by the airlines they represent since money was not changing hands and royalties were not involved. Does anyone know if McPhat, a company known only for their re-selling of copyrighted liveries (i.e. NOT an actual A/C, they are selling the paintjobs) is licensed by the airlines they depict to SELL their works to the public?

Pandora's box. There is some precedent and latitude for an "artistic recreation" of a brand under a broader exclusionary "free use" clause. The real issue as you point out is the monetary exchange for those artistic recreations. The fine legal line/question is whether the actual brand image is being bought or whether the artistic recreation of that brand is being bought? For some, that line is indistinguishable and therefore copyright applies and specific permission must be secured. I'm a huge supporter of McPhat and suspect that they've probably worked out most of these issues already. Certainly an area of interesting conversation as simulations/games increasingly become "as real as it gets."Rich Perry

I know in the past when it came to racing sims that Tommy Bahama clothing sent a C&D letter to the guy who painted a trans am car they sponsored. Same goes for car makers. Team Red Line made a GTP mod for N2K3 and some car manufacturers got upset. Also, did McPhat hand create the logos? Or were they copy and pasted?It's a big can of worms and a great question.I too support McPhat just for the record....

I see no positive outcome from this question being asked here. Is there some reason you posted this here instead of sending an email to McPhat Studios directly? What good could possibly arise from this except to serve the already bloated corporate fatcats? It can't help the flight sim community in any way.

This is a flight sim discussion forum the last time I checked, so I felt it appropriate to ask here to get other people's opinions on the matter.