Originally Posted by
Wogsterca
Builders fall into five camps.
1) They have decals available and will sell them to you.
2) They don't have decals available, but do have copies of the art work from that time, and will make a copy for you, this may or may not cost money.
3) They don't have decals available, but will permit you to make your own reproductions.
4) They don't have decals available and will not permit you to make your own reproductions.
5) They have gone out of business, and it's not an issue.
The forth option is the only one that really matters, and reproducing the decals could land you in court.
+1, that's basically how I see it as well. But there is probably a gray area as well, where a builder has gone out of business but sold their name to someone who sold it to someone else, who sold it.... For example, the Norman factory in Ashford, Kent, was started by two brothers named Norman; they sold out to TI in the 50's. TI subsequently bought Raleigh, and after 1961 the bikes labeled Norman were made by Raleigh. That ended in the early 70's. By now, even the Raleigh name has changed hands more than once. But what of the Norman name? I have no doubt someone owns it. I can only speculate who that would be, though.
Not that I'm planning to repaint my Normans, of course.