provo craft

[alvina]

I've read the complaint too. I'm not a copyright lawyer, but I have a very small amount of insight.

1. I've negotiated with Shepard Mullin. They're not good lawyers. They're not bad, but they're not top lawyers like a wachtel or s&c
2. The complaint doesn't seem deadly. They're trying to pierce the veil and go after Brandon directly. That's a chump move to intimidate him. Surely his lawyers crafted the business in such manner that they won't be able to pierce the veil. Usually depends on how well he separated his finances from the business.
3. The trademark thing is ridiculous
4. The breaking of the EULA is a guess. I'm not sure why the fact that there were two SCUT releases right after the two DS releases proves that Brandon had to reverse engineer the DS to write SCUT
5. If he didn't reverse engineer the DS, than wouldnt' he be writing software for a hardware platform much in the same manner that computer programmers write software for computers without paying a fee to say Fujitsu or Microsoft? At the same time, people writing to the xbox has to pay a royalty, but I"m sure there's a provision in the eula when you buy an xbox that requires this. If there was a similar provision for the cricut, the lawyers shouldn't have had to take that round about approach with the DS thingy.

What this sums up to is, it doesn't seem like a strong case but Provocraft will outspend craft edge and threaten the man's family in order to get him to stop. If you've got a legitimate business issue, that's one thing, but going after a person personally is unprofessional. Boycotting provocraft only helps them. PC loses money on their cricut. ~$235 for a machine like that seems awfully low. They however make money on their cartridges. $40 for a copy of software and a $1 cartridge housing. The only people boycotting PC are the people that buy the machines and then don't buy the cartridge. That's exactly the people PC doesn't want business from. The BEST way to fight PC is to buy a bunch of cricuts and no cartridges and contribute to brandon's legal defense fund.

[hkvalerio]

I agree!

[jasenj1]

I've read the complaint too. I'm not a copyright lawyer, but I have a very small amount of insight.

Thank you for the insightful post.

3. The trademark thing is ridiculous

Agreed. IANAL. But my understanding is that trademark infringement is when you try to pass yourself off as the original company. SCUT doesn't claim to be from PC, clearly says it is not, and attributes the Cricut trademark to ProvoCraft.

4. The breaking of the EULA is a guess. I'm not sure why the fact that there were two SCUT releases right after the two DS releases proves that Brandon had to reverse engineer the DS to write SCUT

Agreed. I think PC updated the firmware with the new versions of DS, so CE may have updated some machines and tested whether SCAL still worked, or made changes to work with the new firmware. But none of that _requires_ using DS as described in the complaint.

5. If he didn't reverse engineer the DS, than wouldnt' he be writing software for a hardware platform much in the same manner that computer programmers write software for computers without paying a fee to say Fujitsu or Microsoft? At the same time, people writing to the xbox has to pay a royalty, but I"m sure there's a provision in the eula when you buy an xbox that requires this. If there was a similar provision for the cricut, the lawyers shouldn't have had to take that round about approach with the DS thingy.

A key is the claim that ProvoCraft uses encryption in the communications between the Cricut and DS. The DMCA makes circumventing encryption a no-no.

What this sums up to is, it doesn't seem like a strong case but Provocraft will outspend craft edge

Bingo. Even if the case goes to trial and CE wins, PC will just appeal and cost CE $$$. PC is probably big enough to do that long enough to bankrupt CE. Which is a very sad commentary on our legal system. But that's the way it is.

- Jasen.

[firstcut]

I agree with most of what has been said. Seems to me the best hope is if the EFF get involved on Todd's behalf.

I am not sure that most SCAL users buy machines and no cartridges, nor am I sure they lose money on machines. With over 2 million machines sold surely they have the unit cost pretty low. I can't be the only one that has SCAL, MTC and way more cartridges than I ever intended to buy. Heck I even have a Gypsy.

[scrapatheart]

I had to register to just to respond to the comment that it was the consumers that buy the cricut and do not buy the cartridges that Provo Craft is worried about... I do not doubt this for one single second but this will be their down fall... I just recently this past Christmas added to my collection a 12" Expression just so I could use my baby cricut (6" cutter) with either MTC or SCAL... I have those in my collection already along with the Design Software, the Jukebox, the Gypsy, among many, many cartridges... one of which I JUST PURCHASED at Walmart the other day... Having said all of that... Provo Craft, in my eyes has been too greedy... I can understand not wanting 3rd party software to make copies of your cartridges... I can understand you voiding my warranty if I install 3rd party software... I can EVEN understand you not allowing me updates if I have 3rd party software installed... but to tell me that I cannot use anything on the hardware that I bought except what you are going to sell me is ridiculous!! I am not leasing this hardware from you... If I buy a Sony TV- does Sony have the right to tell me that you can only use Sony DVD player, Sony Speakers, Sony Receiver, etc. or your TV will no longer work?? If I buy a copier- do authors have the right to go to court and have it removed from the market because people can now make copies of their books at home?? I mean, we have just gotten a little out of hand if you ask me... Provo Craft will NEVER get another penny of my money!! I think they are just one example of a huge cooperation that has used their money to bully a small company to back down to keep from having to spend years of time and money in court... Shame on them... Bonnie

[Applefamily]

Going to be hard pressed to find anyone the disagrees with all of us. And I'm with you all. Looks to me here a wiki on how the Cricut talk. The cricut is simply using a none standard USB communication rate. Looks like fun. I might have to play one of these days. Software is my thing.

Well here are my opinions that I already shared with Provo Craft (I don't acspect any reply)

What you are doing is forcing creative people to find another company that will allow them to express their art. What if Fender or Gipson guitars only worked with matching Amps. Would you have music? Yes but limited creativity and with unique sound NO. What if HP would only allow you to print from HP computers and using only their software? I would by and Apple. Instead of trying to crush the competition release a better product and a better price. I know for a fact in our home My wife will not and can not use SCAL. She doesn’t have the patience to pc a design. She would rather use the cartridges. We bought you machine, many of us buy your carriages, some will what to use your software if you had any. Remember why Atari was so successful? They allowed almost anyone to develop games for the system they built. Now that unfortunately produced a lot of bad games. Since then Game system manufactures license their name to keep quality games on the market. I worry you are quickly going to loose market share to another company that will accommodate our creativity. I suppose one good thing that will come about this is there will be a lot of cheep Cricut Machines and thousands of cartridges for sale on eBay soon. Good for use users but you will not see a penny of profit from these sales either. Wow a lot of new machine will sit in the warehouse too.

Love Our Cricut. Not impressed by Provo Craft

[jasenj1]

Going to be hard pressed to find anyone the disagrees with all of us. And I'm with you all. Looks to me here a wiki on how the Cricut talk.

Fascinating. That site appears to provide all you need to talk to the Cricut. IANAL, but I'd think all CE would have to do is point to that page and say, "The information is publicly available. Don't bug us. Go after whoever published this Wiki." Now, if CE contributed to the Wiki, that could be problematic.

- Jasen.

[beeshive]

A cricut is merely a copy of cad/cam design. Cad/Cam design has been around A LONG TIME. How can PC copy a machine that's been around a long time, then claim it as their own new idea is beyond me. Where is the fund so I can donate to help SCAL win this once and for all.

[Adines]

I liked it very much that this lady wrote:
http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com/