Re: Behringer and Ethics...
Jimbojsr said:
aaa, i see. The resemblance is rather spooky... mind you, you'd also have to sue Tokai, Blade, etc etc for their Fender guitar copies....
Ahh.....funny that you should bring up both Fender and Tokai.
Fender sued Fernandes in the 80's for use of their shapes in instruments. Fernandes were being manufactured abroad (Japan I believe) and imported into the United States. Fender was one of the first companies to have to "defend" their copyright. While they did win against Fernandes the reason why other manufacturers can use the shape is because they license from Fender. if you get a Warmoth neck with a Strat hadstock it is stamped "Licensed By Fender" on it.
Tokai is also funny because they harken back to the late 70's in Japan with making exact clones of both Gibson and Fender. This same factory was also making models for Ibanez, hence the "lawsuit" story which results in Ibanez changing their design before Gibson has the chance to serve them with the suit. At any rate Tokai can make others designs because they don't export clones into countries where the oriiginal maker of the model shape holds a copyright, or to a country that will enforce it. This is why there are no Tokai dealers in the United States, or of there are they've been really quiet about it!
How this relates to Behringer is pretty simple. Both Tokai and Fernandes came into the picture when the original manufacturer were at a disadvantage; Gibson during the Norlins era and Fender in the early 80's. They reverse-engineered, made a better product and spanked them in the market brutally. Boss may not be in dire straits with QC but they have essentially made the same pedals for an etensive amount of time with little change in the price. If you do something for long enough you figure out a way to make it cheaper; it's just kind of one of the laws of business. Boss has done this in the past; moving manufacture to Taiwan is a good example. But the pedals have either remained the same price or even gone up. Even with R and D costs figured in they're basically making some of the same pedals they were years ago and charging the same or more, a business practice that pretty much will put you in the cross hairs of any company that could potentially be your rival.
Behringer saw this and did their equivilant pedals. Is it ethical? They don't care. And they're betting that for an equivilant pedal to Boss' offerings all under fifty bucks people won't either.
Whether they're right or not is yet to be seen...the pedals haven't hit the marketplace. Boss is going to either have to figure out how to offer pedals cheaper or bet that every guitar player making the decision between the two offerings palces more than $50 on ethical practices.
) aren't those who would otherwise have spend tonnes of cash on a valve fender / marshall, IMO. Havign said that, it must be a pain for someone working at Boss to make something really cool, only to have someone else nick it and steal the market away from them...
