[Rhodes22-list] Trailer Measurements

[Bill Effros]

Stan,

People are building your things wrong for themselves, and selling their mistakes to others who then hop on internet lists to lambaste you for shoddy design or workmanship.   I think the amount of work Todd has performed in trying to turn a sows ear into a silk purse is admirable, however I have neither the time nor the inclination to check his specifications to ensure they will not result in a dangerous situation, either for him or for the people who follow the plans he has posted. 

The more non-standard junk copies of your designs that people free-lance for the Rhodes, the more stories we will hear of failing mast hoists, trailer accidents, and shoddy workmanship.  All of this has hit the list from time to time, and it often takes a while for people on the list to realize that you didn't build the problem in the first place, and that the item in question is different from what we all have.

Until we understand that, we all question the factory built item we got from you, and wonder if it is unsafe, and if you have been selling an inherently dangerous design.

In the 1970s the Chinese bought a Boeing 707, copied every single piece of the plane, and put together an exact copy of the original using their own parts in an attempt to "jump start" their own aviation industry.  They only problem was that the plane couldn't fly, and is probably still in some hanger in China.

It turns out the center of gravity is an important issue in airplane manufacture, and you cannot obtain the same center of gravity by copying the parts, no matter how hard you try.

When I buy something, either new or used, that has your name on it, I want to know that you will vouch for it.  And any time I buy something custom made for your unique boat, I want to know if you made that thing, or if it was made by someone else.  

The UPS sails are made by Doyle for your boat.  But they have Doyle's name on them, and everyone understands Doyle backs them, not you.  If North makes a UPS sail for your boat, I expect that North will put its own name on the sail, and that there will be a problem if everything associated with the sail is an exact copy of the Doyle product.

Got to get back to my real job of developing and protecting my own intellectual property.

You are a nice man,

Stay well,

Bill


----- Original Message ----- 
From: stan 
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list 
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Trailer Measurements


Bill, (rough day and I need a change of pace break:)

Thanks Bill, but since this is one of those proverbial "it wasn't planned
that way" non-profit organizations, we make money every time someone does
not buy from us.

I have since divorced myself from the proprietary world.  But in my feistier
days I was rather litigious and took the last company that crossed me all
the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, pro se, at a horrendous cost to them.

I do not know how many companies copied the Rhodes but I am tuned into two
of them.  I told my attorney to make a federal case out of one of them and
he resigned - then called back to say he over-reacted to my being a lawyer
and did agree to switching from state court to Federal Court.  The federal
government frowns on copying things, if you have picked the creator's brains
first.  It is the only time we lost our non-profit status (until we spent
the winnings and returned to our losing ways).  Building something is only
half the business plan - you have to sell it also.  One of the boat copiers
put their imitation Rhodes at a boat show and died.  The company told me
afterwards that I was the only one who could sell that damn boat - they
hadn't realized that, with sailboats at least, you have to love what you
want others to also love.

These days I encourage those who love doing things themselves for the love
of it, to bypass us.  But I have trouble subduing the mean streak in me that
likes hearing of the tribulations of those who bypass GB merely to save
money.

Thanks for coming to our defense anyway.

stan/gbi

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Effros" <bill at effros.com>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 12:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Trailer Measurements


Herb,

I'm an author who earns a living off my intellectual property.  I think it's
wrong for people to buy what I've written, make a copy, and send the copy to
their friends without paying me for my work.

Stan spent a lot of time and money developing these trailers.  Anyone can
look at them, say "that's a good idea" and copy the concept, and modify
their own trailer, or have someone else build one--to their own
specifications.

But to ask people on the list to measure the trailers they have bought from
Stan, and to send you the measurements, so you can build your own trailer,
or teach someone else how to build these trailers, without paying Stan for
his intellectual property, is wrong, in my view.

I'm sure that is not what you were thinking when you asked the question, and
I do not think badly of you for asking it.  This has come up many times
before, and I only sometimes respond in this way.

But I do think it's wrong, and I haven't said anything about it for a while.

By the way,  there have been people who extended your idea of "send me the
trailer measurements," to "why not copy and sell the whole boat"--let me
borrow your boat, I'll make molds from it, we'll make our own exact copies
of the boat, we'll sell them and split the profit--if we don't have to pay
anything for R&D we can easily sell them for less than Stan can sell them
for.

Essentially that's what you're trying to do in the trailer department, in my
view.

Bill Effros


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