Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat The Philosophy of Tweaking Equipment

I think 'going live' indicates a little more planning than was the case.

I understood that the wiki pages were 'found' before they were linked and expected to go live - so some of the timing may have been accelerated over what would have been ideal.

I could be mistaken though...

Chris

Hi Ronnie, a), b) and c) correct as far as I recall.

Hi Chris, correct - the timeline seemed quite accelerated as it surfaced I think before anyone was back home from HH2.5 and it was the first anyone had heard that afternoon.

Roland's response was a bit surprising but I also think that the scenario was quite unprecendented. In that sense it was not like drawing on a stock answer from the HQ book of answers. And, let's be clear, Roland's answer had no impact on the work that Erwin had already done. That was already up on the wiki although un-noticed by 99.9% of the board.

Emails are not 100% either. Anyone receiving several hundred per day will know that. Only the recipients know whether it was read, digested and understood.

All in all the timeline was very short.

If we're looking at this from a legal point of view, wouldn't M have to give written approval for their IP not to have been infringed in an unauthorised manner?

It sounds like they didn't do this. But was this because their IP wasn't infringed or because of indifference?

Cheers
Tom

I was just going to to mention the written approval and it must be from someone with proper authority. The fact that someone from a meeting somewhere didn't care or didn't respond does not give one permission to proceed.

Regards,
Gary

Time for a poll? Let the quiet ones chip in?

Tintin

This is a "Let's blame the victum" argument.

Gary

Whilst I consider this philosophy further, I think it is valid as part of a set of beliefs that the buyer of modified equipment is considered. It is much more easily seen if hardware is modified than software.

VK's point re this forum and relationships with Meridian is a philosophy of itself and more specific than the title of this thread.

Regards I

For one, discussing does not equal encouraging. Secondly, what might not be "ok" in the USA, may very well be considered "ok" to some extend in some other countries, where the tweaking/tuning/personalising of items (post warranty) is many persons' hobby. This seems a bit similar to the topic "making a back-up for personal use" which is not "ok" in the USA, but within the law in many other countries. Just my 0,02 (in whatever currency).

Please further explain your point here. Whose fear and about what?

I hope there is a natural concern not to breach rule 1 of the Forum Rules. Certainly I have tried to be very careful not to libel anyone as a part of this discussion.

And in raising issues of ethics and morality it would be easy to be misrepresented as a pompous prig rather than as someone striving for clarity.

Are you saying that this justifies any behaviour; that because something cannot be stopped it is alright to do it? For you, is it just a matter of what can be enforced by law, not a matter of ethics?

I agree. And where is the ethical concern here? Are all busy or distracted people to be mugged because they seem like easy targets?

And we don't know how much Meridian listen to us, or how much weight our opinions deserve in the light of their complex business.

After considering the many views expressed in this thread, I don't think the ethical aspect is really the issue. If it were then hardware modifications changing the original intent of the designer (which most here seem to acquiesce to) would fall into this category also. When it comes to someones "baby" then the division into hardware and programs is not relevant.

The issue is really about what commercial harm is caused to the OEM by modifications to any part of the system. I would contend that no harm (apart from, maybe, bruised egos) is caused to the equipment maker. If a modification were sold commercially such that the OEM were financially disadvantaged then they might have some reason to sue for damages but as modifications inevitably mean that you must have the equipment in the first place then I can't see how this might occur.