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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by j1love I too am a newbie at this. I too am considering changing my locomotive collection to DCC. What I don't understand is this: why all of the concern and controversy? It seems that after reading constant threads on this issue, that most agree that MTH is at the center of it. They caused the issue by making a grab for more than they are entitled to. So VODTE WITH YOUR WALLET. I realize that they have a huge following in the 3-rail world, but I have not heard of any resounding endorsements of their products from anyone here. (Big Boy seems to respect their rolling stock efforts). If they (MTH) have less paying customers, then they cannot waste their valualble capital on useless endeavors such as claiming patent protection over the entire next generation of DCC sound boards. Spend your money elsewhere and they will capitulate to the model railroad community's demands. (I just bought a BLI T-1 and read the thread AFTER the train show left-that is my motivation for writing this reply). Just my 0.02 [/quote] Good question. However, we can't vote with our dollar if they own the patent. They can effectively make money on the patent, regardless of whose product you buy. The real controversy right now is that we cannot get the products that we were waiting on, and potentially could see a freeze or loss of products that were being produced. This is a serious disruption to the flow of DCC technology. Sure, there was tension in the industry before, but this could create a truely adversarial relationship that keeps all of the companies from "sharing" any ideas. This could cause all DCC manufacturers to "patent" their changes, meaning the first one to the patent office would take the next step. Or worse, MTH is granted free reign, and they become the Microsoft of the DCC world. (This is not a slam on Microsoft, just a historical truth that MTH could be in charge of licensing major aspects of DCC, and could choose to only allow their own product or specification regardless of customer satisfaction.) The bi-directional communication is the key to combining signalling, block detection, travelling or loco specific sound, etc...
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