[sdiy] Legal issues of cloning

[Andrew Simper]

On 9 October 2013 23:48, Neil Johnson <neil.johnson71 at gmail.com> wrote:
> From
>
>
> Consider this letter:  http://www.analogue.org/mr/sas/KORG35.pdf
>
> (via Tim's page http://www.timstinchcombe.co.uk/index.php?pge=korg )
>
> If blatant cloning takes place do you think such similar acts of
> kindness would happen?  Pissing in the well provides immediate
> satisfaction for the pisser, but the long term outcome is less
> enjoyable.
>
> Neil
> --
> http://www.njohnson.co.uk

I was a bit surprised about this letter being leaked as well, but
luckily I think it worked out well for Korg in the end because of how
they reacted to it. If you put this in context what happened next was
Korg released the monotron which was (is) a huge success, and they
then also released the schematic for it which has lead to a huge cult
scene of people modding their monotrons into mini ms-20s and all kinds
of other things (google image search for "monotron mods"
http://goo.gl/iZLzVO ).

I think Korg's brand is strong enough that if they release something
people would buy it in preference to a knock off DIY job, and Korg can
manufacture these things very competitively. Korg now even leave
headers on their pcbs to make it easier for people to mod them. I have
bought the monotron and the monotribe, and both my kids and I love
playing them. I hope Korg continue on the trend of making cool new
affordable analog kit and releasing schematics for it.

Andy