Craft Edge

cropgal wrote:

cortanteemu wrote:They have already sued Make the Cut and one. I would think that Sure Cuts A lot is not breaking any laws though. I hope so anyway. I know Make The Cut had something in the software that infringed on copy right laws for PC.

That being said what other good cutting machines are out there? Has anyone tried them?

PC did not "WIN"....MTC settled out of court. That does not mean that MTC was right or wrong only that they didn't have the funds and/or time etc to go through a long battle. I see the FCC ruled that jailbreaking an IPhone to use with other providers and aps is NOT against the law so I don't see how this software issue is really any different.

they are saying becaue they made the program work with the cricut that they violated the PC product.

I'm saying we should not say anymore on this topic and to remember the reason we are all here.. We all have SCAL .. It's still working so we should continue in helping others out and put this behind us. .I mean the more that is said here the more this could hurt Todd.. He knows we are backing him up 100% and that's all that counts...

You're right-I think that everyone is just angry that a company would have the gall like PC. Free enterprise, and I say this using a LOGITECh mouse with my windows computer, and using a logitech speaker system with my IPod touch by Apple. So many of us are confused and angry that a really great product is jeopardy because of a large corporation with ALOT of money and lawyers have the nerve to go after something that is truly an American idea. Is there a fund we can donate too?

yes any court action byPC against any company either this or MTC is a touchy suject for many as what we know so far is thatMTC will still be there it has to make a version that oes not allow the chopice of cutting to the Cricut machine and any referance to those machines has to be removed from the program, MTC will still work with many other cutters on the market,
if the same happens to Scal thenhe would have to make Scal to beable to cut to more cutters than he has now. for those who have the program now it will be there choice to stick with the version they got now and cut to the cricut or get a new cutter and still do update and upgrade as they come out. . yes I understand there will be some very angry people out there no matter which way the suit goes but the little guys like Brandon and Andy only have so much resources and PC has Bank of America to help them in their court battles this they seem to go after and get alot because the little man just does not have the funds to drag it out in court forever.

cropgal wrote:

cortanteemu wrote:PC did not "WIN"....MTC settled out of court. That does not mean that MTC was right or wrong only that they didn't have the funds and/or time etc to go through a long battle. I see the FCC ruled that jailbreaking an IPhone to use with other providers and aps is NOT against the law so I don't see how this software issue is really any different.

IANAL (I am not a lawyer), but I am a Software Engineer/Computer Programmer, so I probably pay attention to this sort of thing more than most here.

I agree that MTC's case did not set any legal precedent. They just decided to settle out of court. And if the news article is to be believed, no money changed hands. MTC just agreed to stop supporting the Cricut. I suspect PC's suit against MTC was very similar to its suit against SCAL - claiming damages, wanting money, etc. Legally, PC was nice in that they let MTC out with just stopping support for the Cricut.

In reading the court documents posted in the other thread, there was one key bit that is very important. PC claims they use encryption in the communications between the Cricut and the computer. While reverse engineering is legal, circumventing security (encryption) is much less so. And PC is claiming CE used Design Studio to figure out the protocol. That is much murkier legal territory.

SCAL is already supporting the Craft Robo family of cutters, and is working on eCraft machine support, so maybe the writing is on the wall for Cricut support.

Personally, my wife is a cartridge person. So we'll keep the Cricut. But if this turns out badly for SCAL, I may pick up a Silhouette. And I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of used Cricuts on eBay.

- Jasen.

This will not affect those that already have SCAL and MTC installed.. Mary and Leo stated this on their boards.. They just won't allow MTC and SCAL to create anymore updates.. So those of you that have it already continue to work with it..

Sweetness4713 wrote:This will not affect those that already have SCAL and MTC installed.. Mary and Leo stated this on their boards.. They just won't allow MTC and SCAL to create anymore updates.. So those of you that have it already continue to work with it..

correct there will be no more updates that will include the crciut machine but they from what we understand is that if you update you can loose the use of cricut so basically what you have now to cut to the cricut is what you need to staywith and those who have other cutters can update, I know it does not sound fair but at least they have not shut down these programs completely like they wanted to do.

I own and love both SCAL and MTC. I am not a huge fan of my Cricut though, it gets by is about all I can say. A new cutter will be in my future. While I understand that business is business, PC's stand, that only they can say how the Cricut will be allowed to operate is just plain wrong. While many people are very happy with buying carts and use the machine like PC wants them to, many others want the freedom to create as they see fit. I am sure that Brandon and Andy will inform their respective software owners as to what the situation will entail as soon as they know themselves. As far as PC goes, bye bye!

There is a facebook page to boycott PC. It looks like this isn't the first time PC screwed customers:
http://www.kimguymon.com/2007/01/cricut-in-news.html

The crafting world certainly is agog on this one. There are so many angry people out there. The entire suit is posted on googledocs.