And do you think a patent would do a thing to stop what happened?
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Stop? Eh, probably not. There is no way to legislate against avarice and greed (a/k/a the human condition).
Provide one with a possible remedy? Allow for the option of fighting for what is rightfully yours? Definitely better than doing nothing.
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Given the cost of paying for lawyers to make an ineffectual statement, and the complete inability of such things to affect change in China, I’m not sure I can agree. I imagine all the expensive efforts would have the same result as the millions spent combating entertainment industry piracy as a business there.
At most that instance of the product would disappear, only for it to then reappear under a different seller and a different name the next day.
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? I’m not sure how that relates. The Chinese sellers don’t care if anyone has a patent. They wait for people to try to sue them (and usually fail) in Chinese courts.
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I’m gunna start doing this for stuff I want (but doesn’t exist at the price I want, and without any additional effort on my behalf).
Cheap foot-controlled synth arpegiator, here I come!
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This would be a great documentary. Post it on Indegogo.
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Hmm…maybe there’s some opportunity here to have some shit developed at the expense of someone else?
Beyond that, perhaps some disruptive devices could be “kickstarted” just to inject them into the chinese circulatory system?
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Wow. I need one of those in my life.
Lol …
Or, maybe it’s a cognitive fail to identify with a behavior because it is easier than doing anything about it. If people can isolate and remedy genes for cancer or immune response, why not the simian gene for hoarding? I doubt if it easy, but I have no reason to assume that it might be impossible.
Not really, things “belonging” to you is only the flip side of the same problem - that of feelings of personal entitlement. Doing nothing almost always is better than acquisition and territoriality for its own sake.
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Hey now, that thing has mechanical key switches in it, so it can only get so cheap and still work.
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Or something really, really useful, that’s nearly impossible to build and would take mounds of research to figure out. Keep the scammers busy for years.
Eh, probably not gonna happen.
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And then what? Even if you get a judgment against them and get the product taken down from AliExpress. They will open up a new account under a new name selling the same thing the next day. It’s whack-a-mole
Jack Ma can’t keep pirated versions of his biography off of Alibaba. What hope does a small Kickstarter team have?
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“minimal cost” and “some dough”…how much is that, again?
There sure is!
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Why? I think you underestimate the ability of professional engineers, particularly those employed with a paycheque and a threat in a country where people disappear daily for simply speaking.
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This… seems sort of okay? Also not new at all.
I remember when Pressy came out 4 years ago and I foolishly backed it (early naive crowdfunding days!) They were $18 each or so, and long before the Kickstarter ever fulfilled there were 25 cent Chinese versions. It ended up being pretty worthless, and it would have been nice to find that out at 25 cents rather than $18 and half a year.
At least that one delivered the hardware. Given how many Kickstarter projects never deliver, this might be the only way you get it. Ideas are cheap. It’s turning into reality that costs you, and the Chinese are really good at that as long as it doesn’t poison your entire family.
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are ideas cheap? Perhaps. But good ideas are not, otherwise there’d be nothing floating in the bargain bins, waiting to be flushed to tertiary markets.
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At least people generally vastly overestimate the relative importance of the initial “big picture” idea, underestimating the 273 ancillary ideas and all the plain work required to get a product off the ground.
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Dear God that thing’s a clusterfuck and a half. I half expect the chinese knockoff to be BETTER.
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