Quote Originally Posted by HotWater View Post
Snoc, the prop's that are being copied are refined parts. They are'nt just a prop straight from a manufacturer. They have been reworked to your specs or info by a craftsman with experience that was probably paid to do so. The prop may look similiar to what it started as but it is not the same as the original part. You bought a prop and paid for it to be modified, it's yours. If that prop works perfect for you why would you not want another exactly like it? Like westernaero said, it's impossible to get more than one prop the same by hand. Reverse engineering a custom prop that you like is very different than reverse engineering a trick timing cover that you had no input in.
I disagree. You tell a technician you want more lift from a prop. He reworks it. You don't tell him how much pitch to put in it, how much rake, or how thin or thick to make the ears nor where the taper should begin. When a professional makes something from his expertise in the subject matter, that doesn't give you the customer intellectual rights to his work nor the right to have it reproduced commercially (at least not without permission). And who maintains the rights to the design once it's copied? And how does the person with the real design skill protect his design and intellectual property? Not to mention what happens if someone sells one of the copies to someone else (say I have a prop that works really great on a specific hull design and other racers want a copy since they tried mine and it worked great on their hulls too)? Then it is no longer a matter of someone making a backup copy for themselves. How do you insure that individual copies don't get sold separately? And not implying anyone specific would sell one of the copies, but how do you ensure that a prop vendor doesn't sell copies when he can make one at will?