• http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/HUG/messages/66736.html

Did you see the "discussion" about McIntosh? I was told about a discussion on the General forum and went there to see an outrageous conversation, based solely on unfounded accusations from an unnamed party. Talk about a bunch of guys making assumptions. There were probably 500 posts, in two parts, Part 1 and Part 2.

First, no one can really know what the original complainant did, or if this person isn't just someone from a competing company wanting to smear the name of McIntosh. We can see the motive, but we don't know the true actions behind this post. All we can really know is that this person writes a complaint about McIntosh, and then posts letters claimed to be from McIntosh and from eBay. There is nothing that confirms any of this is even true.

Second, no one can really know the action or motive of McIntosh. We can't even know if there was an action from them. If so, we don't know the nature of it. We don't know what they wanted to protect, if anything, and we don't know the steps they took to do it, again, if anything.

Third, no one on the thread understood the law. Even the couple of attorneys that were in the "discussion" didn't know the law. If they did, they would realize that trademarks are there to protect the consumer and not the seller or manufacturer. They mentioned contracts, but that requires a lot of assumptions. One thing that doesn't require assumption is trademark law, which is there to protect consumers from buying something under an impression it is from a recognizable name when in fact, it is not. Like thinking you are getting genuine Nike shoes when they are actually cheap copies. Or like thinking you are getting a warranteed McIntosh amplifier, when in fact, you are not.

So I don't know what actually transpired, if anything. But I can clearly see that no one else in that discussion did either. What I did see, was a bunch of chest beating about an "evil empire." Looks to me like the only evil empire was the place that allowed this libelous thread to exist. All assumptions, no knowledge. The whole deal reeks of tabloid mentality, if you ask me.

Check your mail. I sent you a fun little comment from someone about the stuff behind the scenes there.