Re: Boycott everyone

[Kim Flint <kflint@annihilist.com>]

At 9:36 AM -0800 11/5/99, Tom Ritchford wrote:
>>Oh yeah.  Sure, let's boycott Gibson, and Fender too, while we're at it: 
>I
>>have a guitar that has had some loose machine heads.
>
>Whoops, I should have put this into context.
>
>Gibson recently bought Opcode Systems and is apparently using
>cruel legal tactics to completely dismantle the system.
[snip]
>Here's a URL with more information:
>
><http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/6454/>


My interpretation of the URL you posted is: Gibson bought into Opcode last
year when opcode was going out of business. They bought it cheap as a
turnaround investment, since opcode managment promised they could make the
company profitable again in a year. Gibson invested a few million dollars,
gave them a year to turn things around. One year passed, Opcode mgt had
clearly failed to get the company profitable again, Gibson pulled the plug.
Shareholder lawsuits result, as they always do. This happens EVERY DAY in
every industry. (check your paper to see what happened to packard-bell a
couple of days ago, same story.)

I still don't get why opcode fans are peeved at Gibson, when opcode was
going out of business anyway. Are you pissed that Gibson didn't want to
keep sinking money in a losing operation? Doesn't seem like such a crime to
me. If Gibson never got involved at all, opcode would still be gone, so
what's the point? Maybe y'all should have organized a campaign six months
ago to buy more opcode software, then opcode might still be around and I
wouldn't be getting all these whining conspiracy-theorist emails forwarded
to me.

>Since I make heavy use of Opcode's products, I'm pretty
>upset along with other people on the Opcode mailing list.
>So we are starting a Boycott Gibson campaign.

I'm sure that legions of Les Paul enthusiasts throughout the world are
rising up and totally failing to care. (in fact, I would guess that a lot
of them would be glad that a computer music company bit the dust....we're
talking about guitarists here...;-)

And since your little boycott idea threatens Matthias and I in developing
new echoplex software, and may even jeopardize future echoplex production
(although I doubt it), some people here aren't likely to be real supportive
either. After all, opcode was not willing to invest in real-time loop
products (before or after Gibson), Gibson has invested a lot in this area
and stuck with it for years.

...and according to Keyboard this month, Logic, Cubase, and MOTU are better
than vision. :-)

kim


______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
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