Behringer threatens legal action against Chinese tech blog for ‘defamation’
Behringer threatens legal action, putting Midifan through the ringer of law.
It’s not often that a major company takes legal action against a blog, but then again if they call you ‘shameless’ you’d better get out the guillotine.
German music hardware manufacturer Behringer has sent forth a cease and desist letter to Midifan, a Chinese music tech blog after the site described the company’s products with such words as “shameless” and “copycat.”
The letter points out the blog ‘shamelessly’ published articles with headlines that read: “Behringer’s recent crazy copycat stems from a trap of imitation chip more than a decade ago” and “Can’t stop copycat: Behringer will make the Eurorack module next?”
After Behringer released a clone of the Roland TR-808, dubbed the RD-808, Midifan published an article with a headline reading: “Shameless: Behringer exhibit copycat of TR-808, SH-101, Pro-One and Odyssey”.
Behring in mind….
In the past, Behringer has been sued for copying designs, but claims its fair game since patents for such classic machines they cloned like the Minimoog Model 8 have expired and are now in the public domain.
The letter demands that Midifan “remove all the insulting infringement articles” within seven days and “issue a clarification announcement… to eliminate all adverse effects caused by the negative reputation due to your inappropriate comments.”
Behringer will pursue “criminal responsibility for defamation” if the demands are not met; due to China’s strict laws, those responsible for the site could face up to 3 years in jail if found guilty.
Midifan has since released a response; read their ‘apology’ bellow:
Behringer threatens legal action against music tech blog Midifan; goodbye freedom of speech.
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