”Every evolution, revolution or development starts from the best of todays products – anything else makes no sense. The difference is just what happens thereafter. The creative guy copies, analyses, scrutinizes and finally adds his own creative input and ends up with a new and maybe exciting design that moves the frontier a minute step – or, statisticly more likely, becomes a cul-de-sac. The plagiateur copies and does – nothing!

As stated above in the comments this copying is a grey zone. Nobody is proud of owning a copy made somewhere where labor is cheap. But mindless copying is here, just like tornados, ticks, spam, TV-ads, corruption, contageous illnesses et al. The only way to deal with them are to rise above such annoyances, by being more creative and better at communicating with the customers, so that the unimaginative lot always is at least one step behind.

Enforcing official approval is often a case of the remedy being worse than the malady. First someone has to decide when a kayak is a copy or a new design. This has to be based on a rigid set of specifications or regulations defining the lever of necessary change. Otherwise it would be just anybodys guess. How could this be done? The line between accepting the moving of a rivet as an acceptable change and condemning a majority of the excisting hulls would be fine indeed? Kayaks and surfskis does not differ a lot, copied or not. More often than not such decisions will eventually be used to protect existing technology against new creative minds that challenges the comfortable lot enjoying the stamp of approval. Sooner or later such matters will end up as legal issues. Is that what we want – lawyers controling the the future of surfskis and kayaks?

So contrary to Robs initial statement I firmly believe that it is not coying, but patents, patentlike regulations and administrative meddlesomeness that really stifles innovation and evolution. And when such are implemented, it is very hard to brake free.

Kayak and surfski design is creative minds and lateral thinkers moving forward – not administrators safeguarding yesterdays designs against plagiarism. I do not like being copied – but I am far more scared of imposed order…”

Björn

Läs mer här: The ICF Official Equipment Licensing Programme – an end to copying?

Denna tråd fokuserar på huruvida ICF-systemet ska kunna förhindra att kajaker och surfskis kopieras, vilket sägs vara ett av huvudsyftena bakom programmet.