Should the Trasformer line be classed as bootlegs?

[bowspearer]

That was more what I was getting at though- where do you draw the line on what's classed as a bootleg? For example, I know that with VCRs there used to be so many different circuit designs all doing the same thing, because each design had been trademarked and copyrighted. So where do you draw the line on a bootleg- the basic mold or the entire toy down to the colour scheme and tooling?

[Hursticon]

To me a bootleg is something that is using a copy of a physical IP without any permission whatsoever from anyone regardless as to how exact or different the bootleg product is from the original.

GiG had a license so to me, they're legit but take iGear for example...

[bowspearer]

But then there are some interesting questions there in terms of licensing and juristiction. Do you class a license as pertaining to the assembled parts of a collection of plastic and metal molds, or as being more specific than that? If Hasbro had no juristiction there, then why were they able to pressure GiG into getting a 2nd licence? How much of a dog's breakfast had the original distribution situation between Hasbro and Takara been for this situation to arise to begin with? It gets into some very interesting and ethical teritory where depending on the angle you take (not to mention the figure you're talking about); you can very quickly go from talking about legit toys to talking about bootlegs.

[Krayt]

I just saw gok post on Facebook about this... but can't comment there coz of work restrictions...

But he is defebding TRANSFORMERS..... whoops!!