Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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!