The behringer lawsuit

[pucho812]

https://cdm.link/2018/06/behringer-have-sued-dave-smith-instruments-forum-posters-for-defamation/ :

 

[boji]

Beringer was slow on the uptake about becoming a meme for sh**ty gear, but they seem to have listened to the criticisms and are putting out some decent stuff as of late.  I confess I want a neutron.  It seems their 'image restructuring' has formed some venomous teeth as of late.

 

[ruffrecords]

Score one for free speech.

Cheers

Ian

 

[benb]

I've seen this discussed today on two other forums I'm on, and neither one is G-slutz.  (I didn't know I was this plugged in). I'd expect there's a substantial drop in synth sales (and maybe other product sales) from A Certain Manufacturer.

 

[dirtyhanfri]

Trying to scare people to avoid talking in the internet about the known past of the brand...

Even if it's not exact, you're making good money, your brand is growing, f*ck what the people say in GS.

They seem to be doing things better as a company lately, this looks like a stupid move.

I bet some of the sued forum users are/were behringer consumers in one way or another.

 

[Tubetec]

Ive used behringer gear from the very early days ,almost 25 years ago .If a company makes a duff product ,or a product with problems surely the consumer has a right to constructive criticism . End of day if the company listens to what people are saying this info is of value to them .There is of course the Behringer bashers too ,the kind of people with little or no experience of the products who enagage in damaging rhetoric online just for the sake of sensationalisation and band wagon jumping. I agree with other posters who say Behringer stuff has come a long way ,and they have plenty of desirable bits in the catalogue now .I am glad this little crusade by Uli et al has failed miserably though,if it had succeeded it would have created a dangerous precedent.

 

[JohnRoberts]

This hits a little close to home...  I have been critical of Behringer on public forums before and received pushback and veiled threats of legal action (that  I later learned were from people associated with the company.) This was on a different sound reinforcement forum and a number of years ago.

For years Behringer ignored what people said about them on forums because they were too busy growing and counting their money, from producing lower cost knock offs of other people's successful category killers, but at some point you run out of low hanging fruit to harvest, by just manufacturing them in China.

There was a pivot in their web forum publicity management that I called their "charm offensive" where Uli participated in forum threads answering questions personally (remarkable for an executive at his level). I am not a Behringer basher without justification, and I objected to some of the historical re-writes, especially in areas where I had first hand experience of bad behavior. Despite or because of multiple lawsuits over the years surrounding IP issues, Behringer has learned how to keep on the legal side of the law.  One small mixer of mine that they made a literal copy of, was not protected so we had no legal recourse, but later when they copied one of my patented inventions (FLS EQ feedback LEDs) my former employer sued them.  Behringer won that patent case in court, by not losing. Having behavior found not illegal by a judge, does not make it honorable or right. 

It is human nature for people to seek confirmation for personal product purchases, so every year that passes there are more happy Behringer customers blissfully unaware of how they became the industry big dog.  I have moved beyond this as ancient history now, but back during the high profile (charm offensive) re-write of history, I pushed back sharing my personal experience. These old forum exchanges became pretty heated and as I learned after the fact some hired guns were thrown at me. I stood my ground limiting my comments to my personal experience that I know is factual (stating facts is not slander).  It seems that web scrum went on for several months but finally ran out of energy.

I have publicly complimented Behringer when deserved (like for the milestone X-32 digital mixer). Uli has been civil to me in private communications off list and I even have his personal email somewhere, while it should be no surprise that we don't keep in touch.  ???

JR

 

[boji]

"One small mixer of mine that they made a literal copy of"

Wow. Well I suppose imitation, ok, outright cribbing, is the most sincere and lazy-minded form of flattery.

"[And again] when they copied one of my patented inventions (FLS EQ feedback LEDs) my former employer sued them.  Behringer won that patent case in court, by not losing. Having behavior found not illegal by a judge, does not make it honorable or right."

Damn!

 

[cyrano]

Could this be the reason at least one distributor here in Europe is advertising Chinese copies openly as being a Behringer clone?

Imagine, a Behringer clone 

 

[JohnRoberts]

Could this be the reason at least one distributor here in Europe is advertising Chinese copies openly as being a Behringer clone?

Imagine, a Behringer clone 

I have been predicting that would happen eventually...  a natural evolution, but rich in irony.

JR