Another ethics post.

[smoguzbenjamin]

There's been a lot of discussions on ethics lately, but most of them concerned only large amoutns of boxes for large amounts of money.

Whatabout if I went to school with my EA tremolo, and a buddy says to me "Hey that's pretty cool, can you make me one?" So I build his pedal, and charge him for parts etc + 10 or so euros for me, to make more stompboxes. Is that unethical? Or is that OK, because I only did it once? Because a buddy is asking me to make him an EA tremolo, but I'm not sure if it would be ethical or not. What do you guys think? :?

[troubledtom]

yes, it's cool to do so. if other people have a problem w/ it ,that's their right . but if you help out a buddy an make a few buck's for your time
what the hell  
   if you make a $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ off someones design that's a different story.
    the commonsound.com is a bizz/antibizz the designer gets on the average 5 bucks per unit you sell.  but if you make it for your self its free.
        peace bro,
               - tom pollock

[Hal]

once again, i think you should do whatever _you_ feal is right.  I don't think anyone is suffering from your $10 gain, so go for it.  But thats my opinon.  If it makes you feal bad, sell it for cost.  If not, make you $10.

[Peter Snowberg]

Wasn't the EA trem out of a hobby magazine? Charging your friend a little for your construction effort is totally ethical I feel.

If you put that design into a case, obscure the origin of the circuit and pass it off as your own while you make many many copies, this is unethical.

You are charging for your building, not for the intellectual property.

This is similar to shareware distributors that charge for the "effort" and materials to make shareware CDs, while the content on those discs is free.

Build away!

Take care,
-Peter

[BILLYL]

I do this.  If a friend wants one I charge him for the value of the parts twice.  So if the parts cost me $5 - I'll charge him $10.  Also - I highly encourage the friend to make some part of the effect - e.g the enclosure or maybe help in the layout.  I am always willing to show them how to do it and recommend this site and others for tips, tricks and help.

BILLYL

[keko]

Ben, this issue has ben discussed extensively over time in this board. I think it's OK for you to do so, as long as you don't say you 'came out with this design of your own'.
A friend of mine wanted a DS-1 so bad that I built one for him. Actually, I didn't charge him, it was a birthday present, but the point is that if I had charged him, he would've known the design wasn't mine, and that I was only charging for parts and time, not for the ckt itself.

This is similar to shareware distributors that charge for the "effort" and materials to make shareware CDs, while the content on those discs is free.

I know the situation is not the same, but I keep comparing building and modding effects with using shareware and not-so-shareware software.

Does anybody ever feels like using software you didn't pay for (I'm not talking about shareware nor freeware this time) is somewhat similar to building your own effects?. After all, you ARE taking advantage of someone else's design....either for your own profit (as a musician, or in my case, a designer) or just for the kicks of having that great sound (or that great software for that matter)

Maybe I'm just thinking out loud.....hopefully, when I get some of my boards working all right, I'll be thinking really louder  

PS: for the record, I DO own most of the software I use  :lol: