Exact definitions of rip-off? (was: commercial rip...)

[Buck Buchanan]

Hi all,

This whole issue has got me concerned about where the line lies between
blatant design theft and getting an idea from somewhere.  From the
posts, it looks like Doepher ripped off one of Tomg's designs.  Do I
have this correct?  I assume he/they took the schematic and copied it
directly... or did they even use the pcb layout too? (especially weak) 
My pre-appologies for naming names here but I'm just trying to get it
straight.  Are there other companies recently that have directly taken
designs from DIYers?  I say name 'em in public.

I spent a few moments looking through some of the schematics/designs
I've collected over the years on this list and 90% of those designs
(some *may* be being "sold" by list members) are based on some other
design previously.  But NONE of the them looked like they were taken
verbatum from a previous design's schematic so *I* wouldn't consider
them a rip-off.  If you sell a 2 pole lowpass based on an LM13700 (or
13600) w/3906's for current sources, who exactly are you ripping off? 
Especially when (for example) your tuning caps and feedback are slightly
different, input/output audio and CV structures are completely different
from the original, the PCB, packaging, and general implentation are
totally original, etc.  There could be 100 different examples, this is
just one.

So where does that line lie and at what point is one crossing it?  If
you take the ONLY THE EXACT VCO core out of someone's published design
(but everything else is different), personally I'd say you're in the
realm of poor ethics but not in legal violation (not that this is about
legalities).  Do other list members agree?  How 'bout the VCO core
topology but some different parts and tuning - a gray area?  At some
point, everybody's ripping somebody off.

Ok, I've blabbed on long enough about this.  I'm certainly not rushing
to production on anything but someday that time will come.  Maintaining
ethics within the DIY community is very important to me.

Buck