I admire anyone who goes to the trouble to gain the skills and understanding required to build an audio electronics device and I truly love to see the ingenuity of some when they post the project online .
They are proud of the work as they should be .
But for me it crosses the line when they then take a design published on the internet , build it and then try to sell it for profit .
It is eve worse when the claim is made that the design is "improved" because they read in a threads somewhere that Part "X" is better than Part 'Y" so why pay the "high price" to the originating company when you can purchase the "new and improved" , hence BETTER version for less cash outlay .
Why indeed ?
Because companies that have to play by the rules and pay bills ,hire staff ,pay state and federal taxes ,advertising (i love this one .Grado advertises so thiefs can sell the same product !),and etc.
along comes some knucklehead and they rip off the work ,have no bills or staff , no engineering skills beyond copying the work of others and they sell the same thing for less.
but because they have no overhead they are making more on a 'per unit" profit than the original producer of the product !!!!!
This is unfair competition when you have to justify your own rpoduct price against someone who has no long term cash outlay or commitment .
and what about a warranty or factory service or plain old company integrity and standing behind a product ?
you think some clown whipping out amps in the attic will answer your phone calls when something breaks or you have a question ?
In the end i would pose this question :
how many would feel comfortable if you designed an amp ,spent long hours optimising the design ,came up a package that looked good ,decided "hey ,this could sell" so you advertised at your own expense and tried to make a profit on your OWN design
then someone came along ,opened up your amp ,copied it down to the last detail and sold it to your target market for less than half the cost of the original ?
Would you be happy with this ?
do you not think there is something inherently wrong with someone profiting off your work while ypou struggle to justify , as the designer and seller , the cost of your product ?
I know if it happened to me i would be totally pissed off and would want satisfaction but as we all know ,if a big company goes after a "little guy" the bad press is usually more costly in the long run than the lost income would be so these guys get away with it.
Still does not make it right !
designing and audio product that sells is no easy task , beleive me for i know from personal experience , and there are no shortcuts
unless you take the ultimate shortcut and copy
"right down to the same parts values" the design of another whos product is already established through payed advertisement and by sending units out to various review magazines plus having a website describing the product
Everyone can decide what to do with the money they earn but before encouraging thievery they should always ask the question :
"What if it were me" and then decide according to thier own morals what is the right thing to do.
It is not always about saving a couple of dollars but right and wrong
Ricmonster at it again
