FW: [asterisk-biz] Knockoff TDM400 Cards - What's the Deal?

[mustardman29]

I could be wrong but I am under the impression that the Digum cards are
based on manufacturers reference design(s).  At least parts of them are.
Maybe that is just the T1 cards or maybe it is also the TDM400 cards.
Perhaps Digium could chime in and enlighten us.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: alex at pilosoft.com [mailto:alex at pilosoft.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 7:17 PM
> To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion
> Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Knockoff TDM400 Cards - What's the Deal?
> 
> On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Rusty Dekema wrote:
> 
> > > It sounds like you know the answer already.
> > 
> > Sorry, you've got the wrong idea. I don't play games of
> that sort. If
> > I knew the answer, I wouldn't have asked the question. I'm
> not trying
> > to seek anyone's moral approval of the idea of buying these cards 
> > whether or not they violate Digium's US IP rights. I simply want to 
> > know whether or not the cards do indeed violate those rights.
> Yes, in my non-lawyer answer.
> 
> > Yes, it seems reasonable to suspect that no-one besides
> Digium makes
> > these cards in the US because doing so would be illegal. 
> That's why I
> > asked the question. But, it strikes me as just as reasonable to 
> > suspect that Digium already manufactures their cards in an
> efficient
> > manner, that no US company can do so in a significantly cheaper 
> > manner, and that that is why no-one in the US makes such knockoffs.
> No, those cards are 90% profit to digium. For a chiwanese company, it 
> would be 99% profit.
> 
> > If, for example, Digium designed the TDM400 cards using
> designs from
> > "open" reference schematics (like Zapata Telephony's T1
> cards, except
> > for POTS), then another company could quite conceivably decide to 
> > manufacture a similar card based on the same reference
> design. Again,
> > I don't know whether something like this happened or not;
> that's why I
> > asked.
> No, TDM400 cards are Digium original design.
> 
> -alex
> 
> 
>