Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]slink, slink, slink..... Dan :o ( - ----- Original Message ----- From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Friday, July 30, 1999 12:52 PM Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Lens Designs and history- the only take > At 12:11 PM 7/30/1999 -0400, Dan Post wrote: > > > >Man is an innovator and an adaptor; we may not condone it, and we may even > >eschew it, but it is a fact of life, and human nature. I am sure that > >whosoever builds a better mousetrap, is going to anger the original builder > >of the mousetrap for 'stealing' the idea. > > WRONG, Dan, WRONG: the buzzer goes off and you, shame-faced, slink to the > back of the class. > > What Voigtlander did to Petzval or what Nikon and Canon did to Zeiss and > Zeiss Ikon and Leitz was not a case of improving on an existing product. > It was a straight theft. No improvement. No further research. Just a > direct copy. > > Again, put this in line of a professional photographer's copyright to his > work. If someone prints one of this professional's pictures and sells it, > then he or she has committed a copyright violation and owes Big Bucks for > the infringement. Well, that is precisely what I am speaking of. > > Yes, Canon and Nikon DID go on to do their own design work, just as > Voigtlander did, but this came later in all three cases. The success of > all three companies was based on raw and rotten thievery and I can no more > condone this than I could the theft of one of Ted's pictures. > > Marc > > > msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 > Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir! >