But he has every right to not only threaten, but also follow through on C&Ds to other prop makers. To call him a D*** for exercising that right is a bit odd.
Technically only the IP owner, not a license holder, can follow through on C&D threats. It is my understanding that the only thing a license holder can do is report them to the IP owner.
If you put out tens of thousands of dollars into legally licensing the rights to make these items, I guarantee you too would go after others who are producing the stuff illegally. Those people are not only making the items illegally but they are taking away business from you, and those sales are needed to recoup the money you paid upfront to obtain the license. I find it humorous that small time unlicensed prop builders always complain when the licensor or a licensee cracks down them, when the person complaining is actually the one breaking the law. They feel they are being picked on, lol.
Let me give you some background on Chris Zephro and maybe you'll understand why what he does hurts. 10 years ago, when I first got into the Myers collecting hobby, Chris was just a moderator on a Myers collecting board called Michael-Myers (dot) net. He didn't have Trick Or Treat Studios, a shop, anything. He was just a moderator. To many of the community, he was a friend. He didn't cop an attitude with you, didn't make you feel like you were beneath him, he was just an ordinary collector like the rest of us. Like many of us, we admired and were friends with Justin Mabry. Zephro was the only guy daring enough to take that further and become a business partner with Mabry. They took a few of Mabry's sculpts to Universal for a licensing agreement. From what they say, it is VERY difficult to do this process, and most don't bother. During the early days of TOTS, many of us looked up to what Zephro had done. We thought it was one of the communities greatest success stories.
The C&Ding is a relatively new phenomenon. It wasn't something Zephro would have had the balls to do 10 years ago when I first met him. In fact, I would dare say it would have been something he would have disagreed with. Now, he goes after the little guys. And when I say little guys, I mean the new guys on the block that aren't well known and nobody would notice if they disappeared and stopped producing. If you look at who he goes after, it's not the big names that everybody knows and buys from, the people with the REAL potential to cut into his profits. People like the guys at HandiBoy, Nik Dresios of NAG, Dela Torre, even Terry Lambert for all his scummy scamming. Those guys make money hand over fist with unlicensed Myers masks, and I guarantee you they'll never see a C&D because they day they do, is the day mask collector stop buying from TOTS.
If you want to get nitpicky about law, just remember that technically almost every creator here who has ever built and sold a movie lightsaber, or E-11, or any other licensed prop are technically breaking the law. Many IPs could bring lawsuits and shutter this place if they felt the need to, and we'd never have this conversation. But they don't. Because they know better than to bite the hand that feeds them. They know that a couple of guys tinkering in their garage doesn't really affect their bottom line. Chris Zephro is causing more harm to the Myers community than good. He's not C&Ding not out of the goodness of his heart, or because he's protecting the license. He's just become a greedy man who cares more about his profit margins than the people he used to call a friend.
