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NwAvGuy: The Audio Genius Who Vanished

posted by mrcoolbp on Wednesday March 26 2014, @01:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the or-so-I've-heard dept.

Angry Jesus writes:

There is a lot of snake oil in the audiophile world. A few years ago the pseudonymous NwAvGuy decided to do something about it. Not content to just criticize the hucksters, he designed a $130 headphone amp that competes with $1000 models. NwAvGuy released the design under the Creative Commons CC BY-ND license (attribution, no derivatives) and freely collaborated on revising it with multiple manufacturers looking to build and sell the amp. All he wanted was credit and to see that no one would take his design and degrade it with inferior modifications.

Then he disappeared. "In July 2012, NwAvGuy went silent. E-mails weren't returned, and blog posting ceased. 'He had gone quiet before -- for a month or so,' says Boudreau. But no one has heard a peep from NwAvGuy in more than a year and a half."

Since then some of the parts used in the last revision have been discontinued and one of the best values in high fidelity audio can't be manufactured anymore because NwAvGuy is no longer around to approve any changes.

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 26 2014, @01:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 26 2014, @01:13PM (#21603)

    You are missing the key point - it is a business risk. If NewAvGuy does show up he can trash all the investment the company has put into the production with impunity. Maybe he totally likes the updated design but has a personal beef with the company itself - they fired his brother-in-law for example - then they are completely at his mercy.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:06PM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday March 26 2014, @02:06PM (#21628)

    No - I'm not missing the point. NwAvGuy, as I understand it, released a design anonymously for an amp DIYers can build. He never sold amps. Now, if Sony, or Joe Blow Corp, goes and modifies this design and sells stuff, then yes, there would be damages to get from the ill-gotten profits. But in the case of an anonymous designer releasing a mod and making no money, then what exactly would damages come out of? This guy had no expectation of profit on the original design -- how could he lose anything on a modified design for which no profits are generated?