Quote Originally Posted by Paul B. Cresti
Why stop there? Lets allow our children to "borrow" ideas from one another. Why not let let literary's greatest works be made better, heck I could simplfy one of John Steinback's novels and make it "better" ....as stated in some arguements here there is a very fine line between innovation and "plagerism". Do not students get thrown out of universities for this? Wasn't there a term somewhere coined as "industrial espionage" ? In my opinion, dismantling someone else's product in order to come up with your own is nothing more that "plagerism" at its finest. Do not confuse "product development" with stealing. Wasn't human cloning kind of made illegal? Now there is an interesting concept
Paul, I think you're taking matters to extremes that make little sense. You've effectively accused a manufacturer/s of "stealing" and "copying" designs which is a crazy thing to say.
I seem to recall you're a big fan of Minimax machines. Do you seriously believe that the SCM factory in Italy have never aquired a competitor's product and taken the thing apart? Have never introduced a feature in their product line that already exists or is an improvement on other manufacturer's ideas? I suspect not. It's normal, acceptable and ethical practice to do so in my opinion. After all you can only improve and gain market advantage (through design, manufacture or useage) with a product by having intimate knowledge of the existing products on the market.
Regarding clones, tool wise, there are a few machines in my shop that I would not have been able to purchase if various manufacturers did not make their own less expensive but well made products that appear similar to other brands.

Rgds

Noel