Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/03/27
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> I think the whole concept of "Horrid Illegal Japanese Thefts" is quite amusing.
> The Soviets had no more right to German intellectual property than did the
> Japanese. The only difference is that the Soviets stole both the designs *and*
> the Zeiss tooling (which apparently was used until it fell apart). The Japanese
> just read the optical patents and designed around them.
Actually this is wrong.
Russians took their share as a war booty and they had right to do it,
as a winners and part of allies, as they agreed with other countries
(some political speeches, papers and discussions; Marc know all this
subject a whole lot better and can explain in better English :))
Also, Russians not only copied designs, they made a whole lot of
very good and unusual lenses; things like Maksutov designs
(e.g. mirror MTO 10 (10.5/1000)), innovative wide-angles and
one of first zooms immediately come to mind.
As for Zeiss tooling, please notice that Russians made two grades
of things: consumer ones and military ones. Consumer products were
of a lot worse quality, as these have been made at minimum possible
cost (please note that Russian economy was in state of permanent
ctash), but military ones were made a lot better. Just to put
an example here: with my MTO 10 adapted as a telescope, I can
clearly see Cassini division, GRS and even a Mars disc details
(like I did last week) at 200x... And diffraction rings at 500x
are perfect...
Japanese manufacturers simply took German designs and made _exact_
copies. This is a thievery and a unforgettable one.
They actually made similar things with e.g. photographs of famous
photographers, which they published worldwide _without_ _agreement_.
Heck, they even named one of their islands "Usa" to have a right to
label some of their products "Made in USA"...
For all details please check LUD archives. There is a lot in them.
- -----
St.
(Stanislaw B.A. Stawowy)
http://www.geocities.com/Stanislaw_Stawowy
Echelon/Carnivore lines: Bob Black, Hakim Bey,
Ralph Klein, Sabotage in the American Workplace