[sdiy] On the EAR thing

[Peter Grenader]

I am forwarding a letter just sent to the Oakley yahoo list,  which based on
inquires and comments which have arisen on SDIY are also important for this
forum..  To see Tony's original post in which the following is a reply,
please go to the Oakley group archive.



Hello to all from humid Socal, home of the wanna-be actors and synth
manufacturers.

Peter Grenader here.

I wanted to second Tony's letter in hopes of  clearing up some of the
misconceptions which have arisen since the EAR/Oakley manufacturing
arrangement has been announced.

I need to make it absolutely clear that we contacted Tony a couple of weeks
AFTER his formal announcement.  It was actually my recommendation to the
partners that we do this, so if anyone is to be hated for it...I'm your guy.
I just felt that Tony's  work needed to to stay the course and we were in a
position to possibly provide a means to do that - that's it.

Secondly, this agreement involves technology exchange only - not hard goods
such as bare boards or components.  We are not buying inventory from Tony.
EAR will be procuring everything on our own and in the case of bare boards,
manufacturing everything on our own as well.  Tony is being forthright by
adding modules to the 'Legacy' column on the Oakley Sound site from the
depletion of raw materials based on his sales of same - not because he's
sent them all off to the States to us. This will all become immediately
obvious once these modules see the light of day because the boards will be
made at a different foundry, which different ID markings per each PCB
vendor's UL requirements.

As far as the components, even if they were available through Tony, which
was never discussed, the export duties involved would have made this
impractical. To save having to pass those additional costs to the end user
we never considered purchasing them from Oakley.

While the business details of our arrangement need not be discussed here, I
will tell you that it's a standard license.  We did not buy him out, nor is
he officially involved with the P/L of the EAR group.  We came to Tony
requesting the licensing rights to produce his instruments as finished
goods, not kits, in two formats - MOTM and Doepfer. We also asked him to
relocate to LA and grow a ponytail, but he didn't go for that.  ha ha.

But in direct reply to the many inquiries about EAR distributing Oakley
products as kits, it is currently not within our licensing rights to do so.

I hope this helps to clear things up.  In short, I think what Tony and I are
trying to get across over anything else is that bottom line, this
arrangement is keeping a fine line of products available for the purpose of
making art and this is a good thing!   It may not be all-encompassing to all
possibilities (kits), but it's a valiant effort which I'm sure many will
come to appreciate... wish us luck!

best,

Peter Grenader