Commercial Rip-offs (spanking)

[tomg]

I'm still up...and I still have a data light on the cable modem...so...

This is exactly the sort of deal I have with Trevor. I used his stuff
so I pay a fee for what I sell. This works out great for everyone.
You guys get a deal, Trevor gets something for his effort, (BTW
I don't think I ever told you guys what a terrific job he did on
his interface so...Thanks Trevor you have done something very
trick (slang for cool....which is slang for wonderful..;-) and if not 
already we will owe you big time for your contribution....and I 
get to build all sorts of new goodies....see it's perfect......almost....

The conflict came when I decided to build a tb303 clone...Tony
has done that and did a damm good job too. I know because
I did complete a real tb303 clone, right down to the last resistor.
I know for a fact that there is a tb3030 markII or something like
that on Tony's bench. If it wasn't for the wah-wah the 303 would
be the most cloned piece of musical gear on the planet so you
might think I wouldn't have a problem putting one out. Well if you
do you're wrong, I feel very protective of list members. I once
described it as being tribal. So I built a bass-synth  that does 303
stuff without being a real 303 clone....actually you could say it's
a "404" clone hehehe. sorry...I love that part. It seems that a
certain company I do not feel very protective of did a lot of work 
in the same areas I did. So I don't mind that the basic is 
similar to one of their products at all. 

Tom


> Okay guys,
> 
> This has put a question to me as well... how would one go about
> negotiating a "fair deal" with the wonderful designers of these wonderful
> circuits? I've been tempted more than a few times to just "borrow" an EFM
> design or something else posted, but refrained because it's not my design.
> There are also others that justify that "once a design is significantly
> improved or modified, it's mine" - but that just doesn't seem right to me.
> Take for instance, the EFM MS-20 VCF. If someone takes the filter cell,
> and then re-works it to go into a box that has MIDI, etc... etc... similar
> to a Waldorf product (4-pole, X-pole, etc...), then sells it... what would
> be the "right" thing to do? There's a lot of grey area here, and I'd like
> to hear from tomg, Paul S., and most of the other veterans on the list as
> to what the "moral" and "right things" are. To me, it's obvious... if I
> include even a part of someone else's circuit in a design I intend to sell
> for profit, I contact that designer to set up licensing/royalty
> agreements, AFTER I've gotten permission to use the circuit. 
> I'm all for using these circuits in commercial products, but
> *only* if the originator of the design 1. agrees and 2. is fairly
> compensated for it... anyone disagree with me? Think that these should be
> preseved only as hobby parts, etc...? I'd like to hear honest opinions,
> and not flames.
> 
> The Proteus
> 
> - - - T h e  U n d e r g r o u n d  W a r e h o u s e - - -
> - - - Subversive - Tools - For - A - Chaotic - Planet - - -
> -  h t t p : / / w w w . u g w a r e h o u s e . o r g /  -
> --<T h e  P r o t e u s>-<Musician>-<Producer>-<Engineer>--
> 
> On Wed, 12 Apr 2000, tomg wrote:
> 
> > If someone produces something and they got the idea from 
> > something I posted in an open forum well....that's not stealing.
> > It's not nice but it's not stealing.
> > 
> > I don't think that I would produce JH or PAiA knock-offs 
> > but that's just me. If  it's someone's active product I might
> > build me one but I wouldn't post it to the list or build a EFM
> > module out of it. Not everyone feels that way and there is no
> > real obligation to. So I'm not pointing any fingers anywhere. It's
> > just in the future I'll need to be a little more careful. I am much
> > better these days and some of the new stuff would be a really
> > nice addition to someone's product line. It's not like I can 
> > actually stop or leave the list again or something!!  There are
> > days when I wonder why I do it but most of the time I know
> > it's because I wouldn't have it any other way.
> > 
>