Roger Linn’s Take on Companies Stealing His Intellectual Property

[Peter DeLegge]

The reality that most like to avoid is that the sampling industry is often plagued with ethics and legal / intellectual property infringement issues.
Still, consider how many companies sample old drum machines and vintage sample libraries like Mellotron tapes when the companies that made those samples still exist and legally own the rights to those sounds. Behringer has been the topic of a significant amount of debate in this area, as the company has little regard (nearly zero) for the intellectual property rights of other companies. Beyond the legal aspects, Roger Linn questions the ethical aspects of Behringer’s practices and also shares how he was approached by Gforce Software and offered an “insignificant royalty” for his samples if he would allow them to use his name for the product (a pretty bad business deal for Linn that is certainly problematic, but reflects the lack of respect for intellectual property in the sampling business — until serious legal action is taken, developers sampling others’ intellectual property are unlikely to respect those rights).

Roger’s take on Behringer:
“It’s worth noting that Uli never asked my permission to either copy my visual design or my drum sounds. Tugh in 2020, he did kindly invite me to collaborate on a future drum machine, and I respectfully declined because of concern about Behringer’s past business ethics and legal practices.

How do I feel about the LmDrum? My feelings are mixed. On the one hand, it’s not unusual for companies to borrow ideas from older products in order to inspire a new and innovative design, which I’ve done in past. Plus, my old drum sounds are all over the web, controlling copying is difficult, and I don’t enjoy legal stuff so I’ve generally ignored the issue so far. Also, the value in those old sounds is probably due more to Art Wood (the drummer who played the sounds, and my friend of many years), and to artists like Prince, Michael Jackson, and others, who made those sounds famous on their hits. Finally, I must admit that I’ve never cared much about the past, because I find the future far more exciting.

On the other hand, even if we discount the copying of the visual design, logo style and sound circuit of LinnDrum, the LmDrum copies my sounds. So I’d have preferred for Uli to ask my permission. Even if he thinks it is legal, I question whether it is ethical.”

Roger’s take on Gforce:

“Like the LmDrum, [IconDrum] copies the LinnDrum’s visual design, logo style, and drum sounds, but has no sequencing. Unlike Behringer, GForce did say they wouldn’t release the product if I objected, but they seemed like good people so I turned a blind eye. They also offered to pay me an insignificant royalty for my association with the product and perhaps to use ‘LinnDrum’ name, but I declined because of the low compensation and because I thought it was misleading to call a product ‘LinnDrum’ that wasn’t a drum machine but rather only played my copied drum sounds.

What’s your take on all of this? Have you ever NOT bought a product due to a developer’s poor ethics? Do ethics come into play at all for you when making these kinds of purchases or is it not one of your concerns?

https://www.rogerlinndesign.com/more/lmdrum

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

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1

[Brian]

Very provocative question Peter.  After some reflection I have to confess that I am willing to “look away” when making a purchase.  Regarding Behringer specifically- I can say that since I have learned about their behavior in recent years, I would not buy anything else from them. I still have and use a mixer I bought maybe 20+ years ago, and I would look elsewhere if I had to replace it.  That is really based on the CEO being a jerk, not that I think they are stealing IP.  I know it is very possible to “emulate” hardware and software function without violating copyright or patents, so I am not considering that angle.  I also happen to think software patents should not be a thing, though.

I just exercised my ability to turn a blind eye, however, when I bought myself a Meta Quest 3 VR set for Christmas.  I think Meta has no ethics when it comes to customer privacy, but I shelled out anyway.  SO there you go. I can be bought (sold).

[Peter DeLegge]

Well, it is definitively stealing intellectual property because when it uses the samples. Consider if someone were to take samples used by a modern developer and resell it as their own product. Roland is the one company I know us very aggressive about pursing IP infringement  I know because, over the past two decades, I’ve given three developers advice who infringed on Roland’s IP.  Rhodes is another very aggressive brand when it comes to dealing with IP infringement.

The reality for Roger Linn is likely that he doesn’t have the budget to retain an IP law firm to handle this stuff,  so he turns the other way, but it doesn’t feel good to have that happen. I had a number of companies infringe upon my company’s IP — some of it incredibly blatant —
but for a small business, the costs of hiring an IP law firm simply is out of the question. It’s very costly to manage that and that’s part of the reason that so many companies steal other companies IP without much concern.

As far as ethics, I realize that more than 90% of the market simply doesn’t care about this stuff. I suppose it has been being in the business world and observing bad ethics and seeing their impact on people that I came to care about it. Innovators like Linn deserve to ve compensated for their work, not ripped off.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

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