For the record, the cue this thread was started about was a unique design until copied, and the cue was not offered as a Tribute Cue. If anyone saw this cue listed as a cue by unknown maker and they were knowledgeable about the cue market they would take for granted that the cue was made by Richard Churdy. Richard to my knowledge was the first and only cue maker to design a cue with Stacked Veneers on one side of the cues point and no Veneer on the other side of the cues points.
So until this copy was made the design in question was unique and it identified a single cue makers work. The problem I have with this type of design theft is pretty simple, a dishonest individual could remove the current logo on this cue and sell it as Richards work. To me it doesn't matter where the cue was made, it's like the extra Balabushka and Zamboti cues that have appeared on the market many of those cues started out with a Logo and were refinished / changed so that they could be misrepresented by a dishonest individual.
This is the problem with design theft, it may start out as an innocent project because some one loves a design and end up with some one else loosing thousands of dollars.
JIMO
That's because it's not a tribute cue. And no someone could not take off the logo and sell it as a Chudy. To do that someone would need to put the Chudy logo on it. Because 2 minute's of research shows that all Chudy cues have the RC3 logo on them.
Misrepresentation has nothing at all to do with the maker though when they put out their product with no malice. Anyone can take any cue and alter it to attempt to defraud someone else.
Hell I saw a guy here in China pull out a Helmstetter Balabuska, with signature on the forearm and then pull out a laminated copy of the Blue Book's entry on George Balabushka to show me to "prove" that the cue was valuable. The price he was asking, $10,000. Someone somewhere probably ended up getting scammed on this cue. That's life and has been happening since ugg sold stuff to ogg.
Did you know that the ancient greek merchants invented distinctive packaging to differentiate their wine from the competition's? They would hire gangs of enforcers to smash the jugs of wine merchants who copied their jug design.
Yes Richard was the first to do the one-sided veneers, but he isn't the first anymore. In all things someone always has to be the first. Being the first is special but it does not grant a person a monopoly on whatever it is that they did first.
If I were the first person to run a mile in three minutes would you seek to ban all other humans from running a mile in three minutes? What if they copied my technique and broke my 3 minute record and started running it in 2 minutes? Should we shoot them?
There is no way on the Earth that you can prevent fraud Craig. It's impossible. No matter what is made someone else will find a way to copy it and use that copy to defraud others. You are honestly wasting your time raging about it and speculating about what could happen.
The only real way to prevent yourself from being defrauded is to practice due diligence. Do your homework. People that don't do this are much easier to con.
The point is that we can not run around and condemn every person who makes a pool cue in a similar "Style" as another cue maker. We can't use the excuse that such a cue could be used to deceive some other person somewhere down the road. A hammer can be used to kill and we don't ban hammers.
If you want to condemn the people who make dead-nuts knockoffs then go ahead. I think that using another person's catalog of cue designs is crass and unimaginative.
But if one looks at the fashion industry which is doing about a trillion dollars a year in revenue they are flourishing despite the fact that millions of copies of the newest designs flood the market within weeks of being debuted on the runways at the big shows. All the famous brands are big and rich and the designers are celebrities. There is no copyright attached to fashion designs and yet the industry is making tons of money.
Let's look at just these two threads. Richard Chudy has gotten a ton of free publicity off this discussion. I would not be surprised if he gets a few orders. I knew he did the one-sided veneers but I hadn't really gone to look at his work and now I have and he has some amazing cues. So the benefit to Chudy is that this one cue from a new maker has generated more buzz about Chudy's work. This is great because no matter how much you or I are in the know about who does what there are people out there who don't have a clue who Richard Chudy is.
And when it comes down to it people who have the money and who have the desire aren't looking to buy cues from people who specialize in being second to market with a particular style or design. Those people want to buy from the originator, they want original art from the source.
So it all works out in the cycle of life.
