Justin, I'm not saying I'm about to bin off the FB page. What I'm doing is asking the moderators to get their act together and ensure the club's not put in a position where litigation might be forthcoming, which includes all sorts of things such as personal attacks against other people, misrepresentation of a car, or as in this case where a replica is touted as a Lancia. You might not think it's that big a deal, and it's easily dealt with, but I'd refer you to Jaguar Land Rover's recent court case against a Swedish couple who built a C-Type replica, and Suffolk Sportscars, who made a nice SS100 replica as well as a C-Type. The result was that Suffolk ended up going under, and the C-Type peeps lost, with Jaguar wanting their car to be destroyed. If an organisation took it into their head(s) to take umbrage at something on our Forum or FB page, to the degree that they decided to take court action, I don't think we'd come out of it too well - we're too small and don't have the financial resources to fight something like that, where we'd be on the back foot to start with. So as club chairman, where my remit is to administer the club such that it continues to give benefits to its members, I have to ensure that the club isn't brought into disrepute and therefore we have to be whiter than white....yep, serious sh*t!!
Who cares about replicas....well, a lot of car firms, actually. Ferrari are notorious for going after anyone who makes replicas of their cars, especially if they use Ferrari badging. Mercedes-Benz are another - they've had the moulds for a couple of 300SL replicas (the gullwing car) destroyed. So far we've been OK doing our Strat reps almost under the covers, but as Lancia rises from the (almost) dead who knows what they may decide to do? I'd rather not give them any more ammo, ta!
As for Lancia badges on individuals' cars, well that's up to a car's owner. I personally don't care if you badge your car Lancia, Honk or Loser Bull, but the respective manufacturers might, and the club can't endorse a car that carries a Lancia badge that isn't either manufactured by Lancia or hasn't been constructed at their behest. Or, thinking about it, that doesn't have some form of approval from them.....which right now, means all replicas!
For the avoidance of any doubt, and so anyone reading this knows - I'm deadly serious about this. I know I lark about, talk rubbish and tell crap jokes on here, cos life can be serious enough as it is. But I've been elected Club Chairman (and Secretary!) to perform a function, and part of that is to make sure our club continues into the future with its good reputation intact. I won't hesitate to act and remove anyone who tarnishes that reputation. And as I can't police our FB page personally, and I rely on our Mods to do that, then I'll close it down if those Mods aren't up to the job of doing it on our behalf. Do we all understand???
Kenny, ta for the input - just seen your post as I was typing this. I don't think the people who use the FB page, who aren't members, have any interest in joining the club. Just recently someone with a genuine car posted on there and was informed he could also post on the Forum if he joined up, but he said "no, I'm happy on here, thanks". Fair nuff. But, if you think we could improve things FB-wise, what d'ya say to giving it a go and doing that for us? I for one would be grateful!
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