camera8mm wrote:I see. so if you have the idea for something its yours and everything else is a complete knockoff.
You you for real? Or do you actually think that someone who makes:
1- A product that visually looks a lot like "product A".
2- Calls it "product A".
3- Possibly even sells it with copied images from the webpage of "produt A".
4- Sells it with copied text from the webpage of "product A".
5- Refers to, and uses, the same software as "product A" in order to function properly.
You don´t think this is a complete knockoff? Wow. I´d say it is as goddamn much knockoff as it can be!
camera8mm wrote:no one had ever thought of or wrote about frame capture before.
If you had been around for long enough you´d know that Roger is the one who designed "The Workprinter". I don´t think he has ever claimed to have the rights to all frame-by-frame capturing devices there are. Just the ones that look like the one he designed and wotrks with the software that he had cutomdesigned to work with his products.
I guess you haven´t been the target for knockoffs, have you? I mean something you wrote/designed haven´t been copied, right? If you had, I bet you would have another way of looking at this.
It is not fun when someone copies YOUR product, and starts offering i to the public in direct competition. I know, I have been the target for knockoffs too. A Swedish company wanted to start offering 8mm filmtransfers, and they wanted to use my company as the one actually doing the transfers, while they just had a webpage up and collected clients. Actually thay already had the webpage up, they just didn´t have anyone to transfer the films.
At first I thought about it, but it turned out they were complete mororns who neither knew nor understood nothing about telecine or filmformats or DVDs. I called them under a different name, asking questions about the service. They answered so "off the charts" about what they offered I just knew that unhappy clients was definetly something they would get.
Anyway, to make a long story short (too late for that), I rejected them, they COMPLETELY copied text from my webpage. Just copy + paste. I called them and they first answered with "well what we offer is so simiar, it is only natural to have the same text". Yeah, right! After I threatened to sue them, they said they would change a few words here and there, and that "it wouldn´t be a copy then". I told them "Yeah, right. Let the court decide on that. Do you really think it will hold in a court?"
Finally, they wrote text to their own damn webpage. It was all based on my webpage, but it was their own words, not mine. Not as well written as the information I had on my webpage and not as informative. They are still out there today, and they have transfer-shops in two swedish towns. And they deliver shit-quality to their clients, while on the webpage they say they only use the best hardware and "colorcorrect the films in the extent it is possible" (or something like that). By the looks of the transfers thay make, they don´t colorcorrect it at all and they are most definetly not using the best hardware possible.
They are up on my webpage as one of the examples of how bad a transfer can be, to show people how big difference in image quality they can get from different companies. I haven´t written their name on my webpage, as I don´t want to push them in the dirt officially. It isn´t good business to do, and it would make me look bad.
But damn, I hate people who knockoff products or text!
So, basically, if someone wants to make fram-by-frame units, LET THEM.
At the same time, let them write or order their own software from someone who can write software. Let them write any text they want to use on their auctions/webpages and let them take any pictures they want of their own product. Let them put links to their own webpage on their own auctions. Let them give their product a name of their own, not calling it a Workprinter.
A Workprinter is Moviestuff product. That is just the way it is.