£30 cost of living crisis DCC system

[PeterStiles]

6 hours ago, Mike Buckner said:

They even left in the same manufacturer ID

I remember 'O' level Computer Studies. One boy copied another boy's Project verbatim including a (c) notice the original author included... This is on that level of stupidity.

[Butler Henderson]

And unless something is very weird with Dapols instructions given they quote Lais decioder numbers the Dapol decoders are reabdged Lais ones,

[GrumpyPenguin]

On 07/03/2024 at 12:14, melmerby said:

Would you consider it OK for someone to bring out an identical in every respect copy of an Apple Mac? or a Tesla 3?

Personally it would not bother me as I would never buy either.😁

[dave75]

Doesn't seem to bother the car people either does it . Cars are like pizzas , chassis is the same, just pick your topping, vw, skodia, seat, audi .

[YT-1300]

10 minutes ago, dave75 said:

Doesn't seem to bother the car people either does it . Cars are like pizzas , chassis is the same, just pick your topping, vw, skodia, seat, audi .

Those four are all part of the same company, not the same as cloning another manufacturers product

[RFS]

18 hours ago, Butler Henderson said:

And unless something is very weird with Dapols instructions given they quote Lais decoder numbers the Dapol decoders are rebadged Lais ones.

 

Lais not only produce decoders with their own label, I believe they also are contracted by others to provide decoders. For example, Hatton's, Gaugemaster, Dapol, DCC Concepts etc

[GrumpyPenguin]

2 hours ago, dave75 said:

Doesn't seem to bother the car people either does it . Cars are like pizzas , chassis is the same, just pick your topping, vw, skodia, seat, audi .

As someone else said they are all part of the same group.

 

However, MB & VW corroborate with the Sprinter/Crafter sharing a lot of the parts & they are effectivly rivals.

Vauxhall, Opel, Renault, Nissen & Fiat do the same with their "transit-sized" vans.

Many companies share engines & other parts.

 

All this is done by mutual agreement - cloning knock-off decoders is not the same at all.

[NotofthiscenturyTim]

5 hours ago, chiefpenguin said:

As someone else said they are all part of the same group.

 

However, MB & VW corroborate with the Sprinter/Crafter sharing a lot of the parts & they are effectivly rivals.

Vauxhall, Opel, Renault, Nissen & Fiat do the same with their "transit-sized" vans.

Many companies share engines & other parts.

 

All this is done by mutual agreement - cloning knock-off decoders is not the same at all.

Cloning a decoder may be legal or illegal. It all depends on what Intellectual Property is involved, how it has been protected and whether it is still valid. 

If the decoder design is 20 years old or more, any patents will have expired.

 

The first NMRA DCC standard was published over 30 years ago which makes patent infringement issues rather unlikely for a basic motor/function loco decoder.