OT: DIY Attempted Theft Stories

[rjbond3rd]

Would anyone be willing to share their stories in which someone -- an individual or a company -- tried to steal or unjustly profit from DIY fullrange speaker designs (or any related software)?

I'm not looking to identify the guilty parties -- I'm just curious about who (in general) attempts this, how far they get, and how they are eventually thwarted. (I'm a computer programmer and adjunct college instructor, and yes, I've had my software stolen more than a few times by dishonest people acting on behalf of organizations.)

Even hearsay or anecdotes could be interesting, so long as no names are mentioned.

[BHD]

One wannabe audio magazine writer started selling Sachikos and Half Changs for ridiculous prices on his site, claiming they were his own design. He even stole two or three paragraphs of Scottmoose's text verbatim from the Spawn of Frugal Horn page and used it on his own site!

Details are buried in the Spawn of Frugal Horn thread - Planet 10 shamed him into taking the "designs" off his site.

The audio business is rife with people of questionable ethics. My own experience was with a friend who is a manufacturer of audio tweaks (good ones by the way, none of this machina dynamica garbage) who also happens to be the former proprietor of an audio dealership that closed several years ago. Fast forward to today, one of his former salesmen is now a writer for a fairly successful online audio review site. This former salesman and at the time current friend gave a product a glowing review on this site without divulging his relationship with the manufacturer, something I would consider to be a glaring conflict of interest.

I believe this kind of stuff goes on all the time, which is why I find most audio reviews less than useless.

[musgofasa]

I learned a valuable lesson along these lines about 12 years ago.

Not a full range cabinet, but a simple subwoofer design we used for car audio. My father and I owned a local car stereo shop at the time and we had come up with a sub cabinet design that worked very well in so many different types of vehicles that we started building them by the hundreds. We even got a patent on the design although we all know how much protection that offers in the real world.
The bottom line was that we gave the design out for DIY use. We didn't mind the local kids and others building the box because it meant they would be buying amps and subs to put in them and the time it took us to construct them made them less than profitable. One of our vendors was a company that made mass produced car sub boxes. You know the cheap, grey carpeted things. Anyway, he sent us a catalog one day and right there in the first couple of pages was our design. We ordered one and the dimensions were identical. Everything was the same right down to the paint finish. At last check they had sold some 250,000 of these things for over twice what we were getting for them...

Sometimes you just miss the boat ya know? lol

Robert

(oh, yeah we contacted an attorney or two, but they just laughed about it)

[castlesteve]

Originally posted by rjbond3rd
Would anyone be willing to share their stories in which someone -- an individual or a company -- tried to steal or unjustly profit from DIY fullrange speaker designs (or any related software)?

I'm not looking to identify the guilty parties -- I'm just curious about who (in general) attempts this, how far they get, and how they are eventually thwarted. (I'm a computer programmer and adjunct college instructor, and yes, I've had my software stolen more than a few times by dishonest people acting on behalf of organizations.)

Even hearsay or anecdotes could be interesting, so long as no names are mentioned.

These look suspiciously like something off the Spawn site.

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....ull&1209601578

[Renron]

Originally posted by castlesteve


These look suspiciously like something off the Spawn site.

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....ull&1209601578

He actually give design credit to the Frugal Horn website, and encourages DIYers to build their own cabinets. He is selling the cabinets he makes in a variety of finishes.
I wonder if he has contacted Dave (Planet 10) and offered a kick back for his hard work on those horns? Probably not.
Good find castlesteve!
Renron

[MJK]

Go to this page from the Teresonics web site :

http://www.teresonic.com/resources.htm

Scroll down to "Reading", click on the "Introduction to Transmission Line speakers.pdf" link. I have absolutely no relationship with this speaker manufacturer even though they have helped themselves to an article from my site and posted it on their site.

[BHD]

I wonder if he has contacted Dave (Planet 10) and offered a kick back for his hard work on those horns? Probably not.

Actually, it'd be MJK and Scottmoose, not Dave (not to take anything away from him but giving credit where credit is due).

Dave's got enough to be proud of and I don't think MJK and Scottmoose get the props they deserve.

[MJK]

Originally posted by castlesteve


These look suspiciously like something off the Spawn site.

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....ull&1209601578

From my perspective, this audiogon seller is taking advantage of the work of others without setting things right up front. I have a problem with him.

I will post a few more examples as I remember where they are on the Internet. I hope people will understand when it gets to the point where it is not worth supporting the DIYer community.

[hm]

Hello,
i have a story:

1994 I construct the LURE with DDD Driver,
1998 I gave it to German Physiks for testig,
He write that he won´t use it.
2001 I got internet and see the horn around the world,
he called it unicorn.
2002 I went at court,
2005 I won and get money, 10k$.

[Renron]

Martin, my apologies, I was in error. I meant no discredit to your work.
I'll go unplug my MLQW Thors for 1 hour in pennance.


I am NOT supporting this guy in ANY way, just to be clear.
Thank you for your generousity with the DIY community.

Ron