Cloning
Have I done it? Yes. Last week in fact. Buying a Lepin Saturn V kit instead of Lego's kit. The difference in local availability and price was the issue. I'm kind of in a odd situation living and working here in China. I'd preferred to have bought an original.
I absolutely have no problem at all with clones made of OOP designs, but not so much* with in-production kits. I have no problem with using salvaged parts from damaged rockets, and cannibalizing kits to create a copy of a kit you made in the past... Especially if the parts are from the same manufacturer as the original. However, when a person outright copies (not talking about upscales/downscales here) a vendor's in-production designs with few, if any, parts purchased from them is a problem. Though, the discomfort I have with it goes down greatly if the parts used are built by the builder, and not purchased from a competitor. I don't have a problem with clones that were started when a design was OOP, and then the original vendor, or a new vendor, brings it back before the clone is finished (I have a few of those on my stateside build pile).
I should note that my sims include several in production kits, but I do give credit to the original manufacturers, and even designers (if I can identify the individual). Besides giving flight characteristics, the sims are meant as a way of promoting their work, and I get no financial gain from them, unless they were actually sponsored by the manufacturer.
*Smaller, mom and pop vendors have a real hard time bringing their products to market, and often have a very small (if any) profit margin and copies of their designs hurt them. If you value their innovation, I feel you should toss them a few bucks by buying from them.
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