Esoteric
Well-Known Member
I completely agree with Derek on this one.
If I ever run across a knock off fixture, I refuse to use it.
Using knock off fixtures destroys the profitability of designing new features into any fixtures.
If you spend a million dollars designing a fixture, and a factory in China builds an exact copy of it, what is the point in innovating in the first place?
I feel very strongly about this issue, and would question the ethics of anyone who feels it is acceptable to use a copy of any fixture.
(To be honest, I feel a bit less strongly about conventional fixtures, as long as they don't infringe on patents)
As a designer, I would equate it to someone taking your design, (and show disk) and using it on several shows without paying you.
But this is the heart of a capitalist system. If you innovate something, then someone is going to come behind you and copy it. That is the way of things. There is nothing immoral or illegal about this. In fact this is good for a market economy, because it actually pushes innovation (to get back on top you have to constantly keep innovating) and it drives competition which is the root of a free market economy. Without people following in the steps of innovators, we would still be paying $1000 for a DVD player.
When you make an innovation you get a small window to profit from it exclusively. After that, it is up to you as a company. You want to compete? Either offer more for the money (not saying that some of the bigger companies don't) or lower your prices.
I have no problems with using products that use properly licensed OEM parts, or that OEM their own parts (from the same factories that the big boys use) based on designs and technology (without direct patent infringement) that were innovated by other companies.
It is the capitalist way.