I guess I have yet to see any other companies come into the negative spot light quite like behringer has, we can either assume that all the other factories are just as bad or we can go on what we have seen reported and how they act with there law suits. We can all draw are own lines to what things we need to buy for work/general life and what things we can make statements with. Calling it selective outrage makes it seem like all the other companies are having factory strikes and are suing people for talking shit in forums. If its your way of feeling better about supporting them that’s fine maybe the other companies are doing these bad things and not being reported on but generally I’d feel better about giving the benifit of the doubt to companies than supporting the sure thing.
With the the help of western meedia and increased awareness of Apple consumers, the income of Foxconn workers on Apple assembly lines have been increased at least five fold. Together with the developments of workers rights and working conditions. People who claim that there is nothing we can do - get your facts right.
Got any source for that? The only reason Apple (and most other) devices are made in China is because workforce is cheap there. If Apple needs to start paying decent salaries to chinese workers, Apple will move to some other country.
One other thing that I think about this cloning, it’s boring, in the case of the 808 there are numerous clones already, and there are plenty of options for moog, Roland, arp and pro-one already, so it is a bit of a yawn fest aside from a cynical cash-in.
As I have said before I think the Neutron actually sounds quite ok, it also shows a bit of originality and apparently demonstrates that the appointment of talented analogue designers can yield something more interesting than just copying other peoples ideas.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think this cloning is a good long term strategy, and personally I much prefer to buy products from companies that strive to bring new ideas like Elektron, Synthstrom, Squarp etc.
Funny thing is, that behringers business model results in spending as much in legal fees as it would for R&D.
Bloomberg. Yes, Made in China is based on low wages but this does not mean that the wages will stay the same forever or that there is no differents between the salaries ppl are earning.
If Behringer was a China state owned company, I wonder what direction these discussions would take? Would we even hear about the workers issues? Would they even dare strike? Tiananmen Square proved that these people can’t enjoy their liberties like most of us can.
For that reason it’s important to call out foreign companies that take advantage of the oppression of millions of people by their own government. No matter how small it is, it’s exploitation and oppression.
Care to actually cite your source? 
Almost everything we own is exploitative. My African relatives get paid next to nothing to mine minerals that make up our phones. Right next door people are slaughtered for the diamonds on people’s rings. Many shoe companies and clothing companies employ exploitative labour both domestically and internationally. Heck even most of the produce we eat is picked by temporary foreign workers getting paid below minimum wage. You can’t say “Oh I hate Behringer for this thing” when literally everything you own is built on death.
edit: Not to mention that many of the “great nations” of this world are built on colonialism and slavery. Selective outrage indeed.
Well I’m sure we have a bright future with amazing new developments ahead of us once we all realize that consumption is inherently immoral and oppressive. Think of all of the great new technological marvels we’ll have in our studios once we rid ourselves of innovation and efficiency. Ahh, yes, the golden days are upon us.
PS, starve your children, feeding them is an attack on my humanity.
/sarc
And no, literally, everything I own is not built on death. Many of us help people feed their families and provide for themselves by supporting them through their employer or business and by consuming their goods and services. I choose to do so without conspicuous consumption and obvious exploitation, but to each his own.
I feel like there are ways to consume that don’t make this world a worst place.
I grow some vegetables, but most of them I buy from local farmers that don’t use death products. If I ever come to buy food in a supermarket, I’ll make sure it doesn’t contain e.g. palm oil.
When I have to go somewhere, most of the time I use my bike, but if it’s far I tend to use the train or shared transport solutions.
The electricity I buy is certified to have been produced by durable means, meaning no nuclear nor coal.
The list goes on and on. There are way to consume better or cease consuming at all, and produce yourself instead.
If such details start to really matter to a significant portion of the population, I believe it will have significant political impact. But this can require some drastic change in your way of life, such as working less.
Now about synths, I don’t think Behringer brings enough new value to the market to be worth my money. I’d rather build my own synths or get one that rise the standards (e.g. Mutable Instruments open source code and local assembly vs. Behringer Clone War).
Cynicism and fatalism will get you nowhere.
Get some courage and constantly try to be the change you’d like to see happen. Every small step counts.
The US got themselves something for sure from it.
…what a dick move… time to boycott Behringer! 
According to Guardian, basic net income for Foxconn worker was about 900 yuan in the beginning of 2010 and as reported by Reuters, was increased to 1800 yuan in the beginning of 2012 (and up to 2500 yuan as reported by Guardian) with the plan to rise to 4400 yuan for 2013 as reported by ZDnet.
All this was due to the media coverage of Focxonn suicides and working conditions in their factories in China. As an outcome of the media pressure in US, EU and Australia and backlash from the users, Apple also started to do the labor audits in their production chain (for now more then 600 audits are made) with the help of Fair Labor Association. Apple also has been the only corporation to share information about the full product chain to show their full compliance with international legislation about illegal materials and mining. Again, it’s not that Apple is so concerned, at least not only that. It’s about what the users are demanding.
In 2016, Bloomberg reported the net salary of 5500 yuan (about 850 USD including the overtime) for the workers of Apple assembly line in another big manufacturer Pegatron in Shanghai - a new cooperation partner with more strict employment routines as reported here. There is still lot of controversies about the salaries, working conditions and labor rights but these tech jobs are leading the economic development of China. And even with that, the labor cost of a new iPhone is estimated to be only about 1% of its final prize.
To say that the users can have no impact for how the consumer products are made, sold and used, is just a shitty excuse to do nothing, IMO.
That is quite disturbing… wtf Uli?
That’s bizarre. Why sue DSI for making the Prophet Rev2?
I mean, did DSI spy on them and copy their Deepmind secrets?
The REV2 is a Prophet 08 (launched in 2008), only updated, so I doubt Behringer would have had the high ground on this one. Apparently the case has been dismissed by the court.
Note that despite my pretty relativistic take on the matter, I canceled my Neutron pre-order. There’s the brain and then there’s the guts. I surely don’t need to buy a synth from a company that suffocates its employees while suing DSI and forum users. Maybe drawing the line at synths is an easy move, but… yeah I’ll pass.
Where did you read they sued DSI for making the Rev2? That’s not what was stated in the article linked by @MacroX.
The other shitty thing here is that DSI is dependent on Behringer for their Coolaudio chips (CEM/SSM clones). Being involved in a spat like this with a single source supplier is a little touchy.
Spot on!
they sue DSI because one engineer (privately) said his opinion … well … I think I can understand Behringer a tiny bit. But if they had thought one second about the whole thing they would have come to the conclusion that sueing will have the opposite effect (called the Streisand-Effect).