[sdiy] synthi A webpage update

[patchell]

    I think there are two issues here:

    <flame suit on>

    1. Making Clones

        I don't really think this is too much of an issue.  I don't know how
many hours you have in your clone.  I have easily got several hundred hours in
my current synth project.  Clones are going to happen, no matter what.  Do the
hurt anybody?  Hard to say, but I would say that more than likely, the person
building a clone would probably not buy one anyway.  I build because it is fun.
Even if you have only 200 hours of work into the project, if you think of your
time as being worth about $100/hr, you are probably talking about something that
you could never sell and make a living at.  I seriously doubt that any body on
this list would be giving EMS any competition.

    2. Posting Schematics.

    This one is a little more dicey.  But, lets look at.  Because of the above,
I
don't think you are going to have a rash of people building clones.  And, if the

idea is to keep the circuits out of the hands of competators (like the one who
is a favorite subject from time to time here), I don't think that would be
effective anyway.  If company D wanted to clone the Synthi A, I am sure they
could just pick one up and go to work on it, without any help from any of us.
On the otherhand, I would be the last to post somebody elses work if it was of
any value.  Legally, I don't think there is much anybody could do to stop
someone from posting a reversed engineered schematic.  Morally, well, maybe that

is another story.

< flame suit off>

    I have also met a lot of strange people over the years.  One fellow wanted
to know how to market his invention, but, he would not tell me what it was,
because, it was so simple, anybody could make one.  I worked with another person
who would copyright his used toilet paper.  Another company I worked for was
sued because we "infringed" on a patent.  What was funny was it looked like they
copied the thing right out of an RCA CMOS data book (they dropped the suit).
What some people consider to be IP is rather silly.  I try to respect even the
silly ones.

    Enough ramblings....

    -Jim

steve thomas wrote:

    <snip>

>  But even so I think  there is still the moral question of whether we should
>  make clones even in this situation.
>  I wonder what people on the list think?
>  Certainly I admit that at some stage I felt a bit uncomfortable with the
>  fact that my clone looks quite like ..well,  a synthi A. Even this aside
>  there is the more delicate issue of  use of schemos etc.
>  Anyway I certainly dont want to put you on the 'spot' ..but  your synthi
>  clone has been influential to me. I defintely have NO intention of  putting
>  any EMS schemos on the web that aren't there already!
>  But I guess these are all serious issues. Perhaps ultimately we need Robin
>  Wood to tell us what he thinks on this subject?  I did ask him some time
> ago
>  what he thought about me making some of the circuits from the
>  service manual. He said he wasnt that happy ..but that if it was for
>  personal use ..it was ok. I am not sure what he would think of my clone.
>
>  best regards, steve
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: jh. <jhaible at t-online.de>
> > To: S.Thomas <S.Thomas at qmw.ac.uk>; <synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl>
> > Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 9:24 PM
> > Subject: Re: [sdiy] synthi A webpage update
> >
> >
> > > > It goes without saying that my original motivation
> > > > to build this was in no small measure down to Juergen Haibles
> > > > remarkable efforts in building his synthi A clone,  as well as
> > > > all the great help from colleagues  on the  synth-diy list!
> > >
> > > Hey, your front panel graphics look awesome ! Congrats !
> > > I just read about your matrix - so you really made your own from
> > > tiny jacks at last (;->).
> > >
> > > I saw your mention of my name on your page, which is more than I
> deserve,
> > > as reluctant as I have been in encouraging others to build a clone.
> > >
> > > Seriously: Let's not spread out all the information from EMS, please.
> > > You have a clone now, you can be proud of it, but *please* do not
> > > make circuits available for the masses. This is not like publishing Korg
> > > or Roland analog circuits (who have long lost interest in analog
> synths).
> > > I would be very sad if my building a clone would be the beginning of
> > > an chain that leads to serious trouble for EMS in the end.
> > >
> > > Best Regards,
> > >
> > > JH.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >