Slashdot Mirror
Monster Cables Pushes Around the Wrong Small Company
Alien54 writes "Audioholics has a fun read regarding a recent legal dustup involving Monster Cables. The well-known (some might say notorious) cabling company sent a cease and desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable over a supposed patent violation. What the Monster folks couldn't have known was that Blue Jeans president Kurt Denke used to be a lawyer. His response is as humorous as it is thorough. ' Let me begin by stating, without equivocation, that I have no interest whatsoever in infringing upon any intellectual property belonging to Monster Cable. Indeed, the less my customers think my products resemble Monster's, in form or in function, the better ... If there is more than one such connector design in actual use by Monster Cable as to which appropriation of trade dress is alleged, of course, I will require this information for each and every such design. On the basis of what I have seen, both in the USPTO documents you have sent and the actual appearance of Monster Cable connectors which I have observed in use in commerce, it does not appear to me that Monster Cable is in a position to advance a nonfrivolous claim for infringement of these marks.'"
In my opinion, Monster cable has been taking advantage of the lack of technical knowledge of the general public to convince people to buy EXTREMELY expensive cables, when much cheaper cables would provide equal performance.
Performance of audio systems is not heavily affected by cables, if only the size of the wires is adequate.
Further, if any of these patents or trademarks has been licensed to any entity, please provide me with copies of the licensing agreements. I assume that Monster Cable International, Ltd., in Bermuda, listed on these patents, is an IP holding company and that Monster Cable's principal US entity pays licensing fees to the Bermuda corporation in order to shift income out of the United States and thereby avoid paying United States federal income tax on those portions of its income; my request for these licensing agreements is specifically intended to include any licensing agreements, including those with closely related or sham entities, within or without the Monster Cable "family," and without regard to whether those licensing agreements are sham transactions for tax shelter purposes only or whether they are bona fide arm's-length transactions.
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
Did you in fact read the article you're posting?
The Consumerist did no such comparison. Rather, a reader sent them a 4 year old post from a random dude on another forum, which the Consumerist quoted and posted, turning it into a popular Slashdot meme.
Groupthink at work, gotta love it. The burden of proof is always non-existent when it backs up your pre-existing notions of truth.
I believe the proper iSlang is PWNED!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I don't think he necessarily wants to go to court. The reason he's warning them of both his experience and the near-total lack of any reasonable claim against him is so that they walk away and stop bothering him. I'm fairly certain they will do that. They're not interested in a fight, only in making competitors cower and pay them money. It's rather classic bully behavior, but all bullies, big or small, will tend to stay away from anything that looks even remotely like an even match, or worse, one where they're bound to lose.
What will piss them off, of course, is that the letter has been made public. But that's his perogative.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Any patents held by RCA would have expired many decades ago. They invented the connector in the 1930s.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Their prices on long lengths of HDMI cables are actually downright reasonable. $38 for 24 gague, 50-feet in your choice of color and connector? That's better than Monoprice...
Just in case anyone doesn't know of them, Monoprice has been my cabling place for years. Good prices, reasonable shipping.
"TK-421, why aren't you at your post?"
Yes, I read the article; I wouldn't link to it otherwise. If you want more precision, s/the Consumerist's comparison/the comparison posted on the Consumerist/.
The article gives plenty of detail on their testing methodology, assuming the original poster didn't make it up, and nothing posted on the Internet can easily prove or disprove that possibility. Thus, take it with the same grain of salt you take with everything else on the Internet.
That's completely legal. Unethical and unpatriotic, yes, but not illegal. In fact, since Bush took office those kinds of arrangements have actually been sanctioned and encouraged by the government.
Actually high end cables dont have gold but nickel.
Gold plated ends are a sham, the gold wears through so fast (because it's barely plated on to begin with) it's not funny and the brass underneath it looks like gold so you dont know. The real high end stuff are solid nickel connections.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Some quick research suggests wire hangers are 12 gauge and made out of solid steel; what the audio cable industry would call "solid core". Monster is a bit evasive about what's in their Monster Ultra Series THX 1000 speaker cables, saying only "4 large gauge copper conductors"; based on other Monster cable products I'd expect they're 12 or 14 gauge stranded wire.
I do a fair amount of single-blind speaker cable tests myself, certainly more than this one anecdotal experiment. Differences here are subtle but I've done way too many comparisons with consistent results to think they don't exist. The best results in any listening comparison are always when comparing with music the listener is intimately familiar with, so their test starts out badly in that regard. Generally I prefer the sound of fat solid wire to anything else. People like stranded wire because it's easy to work with, but it doesn't sound as good as a solid wire of the same gauge. Accordingly, I'm unsurprised that they found the solid steel coat hanger wire to be similar to the Monster cable.
The thing most people miss about that article is that there were two listeners who were cable of hearing the difference between the Monster product and the Belden cable they started with, suggesting there is an audible difference to cables--just not a major difference between the Monster and the hanger. I suspect that further, better tests would show a ranking like this:
Belden 14AWG Stranded Copper < Monster 1000 ~= 12AWG Solid Steel < 12AWG Solid Copper
I've had audiophile speaker cables here up to the $1000 price range (but not the expensive Monsters, their stuff is awful per dollar). Nowadays I'm usually happy with some hand twisted pair designs I wired up with 12AWG solid copper purchased from Home Depot. It's certainly superior to the 14AWG stranded cables I made out of an extension cord also purchased there. The extension cord "design" does sound better than most cheap speaker cables, including the budget Monster line; it is good quality copper and almost thick enough.
"I assume that Monster Cable International, Ltd., in Bermuda, listed on these patents, is an IP holding company and that Monster Cable's principal US entity pays licensing fees to the Bermuda corporation in order to shift income out of the United States and thereby avoid paying United States federal income tax on those portions of its income;..."
Wonderful. Monster Cable hates America!!!!
When considering Tax issues, just keep in mind this little nugget of trivia...
Tax law is the only area of the law where a lawyer is expected to obtain
a speciality post doctorate degree (that is another advanced degree above
and beyond the usual JD) just so that you can be considered qualified to
START practicing in it.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
"You are in possession of at least seven orifices. Your website demonstrates fifteen cables, one of which you may discard. If so, the other fourteen are still under the terms of your retributuion. You will now insert those cables into the orifices in the 1-1-1-1-3-1-7 configuration."
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I'm sure Monster would do the same thing - they license the tech from their Burmuda entity, and also have full rights to pursue patent infringement on behalf of their licensor.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
But, but it wasn't Monster Cable International, Ltd, that issued him with the letter and claim. It was Monster in the US, so keen to litigate that they did something they had no onus to do ("on behalf of") - they completely forgot that their corporate shell game had given the patents to a company in Bermuda, and that they had no right to claim patent infringement when they weren't the patent owners.
More clear now?
"That, that's not ours! We don't have to pay tax on it! Oh, wait, you're using this thing of ... uh ... not ours ... and we ... uh ... they ... can't have that!"
Consider legal insurance. I pay about 6 euros per month for it, and with that I can access a hotline which gives immediate access to one of the insurance's lawyers specialized in the covered area. They will first help you solve the matter the cheapest way, without going to court (e.g. by writing a letter or giving advice like the parent poster had). This already saves you a lot of time and money and stress. And if it would go to court, the insurance fee will pay itself back in no time.
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
Although Kurt is the owner of Blue Jeans Cable, I need to remind some of you that Monster is coming after Tartan Cable (which is also owned by Kurt). Tartan cable is Kurt's economy line of cables... it's all "Made in China", it's inexpensive, and by all standards, just as good as any of the other stuff bought at Best Buy or Circuit City - just less money. Blue Jeans Cable sells what is known as broadcast quality cabling. Basically, it's the same stuff you'll find being used by professional broadcast engineers in television studios, radio stations, A/V post production houses, and the like. Yes, it's more expensive than the chinese stuff, but it is mostly Belden Cable and anyone who knows about this stuff will see the value. Yes, for the most part, a lot of what Blue Jeans sells may be considered "overkill" for your run of the mill home theater - that is why the Tartan line of products was introduced. But for those who want what the pros use, Blue Jeans will deliver and not suck your wallet dry in the process.