Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

jingle_jangle wrote:... I'm having a "here we go again" moment.

+1

A similar situation exists with plagiarism; even if I copy one sentence directly from another's work (copyfighted or not) and pass it off as my own creation, I have committed plagiarism. And it's still wrong, even if it isn't caught.

A similar situation exists with plagiarism; even if I copy one sentence directly from another's work (copyfighted or not) and pass it off as my own creation, I have committed plagiarism. And it's still wrong, even if it isn't caught.

If I buy that neck on e-bay, would you build me a body and we could consider it a repair?

IHeartRics wrote:If I buy that neck on e-bay, would you build me a body and we could consider it a repair?

Does that neck come with a serial number???

jingle_jangle wrote:

IHeartRics wrote:If I buy that neck on e-bay, would you build me a body and we could consider it a repair?

Does that neck come with a serial number???

That's broken too. Can you make me one of those too?

But actually, your serial number makes sense. Say, for some odd reason, I'm in front of a huge crowd and I suddenly start channeling Pete Townshend and somehow I break the body, but the neck and electronics are still OK. And say the the body can't be repaired, so if you have the correct jack plate with SN # and can prove it, a new body would be acceptable, wouldn't it?

It would be a possibility, but I'd still have to get permission from RIC to do something like this, just to be on the safe / approved side.

It is completely true, pace jingle-jangle, that the Rickenbacker International Corporation "enthusiastically and aggressively defend their designs against all comers" in the United States over a number of years.

However, this is not, on the basis of my direct observation, the case in France where RIC has only the most fig-leaf of sales presences (I go through to their French distributor's site, who whenever I check - which is every few months over several years - never has anything in stock - guitars, basses or parts). In France it is always extremely easy to find on-line sales of copies as well as poor 330, 325 and 4001 copies retailing new in high street shops (e.g. Rue Victor Masse; ditto Denmark Street in London), as well as a thriving but small market in second hand copies with build dates back to the 1960s.

Designs also seem less than enthusiastically and agressively defended by RIC in Canada, the UK, Japan and Germany, where new copies and second hand copies of varying vintages are, again by my direct observation, extremely easy to find in shops and online.

This raises the question, ultimately only answerable before national courts of law, of whether RIC have, by default, forfeited trademark protection outside the US national boundary, making Rick copies legal, as with Les Paul and Strat copies, in some signficant parts of the world.

This is a dubious conclusion because it's based, as are so many statements of this type, on assumptions.

Copyright law and process for defending one's creations vary from country to country. So do enforcement priorities and methods.

Don't get attempts to take action confused with positive outcome.

jps wrote:A similar situation exists with plagiarism; even if I copy one sentence directly from another's work (copyfighted or not) and pass it off as my own creation, I have committed plagiarism. And it's still wrong, even if it isn't caught.

Busted!

A similar situation exists with patents. One type of company will purposefully infringe on a patent with the hope that they can stuff their coffers before they are caught by the patent holder (their profits thus fund their fines/settlement, and they still can come out ahead). Another type of company will infringe on a patent and allow the patent holder to take legal action, in the belief (or hope) that the patent is not enforceable (for whatever reason) and that the subsequent court action will rule the patent invalid, and the company thus cleared of infringement (and with clear profits, minus the legal fees).

doctorwho wrote:

jps wrote:A similar situation exists with plagiarism; even if I copy one sentence directly from another's work (copyfighted or not) and pass it off as my own creation, I have committed plagiarism. And it's still wrong, even if it isn't caught.

Busted!

It took long enough!

doctorwho wrote:

jps wrote:A similar situation exists with plagiarism; even if I copy one sentence directly from another's work (copyfighted or not) and pass it off as my own creation, I have committed plagiarism. And it's still wrong, even if it isn't caught.

Busted!

It took long enough!

jdogric12 wrote:

doctorwho wrote:

jps wrote:A similar situation exists with plagiarism; even if I copy one sentence directly from another's work (copyfighted or not) and pass it off as my own creation, I have committed plagiarism. And it's still wrong, even if it isn't caught.

Busted!

It took long enough!

Busted!