talkmagic.co.uk

I do love a good discussion

"fall foul of established distributorship agreements"
only if I am distributing the Pro Pk, nobody can have distribution rights to an aardvark, the pk name and the way the thing is held maybe, instructions etc yeah.

Competition is good for the consumer and the consumer is my concern here not the company, sorry but other people get paid to worry about that.

The reason the head of a company gets paid for his role is because it is his job to ensure that company continues to be profitable, not mine.
If a company fails because another company offers the same services cheaper, then that company was not ran properly. It is not the fault of the cheaper company but the fault of the management of the original company, he gets paid for that, that surely is his problem.

Should we all be driving Ford cars in order to protect Fords ideas? I'd rather walk.

"would not be legal to manufacture and sell copies of somebody else's Aardvark effect regardless of how much of a rip off price they charge"
Again I agree, as my earlier post states, though that isn't what I was saying.
Let me just pass on my IBM story, I used to work there and did indeed go over this with their legal department. Bill created msdos, sold it to IBM for $1 and they put it on all their machines. This then became a standard, Bill then created the next version of Dos and updated the price significantly. IBM then placed some of their top boffins, that had never seen dos(their jobs were created in a way to ensure this) they were told what dos did and what platform it did it on. They then created pcdos, basically dos but created by people that it could be "proven" had no knowledge of dos. Big court case IBM won.
You are allowed to recreate as long as u are not copying. Now complicated things with many patents, it is almost impossible to do this with those items but if I buy an aardvark and invent my own holding device and use it on live tv with the effect showing, I promise you I am legaly safe. You can not patent a force that was here before we were.


Though I did laugh when Posh Spice (spit) tried to sue that football team whos nickname was the posh, she said the word posh was hers, lol.

Anyway, I'm all for being legal, lets just be correct on our legal descriptions

BaB

We seem to be heading in the same direction but possibly by different routes!

As another example, whilst I can't justify the obscene profits made by the pharmaceutical companies, I also can't agree that it's a good idea to copy their developments and distribute them as it's the huge financial backing which finances the original research and development to produce future drugs. Anyone can take someone else's idea and make a copy but it takes something more to invent and produce in the first place - and this initiative should certainly be legally protected. If someone comes up with an idea for a brand new effect, there should be some protection from copies being made and distributed.

If you make your own Disappearing Aardvark effect from scratch without knowing how the commercial manufacturers do a similar routine then you might be OK but, if they have the big bucks and can take legal action then you'll need some backing to be able to defend. I'm not saying it's right just that this is the way things work. If your method uses one Aardvark, four trap doors and six mirrors but theirs only uses a duplicate Aardvark you should be OK though!

Of course, that's only my (very 'umble) opinion!

lol, you sir, are indeed correct, same boat different paddles

/me snuggles Mandrake

The Pro Pk is a bit different, in that I can buy machines to make part of that effect and as such must then be allowed to use them, and I do agree that people like YankeeTom deserve protecting, hell he does some great work and it deserves ato be and is right that its protected.
With both the raven and the M5 we are talking physics and materials freely available that do not have to be altered in any way to do the intended job and as such is open to use by anyone, the style, brand and design is a different matter though.
Everything I make is fugly though so I should be safe

Since this is our first exchange I trust it was taken with the intent of discussion, not rowing as intended.

BaB

As another example, whilst I can't justify the obscene profits made by the pharmaceutical companies, I also can't agree that it's a good idea to copy their developments and distribute them as it's the huge financial backing which finances the original research and development to produce future drugs.

Actually very often the pharmaceutical company, is just copying a natural product ie a herb or mix of herbs and then getting a patent on the copy and then getting the natural product banned even though the natural product is often better, safer and has less or even no side effects.

Sorry just couldn't let that pass, as the pharmaceutical companies have really annoyed me over this issue.

hear hear (
parlamentry slang for i suupport you even if i havent acytualy got anything to add at this juncture).

lol
hear hear

Ignoring 3/5 Africans having aids and the drug companies refusing to let them produce their own affordable frugs, in order to "preserve income to be able to invent more drugs in the future" was a hard thing for me to agree with.

Yes I know they have just allowed cheap drugs over there.
Just any other industry I would have agreed, drugs that stop people being in pain, stop chuldren being orphans, stuff the copyrite. If that means people will suffer in the future, its a tough call.
I can't see people suffer in the future but I can see them suffer here.
Let's be honest, if OUR governments stoped bleeding them dry with interest on loans we made them take this wouldn't be such an issue.

/me points at everyone and asks how many letters u wrote about this

Sorry, not magic, but people suffering while I sit in my heated house with a beer and a flat screen monitor quite rightly makes me feel guilty.

BaB

Great discussions folks!

a) I like my paddle and have treated it with Linseed Oil so please carry on using your own paddles! Please bear in mind that I'm not preaching the one and only way forward and I believe we can all make our own decision as to what's appropriate. In fact I'm enjoying this thread as I think it touches some very real and important points - at which point does copying stop and creativity start? If I can't get a TT the right size to fit and make my own, is it legal? Of course it is! If I make my own Raven is it legal? Might be - provided you don't start selling it and make more like it purely for sale. If I can't get a Raven to fit and work because of the way my body is arranged (ooo-er!) and I make my own is it legal? Hmmm - not so clear cut but you'd have a good reason to make your own, with probably good justification to mention it to others in the same situation and possibly make a version to fit them. We also need to bear in mind that this discussion is hosted on a forum provided free of charge but financed by the sale of commercial items. No commercial sales = no forum = no discussions = things going very quiet!!

b) I'm not all that enamoured with the Pharmaceutical companies either - ecological impact of their 'policies' is usually far too big a price to pay for treatments and the way they push pills and potions for simple things like the common cold or a bruised bum (sorry!) etc is almost comical. Anyway, I reckon a walk round the block in the fresh air will cure most things which they sell high priced remedies for. Apart from a broken leg - that needs something a bit more involved than a walk!

c) Hear Hear anyway!

Basic stuff like Aspirin, Penicillin and Simple Cough Linctus are still cheap - it's the way they push the high priced alternatives (which aren't all that much better) which get my anger up!

LOL
Sorry that post really tickled me.
/me claps



ps, all my spelling mistakes today have obviously been intentional. I am stupid, don't get me wrong but I have a small monkey that I whip until he spell checks my posts, sadly he has escaped and I am forced to hunt for another at smallmonkeywithunusualskills.com

Aspirin has a natural alternative ( from which it was copied/taken ) though agreed it is now pretty cheap. Cough medicines do nothing at all unless you count phsycological effects. Penicillin, Ok that's a very good one ( less good by the day ) though I prefer to use coloidal Silver which is a natural antibiotic that unlike drug antibiotics doesn't have the nasty side effects and nothing becomes resistant to it. In fact in test tube conditions it even kills the H.I.V virus within 5 minutes of contact.

Yes, we do tend to stray from the original postings quite a bit here

(Told ya!)

Yea problem is there is no forum for uninvited people to be able to drift a little off the main core topic. Is this something that could be made possible?

mandrake wrote:

Yes, we do tend to stray from the original postings quite a bit here

(Told ya!)

You did!

Are you magic?

See what I did there, back to magic?
sigh
I'm wasted here.

As a precautionary tale, has anybody made an effect and later really wished they hadn't? Glue giving way during a performance etc...