Purchase limits (and a rant)

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docholiday11x
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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by docholiday11x » Tue May 30, 2017 12:38 pm

that sucks. even after you gave him permission to sell what is technically your intellectual property. That being said even if mr. shady still wants to buy em directly off you, I dont see any reason not too. Make that $$$

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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by Helder » Tue May 30, 2017 1:22 pm

docholiday11x wrote:
Tue May 30, 2017 12:38 pm
that sucks. even after you gave him permission to sell what is technically your intellectual property. That being said even if mr. shady still wants to buy em directly off you, I dont see any reason not too. Make that $$$
No you are not reading things properly. The guy used my signature to contact my pc fabricator and made it look like I gave him permission to order my boards (I never gave permission to anyone) which are still in prototype stage to get the boards without me knowing or even getting a cut from my work.
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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by Pirate » Tue May 30, 2017 2:46 pm

Wow I'm sorry to hear this you two, it made me sick to my stomach reading the whole story and yes I support you two. People shouldn't take advantage of other people's ideas and creations specially when you're trying to build a community, it's heart breaking to see this going around specially with the whole retropie being trademarked by some scumbag. I'm completely fine with having a 2-3 limit because I enjoy building things more than I like playing with them that's why I always sell my GBZ not because I want the money but because it is fun to make something that not alot of people could ever think it was possible.

I hope everything goes well with this new project and I'm sure that we as a community will be happy to start playing around with that nice MintyPi.

Cheers!

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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by docholiday11x » Tue May 30, 2017 7:02 pm

Helder wrote:
Tue May 30, 2017 1:22 pm
docholiday11x wrote:
Tue May 30, 2017 12:38 pm
that sucks. even after you gave him permission to sell what is technically your intellectual property. That being said even if mr. shady still wants to buy em directly off you, I dont see any reason not too. Make that $$$
No you are not reading things properly. The guy used my signature to contact my pc fabricator and made it look like I gave him permission to order my boards (I never gave permission to anyone) which are still in prototype stage to get the boards without me knowing or even getting a cut from my work.
I meant when Wermy gave him permission to start a store selling completed minti pi's. The impersonation and essentially attempted theft are the messed up part.

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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by Awesomenatious » Wed May 31, 2017 3:26 am

I would like to build about 5 of these, I don't have the skills to build this without your help (Wermy and Helder and the forums) and I would love to have it made as easy as possible with as little soldering as possible.

I don't get much time to spend on this hobby, so maximumum return on my time spent is important to me.

I for one (and I know for a fact most of the other forum members) appreciate the time, effort and designs that have been created. Going direct to the pcb manufacturer is a very shady thing to do.

The problem is I'd hate for this to destroy the maker ethos here on the forums, the openness and friendliness and the talent and innovation are all reasons I was drawn to this in the first place.

I'm a total beginner, I'd hate for the help, support and accessibility to legends like Wermy and Helder to dry up because one person make a stupid choice or got greedy.


Please please don't become super secretive. Of course, Protect yourselves and your work. That is something you have to do to make it financially viable for you too.

However don't let this change the interaction you have with guys like me who genuinely want to learn and grow with you or because of you.

That said. You'll probably find your supply will struggle to keep up with demand due to the amount of people wanting to build these things anyways. Save at least a few kits for me.

Ryan

wermy wrote:
Wed May 24, 2017 2:29 pm
Hey guys,
Someone had asked in another thread if we planned to do limits on things like the PCBs and 3d-printed parts (i.e one person can only buy X every batch or something). It honestly had not crossed my mind before so I didn't intend to. Then this happened:
"Hey there A⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ sorry for my late reply.

Im a user from Helder & Wemy's forum, I contacted them couple of weeks ago to see If I could realize my project with their PCB and also use their images as example.

You can see in the image link I send you they allow me to sell pre-built units but they dont allow me to use their images ( which is okey ).

And im contacting you because they will only make a few availible to the public which is the reason why I contacted them and I have their permission.

