Thank you I have received various emails. I had hoped to wait until the fervour had dissipated a little, because feelings have obviously been high. So here is the post you want, but maybe not with what you want to hear.

I suppose I risk getting flamed for what is to follow, because the flavour will not be to everyone’s liking. However I hope it is a more balanced view, and is read carefully before jumping to conclusions and sending a flame.

I have been told that I was accused of being some kind of company stooge on the Technote forum recently. Since I did not see the post before it was deleted by Technote, I had no chance to reply – a problem with the new system, if posts are deleted before you have seen them, yet others may have read them in the meantime.

Technote asked me to write the occasional article for their magazine, this is my only contact with them; I am not privy to their commercial and confidential matters since I am not an employee, only someone who occasionally writes an article about keyboards and computers – and makes the odd disk. If you want to supply an article or disk, you are all free to do so.
Similarly I was asked to write books by an American Dealer about the keyboards and hard drives, if this gives me a hidden agenda, it has not been hidden very well.

I had spoken to technote after several of my posts, asking what is happening on the forum, were deleted. They replied only in very general terms at that time, with no details given, again I assume for commercial and legal reasons.

The main reason, as I see it, is that the forum was being used to collect addresses for the swapping of retail copyright disks. I am not being judgmental here, it is possible that this was entirely accidental, without realising this was copyright material or just not thinking about it. Yet one particular package offered contained an entire Technote retail disk.

Put yourself in their position: it should be pretty obvious that an organisation where jobs, income and future depend on selling disks is not going to pay for a forum where people flagrantly swap their retail disks without paying for them. Everyone has to make a living and no-one does it by cutting their own throats. It is now apparent why the forum was down for a week, and all references to disks were deleted, and no links or advertisements or email addresses are now allowed.

Where I do agree with you is the changeover to a new regime at the forum could have been handled a little more diplomatically. It is possible that Technote’s hands have been tied legally. Nevertheless it may be that if the reasons for the necessary changes had been explained, forum contributors would have understood better, and the new regime introduced with less of an upturn, and consequent confusion. Reading the terms and conditions you have to agree to enter the new technote forum, I would propose that this fits the facts.

I had hoped up till now that a meeting of minds might be arranged, but unfortunately this seems less likely as time goes on. They seem to have made their decision, and turning the clock back looks less likely as the days pass.

I am not being biased against this forum, Nigel does an incredible job with the synthzone, (with no pop-ups!) and I read it with amusement and entertainment. However if the same thing happened here, I am sure Nigel would be forced to react in some similar way too. Maybe an answer would be to insist on a declaration from the person offering a package that they guarantee no retail material is being distributed.

To try and clarify the situation:
I was careful to declare the source of my conversions, on both web sites and also in an enclosed readme. Since preset styles are not sold by themselves but supplied inside a keyboard into the public domain, and since conversion methods are available as features, the manufacturers tend not to be strict in this area. As noted by the many sites around the web offering internal styles (Hi Gunnar ). However recently it was reported that Yamaha insisted on the removal of the internal styles of new keyboards from a Yamaha user site, since obviously they thought that distributing the styles of products just out on the market, may hinder sales. For this reason I chose models that have been out for a while.
This is not the same as distributing a retail disk, where clear copyright and hard financial loss is involved. We all know disk swapping goes on… they are just not prepared to pay for a forum to help it along!

We are all human, and I understand the jubilation of finding a site after the disappointment of losing one. However the old site served well for a long time. I believe you are here by a route that is perhaps not as one-sided as everyone had assumed up until this time. Sorry to burst the bubble, but I write not with euphoria and the current sense of self-congratulation, but only with sadness that it came to this.
Alec




[This message has been edited by technicsplayer (edited 01-18-2002).]

Hi Alec,
it's nice to see you here too, as well at Technote.
I can't see that it is nessesary to comment your
well written post, other by say that I wish I
could write your language that well myself

Kind regards
GJ

HI, glad you have posted here. I can certainly understand what you are saying. I guess I did NOT realize anything we received from the Christams disks that various people were sending was anything copyrighted. I can certainly understand if a Technotes disk was used to to create one of these Christmas disks that they would react strongly. I do know at least one song disk was 100% Technics internal styles. One was from converted Roland styles and one was created by the sender. I guess I didn't notice the one that had Technote styles.

I have had great appreciation and gratitute for finding Technotes after I bought by KN6000 since there is not local help. The dealer I bought it from couldn't do more than run the demo. I have always had good service from them with anything I had bought. In fact I bought a SX3 from them around Christmas and it arrived so fast I wasn't even looking for it yet!

I think if they had only explained things at the beginning we could have understood. But suddenly closing he site for nearly a week, coming back with all the censorship, then refusing to answer posts, deleting post etc.....well it sure has gotten us upset to say the least.

I have appreciated all your expertise, and I have also received much help form your book.

I did not email you because I knew you knew about this site and I didn't feel I should bother you....I knew if you wanted to post you would. That is certainly up to you.

Thanks for the very sensible post.

Marilyn

Some of you may have been around when Technics Music Canada found it necessary to close their forum. That was caused primarily by inappropriate forum entries that found fault with the KN6000 when it was first introduced. The forum in essence became a source of reasons not to buy the Technics product. It didn't make much sense for Technics Music Canada to continue with a forum that had a negative impact on their sales. Technote stepped in to fill that void. I have not been following the Technote forum lately, but it sounds like a similar thing has happened there. I hope you folks refrain from using this forum as a vehicle to send copyright styles to and from each other. Let's not put Nigel in that sort of situation. I hope we can use this forum to help one another with ideas and solutions to problems and for the transfer of information that each of us wants to hear. I, for one, am looking forward to the KN7000 if it ever is to be released. There is nothing new at NAMM this month.

Thanks Alec,
Like Gunnar's letter, well balanced and informative, and signifies the end of an era.

I append a quote which I attached to a reply to Gunnar's letter which perhaps says it all!! Walter.

A quotation from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

Alec, I can i.e. see that your points about
copyrights is being payed attention to by Bebop's
post for Nigel.
Hopefully all users will do the very best to avoid
any illegal actions by use of this forum

Bob, I can see the Canadian site is still up, even
if it's not much updates. The forum is as you pointed
out, gone.
Maybe it would be of some interest for the users
who have not been there to collect the freeware
available?
Here's the link: http://www.technics.com/music_canada.html

GJ

Well Synth Zone is not at all dependant on the sale of software or hardware so you are completely free to speak your mind about any product good or bad. Just call it as you see it.

The only censorship applied is in regard to copyright infringement because it is both illegal and also extremely unfair to the authors. Other than that, you can speak your mind on the forum without worrying about your posting disappearing.