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If Behringer and Ampeg had a crack baby....

#121
Bongolation said:
A superb and passionate exposition of American patent law is in the opening of this book (of all places):
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It's the best thing I think I've ever read explaining the intent and beauty of US patents, and it makes the case so clearly that even the most stubborn gear-forum gristlehead can usually understand it.

The problem in these discussions is that the people arguing the loudest about "ripping off someone's design" are the most technically ignorant (and if you think it's bad here, try it on guitar forums), those who do not understand that changing a couple of values in a dirtbox's components isn't Big Science (even though it sounds "awesome"), but just a trivial advancement in the evolution of established, generic tech, and therefore the property of EVERYONE. Your "awesome" dirtbox or tube amp design is analogous to an opinion or an idea. It's probably nowhere as original as you think, and certainly not patentable. If you can develop it enough to make money off it or get elected to office on its appeal, fine -- it may be a good idea that makes life better -- but everyone else is as perfectly free to share, exploit, sell, modify or do anything else with "your idea" as you are. "Ideas" are not patentable.

It's mere intellectual exercise, not intellectual property.

If, on the other hand, you really have a truly unique piece of technology that is significant and truly original, file for a patent. In the unlikely event you're onto something that's as special as you think it is, the patent office will recognize it as such and grant you an exclusive right to its commercial exploitation for a fixed amount of time. At the end of that period, your technology belongs to everyone in the world -- hopefully to make it a better place in which to live.

What's disturbing is the crooked application of copyright and trade dress laws to underhandedly and unethically extend the practical limits of of expired patents.

What bothers me the most in these discussions, though, is how people will consistently argue against their own interests (and the law) in seeing better and more affordable gear more broadly available.
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HA!!! Exactly. Friggin Ownage. But "they" can't win that argument...so "they" try to make the argument about something else. Eg. Age, Experience, High-End Price/Value, Ethics, Opinions and Brands. La-Te Dah.
 
#122
I don't know why anyone would want to bother with a tube amp in this day and age. You can get the same sound from SS with the right outboard gear. If you can afford the repair /replacement of tubes etc. well then go for it.The day od REAL Ampegs is long gone. You can buy a reissue this and a reissue that but it's still a reissue made by someone else to the manufacturing standars of today,ie a lot of junk out there. Look at Toyota.
I'm 60 years old and used to be a Hippie. all you young folks can dress up like you want but you'll never be a REAL Hippie in the '60's
 
#128
JimmyM said:
behringer has been sued before and lost. therefore, they now know that they have to make the design just different enough to where they won't get sued. a more unscrupulous mi company has never existed, imho.

i'll stick with damp leg amps, too. they may cost more, but they're not cheap-ass reverse engineered ripoff junk made with the worst parts money can buy. and i can sleep a little easier knowing that i'm not helping them to get rich off unsuspecting rubes who are blinded by the price tag.
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Call me Rube but nobodies gonna know the difference except me in a sweaty, smokey, drunk filled lodge in Arkansas. Hell, I'd even pry the badge off of it and stencil on Dampleg just to amuse myself.
 
#130
JimmyM said:
not only that, but behringer hired that idiot who ran ampeg into the ground to head up the ampeg design theft division. birds of a feather.
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Whoops! Sorry...found out soon after posting this that it was just a rumor I fell for. Instead, the former head idiot of LOUD, last I heard, is working for an efficiency expert company that gets hired by large corporations to show them how to save money. Yeah, good idea to hire the guy who almost put LOUD out of business...hopefully he can show these customers how to nickel and dime their businesses to the point where they lose all their customers, too ;)
 
#131
guvnor99 said:
Call me Rube but nobodies gonna know the difference except me in a sweaty, smokey, drunk filled lodge in Arkansas. Hell, I'd even pry the badge off of it and stencil on Dampleg just to amuse myself.
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If that's how you choose equipment, why even bother with playing? I can understand it if it's literally all you can afford, and I certainly wouldn't hold it against you if it was, and I could even buy into it if you genuinely liked it. but when you have the money to make a better choice, why would you even consider for half a second what the most musically illiterate folks in a lodge in Arkansas think? Hell, just buy a First Act starter kit if that's how you feel. Me, if that's how I felt, I would retire immediately.
 
#133
I saw this head sit on so many shop floors back in the day. I assume they all left via whichever door was nearest to the garbage skip.

What a dumb amp. The BH4500 was out at the same time, was cheaper and was a better amp. Not the brightest thing Behringer ever did.
 

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