Best Regards,
D⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️"
rude.png
This is a guy from the forums who has contacted me before about setting up an online shop to sell completed mintyPi units. I told him it was fine with me. I can't (and wouldn't) stop people from selling stuff they make, and others sell completed GBZ units all the time. I told him he just couldn't use any of my photos or anything on his site, so that people wouldn't think it was "official" straight from me. He took that as permission to go around my and Helder's back, straight to the PCB manufacturer, and try to order 1000 PCBs (which we haven't even finished testing!). He sent them an image that Helder had posted of the latest prototype and said "I want 1000 of these."

So, in light of that experience, it seems prudent to put a limit in place, at least initially.

The other thing this made us stop and think about was whether/when to release designs for the PCBs and 3d-printed parts. The PCB designs are Helders, so it's up to him if/when he releases them. I *will* release the STL files for the case, I'll probably just wait a bit before doing so. It sucks because that sort of goes against the whole spirit of the 3d-printing and maker communities, but we kind of dodged a bullet by having the PCB manufacturer contact us and let us know what was going on. The guy above nearly had a business built completely off our work and designs without our permission, ready to go from day 1. That doesn't seem right.

We're still trying to figure this out, so I wanted to open up a discussion to talk about it and decide what's fair. The boards will be easy to put a limit on, since they will be in batches anyway. The 3d-printed parts will be a little harder to decide on how to limit, since I'll basically be cranking out as many as I can.

What do you guys think? Is this an overreaction? Hopefully it doesn't seem like we're being greedy. I know I've sunk considerable time and money into getting everything ready for this project, and to be frank, I was really hoping to recoup that and then some. That could be hard to do if there are lots of people like the guy above who want to sell huge amounts of them and profit off of it right off the bat.

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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by HollandJim » Wed May 31, 2017 5:45 am

Helder wrote:
Tue May 30, 2017 1:22 pm
No you are not reading things properly. The guy used my signature to contact my pc fabricator and made it look like I gave him permission to order my boards (I never gave permission to anyone) which are still in prototype stage to get the boards without me knowing or even getting a cut from my work.
Ethics, to me, are binary - you have them or you don't. My gut feeling is he'd find a way to screw you further given the chance... (order 1000, prepay for 100 and then cancel once he can examine the boards himself). As Awesomenatious said, I'd hate to have Wermy or Helder's good nature abused because of a single, sketchy buyer.

But if you're ready for it, go forth. Methinks 1000 pieces is a good chunk of change. Pity it has to go to someone untrustworthy.
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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by Lphillimore » Wed May 31, 2017 5:56 am

Only just reading this - absolutely fuming. :evil:

I cant speak for others but i would be more than happy to order all of the parts directly from you guys.

Not only do you deserve to at least make your money back but absolutely make some form of profit.

The fact you're even worried about posting this shows the care and community spirit you have and what this forum is all about - its just a real shame people like that are out there. 100% the right decision!

If down the line you decide to release the files that's upto you guys but personally i wouldn't at this stage and i dont think many people would have a problem with that.

Keep up the great work guys.

PS I'll be ordering 3 kits :D

Oh and im finally getting around to donating to this site. Fellow Sudomod'ers...feel free to do the same

:mrgreen:

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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by wermy » Wed May 31, 2017 6:34 pm

Lphillimore wrote:
Wed May 31, 2017 5:56 am
Oh and im finally getting around to donating to this site. Fellow Sudomod'ers...feel free to do the same
:mrgreen:
Thanks for that! Used it to pay for some hosting fees today, in fact. :)
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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by Lphillimore » Wed May 31, 2017 9:28 pm

wermy wrote:
Wed May 31, 2017 6:34 pm
Lphillimore wrote:
Wed May 31, 2017 5:56 am
Oh and im finally getting around to donating to this site. Fellow Sudomod'ers...feel free to do the same
:mrgreen:
Thanks for that! Used it to pay for some hosting fees today, in fact. :)
You're welcome! I realise the Aus to US dollar conversion isnt great but glad it came in useful. I've just sold another GBZ so that'll fund the MintyPi project and leave some left over for another donation I'd say. :D

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Re: Purchase limits (and a rant)

Post by Apis » Thu Jun 01, 2017 4:53 am

I just realized....... just a crack pot theory........ but remember that guy wanted 1000 boards? Those 1000 boards would have needed 1000 screens.... and all the 2.2 screens originally used on this project disappeared........ That might not be a coincidence.

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