Peter Treby has asked to take this discussion off list so I will respect his wishes and not respond to his posts. Nevertheless this issue raises some important points that deserve consideration. In the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers we have a code of ethics and this issue touches on that code. The first issue has to do directly with ethics. When you buy a boat you should be able to assume that the builder has high enough ethical standards to do his or her own work. It should concern you as a consumer to know if a builder has made use of another's efforts without proper compensation or recognition. You might want to wonder where else the builder cut corners. The second issue has to do with the damage such rip-offs do to the original designer/builder. The builder who copies a boat saves an enormous amount of money and time and he can market his boat for less money. As a result the original designer or builder will suffer a corresponding loss in sales. At some point the designers doing original work will begin to wonder why they should bother when their just due - profits - end up in some one else's pocket. The third issue has to do with false advertising. Some builders claim their rip-offs are just like the original (Matt has documented such a case and I have similar experiences) when in fact they may have made serious mistakes in the copy. This kind of thing harms the original builder who must now cope with a poorly copied boat hurting the reputation of his own boats. After all, if the copy is the same as the original the original must be equally bad. The argument that a poor copy is not a copy is fatuous. The argument often made for copies and near copies that they improve the breed is specious. Any designer with integrity faced with competition that has superior characteristics will attempt to create a boat that performs similarly or even better using his own approach. Given the infinite range of design variables designers have no reason to copy anyone. There are many routes to the same end. Whatever your opinion on the Max/Nadgee issue you should consider why it has become an issue. Splitting legal hairs may provide a lot of entertainment but whether the Nadgee is "not close enough" to be a copy" or "Too close" may be less important than the fact that it is close enough to cause controversy. Knowing the similarities and magnitude of the similarities that constitute design theft can prove valuable to the consumer because they reveal more about the builder than the boat. Of course , if you don't care ........... Cheers John Winters *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:38 PDT