@Norio - thanks. I step away from my desk for a couple of hours and this...
@Indymusic:
There is a reason we moderate by PM. Seeing as you: did NOT show me the courtesy of responding directly to
either of my PMs about the two ads; have chosen to bring this whole matter out in public; and have attacked my integrity as moderator publicly in this thread - my response will also be public.
Here is a copy of my first PM to you which explained the legality of the first ad deletion:
Hi Indymusic
We have removed your ad for "Keely modified effects" from the guitarforum.co.za classifieds for the following reason:
You are copying Robert Keeley's designs to produce these pedals. More importantly, you are using Robert Keeley's name to promote them, which is illegal and puts both yourself and GFSA in a potentially difficult legal position. To a lesser degree you are advertising a commercial service, which is against forum policy. The latter we would usually let slide for a smaller business, but unfortunately not taking the other reasons into account.
We have however, discussed this at length and believe your modding service to be a valuable one to our members. As such, we will allow you to post another ad for your services, provided that it makes no reference to Keeley or links to sites or reviews that reference him or his products. We hope that is acceptable.
Regards
Alan
You chose to ignore this, did not respond to my PM to discuss it and did not post the ad for your modding services as we had generously offered. You may now consider that offer rescinded.
As to the current matter under discussion:
- It is a new item and as such is against the rules to use the classifieds to sell it.
- You advertised it as the pedal you cloned - which is a trademark infringement and so is illegal.
- It is out-and-out underhanded approach to selling a product which already has dubious origins. I also feel that it is likely you did this to try and get around the "using the name to sell the clone" objection I had to your first ad.
- While I haven't done a patent search to determine the legality of your clone (why should I?), there is also the matter of morality and ethics. Now You may be comfortable stealing someone else's design (which they spent years developing) and then selling it commercially (using the original manufacturer's name to help sell the item). If you can live with yourself doing this, fine. But I don't think Guitar Forum should support these dubious product and methods. I like to think that as a group we are better than that.
I have made my decision regarding your ad and it is final. Any further discussion in this regard, please PM me directly. Other members are also free to PM me in this regard if they feel it neccessary.
For others interested in the legality of clones, see
Is It Okay to Clone?
