<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Hi all A good example of exactly what I mean.  Ron is already an accomplished scaler, and would have no trouble figuring Pure Sound wire specs into his spreadsheets, so scale Ripper wont help him or hurt Juan at all.  On the other hand... folks that dont have the expertise in doing this kind of thing are not capable either of understanding enough about scale designs to end up with good scales no matter how good their scale program is. <blockquote> <blockquote> > Ed asked if I could post the Steinway M scale for your “look see”. I > asked Juan and he told me NO. (Sorry Ed, Ron, others) I guess he feels > “ripped off” that Scale Ripper could be given out for free when he spent > countless hours helping develop the Bonamens program. > > Jim Busby BYU </blockquote> His prerogative, most certainly. Worth an ask, but no problem. Ron N </blockquote> I had this kind of discussion with David Stanwood a few years back.  I took, and still do, the position that you simply are forced to acknowledge that in most cases you are "stuck" selling your expertise. Products will be copied one way or the other no matter what you do.  We have plenty of examples of this kind of thing. One need look no further then our own back yard.  Stanwood himself for example is a patented trademark and by law his logos and name can only be used by licensed Stanwood Techs. Yet have a gander at the following websites' front page... the fellow is not licensed. <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.davidlovepianos.com/">http://www.davidlovepianos.com/</a> One has to wonder as well about the seeming acceptance in the US of radically redesigning instruments while leaving original trademarks unchanged... basically passing off an instrument as something other then it is. My point is that if one is to first hold up with understanding Juans protectionist standpoint.... how does one justify in turn examples like the two above... ? ..which are clearly further down the road of questionable ethics.  As I said... one is left selling ones own expertise... which in my book is plenty good enough.  If you cant make a good living in this business on that basis then perhaps a new career choice is in order anyways. Cheers RicB </body> </html>