Monster Cables picked the wrong guy to threaten (2008)

oncontracts.com

565 points by wallflower a month ago


jaredandrews - a month ago

I had no idea Monster sold anything other than over priced guitar cables... About 15 yeard ago, I knew a guy who exclusively bought Monster... well he had two of them, one from the guitar to the pedal board and another from the board to the amp.

But it wasn't because of their alleged improved sound quality or whatever, it was because they had a lifetime warranty. Dude had bought two monster 1/4inch cables and gotten them replaced "for free" like 5 times.

From what I can tell they got rid of the lifetime warranty around 2018 and have mostly transitioned to licensing their name.

biglyburrito - a month ago

The complete story: https://www.bluejeanscable.com/legal/mcp/index.htm

spacedcowboy - a month ago

Or you could screw up so monumentally that the “case” (it was never actually brought) becomes an actual meme. I give you the case of Arkell vs Pressdram [1]. I have actually seen a response to a business threat which ended with “I refer you to the response in the case of Arkell vs Pressdram”…

1: https://proftomcrick.com/2014/04/29/arkell-v-pressdram-1971/

tqi - a month ago

Monster Cables is a name I hadn't thought about in ages... I mostly remember them as the company that tried to convince people that digital images would look better via a more expensive cable.

RustyRussell - a month ago

OK, the whole "I am a lawyer" was next-levelled by this closing sentence: "Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it."

ocdtrekkie - a month ago

So I clicked the first link to read about the actual claim, and I was floored by the author bio at the bottom: "Clint Deboer was terminated from Audioholics for misconduct on April 4th, 2014. He no longer represents Audioholics in any fashion."

Gotta wonder how bad you gotta screw up to have your byline on every article you wrote permanently set to that.

npunt - a month ago

In my head canon Monster Cables pivoted to become Monster Energy and justified it to shareholders as 'we're still in the business of getting people wired'

stego-tech - a month ago

It was this story that clued me into BJC as an entity in the first place. Gladly shelled out a couple hundred bucks for solidly-built custom speaker interconnects a few years later with them, and have zero regrets.

As far as legal tactics go, I’m very sympathetic to his position and wish more folks would fight to the finish instead of settling for nuisance values.

m463 - a month ago

I remember buying audio gear (think receiver, amplifier, cd player) and being the focus of the upsell for 2-5x more expensive monster cables.

Once I patiently explained that a cable shouldn't matter for digital as long as the bits got there, and seeing the young sales guy pause and then "get it". And I got the (relatively) cheap cables.

Also speaker wire. You can get perfectly good copper cables for less, probably in a thicker gauge wire.

CalChris - a month ago

Reminds me of when Caterpillar (trucks+tractors) sued Cat and Cloud Coffee (coffee) in Santa Cruz for trademark infringement.

https://www.ksbw.com/article/cat-and-cloud-coffee-in-santa-c...

Nifty3929 - a month ago

It's not that they picked the wrong guy to threaten - it's just that this particular one won't work out for Monster. No worries, on to the next. If 1 guy out of 100 fights back, and then you just leave that one alone, you're still a big winner.

schumpeter - a month ago

You have to wonder what it is with companies having “monster” in their names that makes them such monsters.

This story reminded me of the multi-year battle by Monster energy going after MonsterFishKeepers.com

https://reefbuilders.com/2016/03/01/monster-fish-keepers-win...

walrus01 - a month ago

Previously, monster cable vs. using a coat hanger for a speaker wire.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-e&channel=ent...

seanhunter - a month ago

I was once co-head of a tech company that had an "i" in the title. Like a bajillion other companies our logo was basically just the company's name in a particular font and we turned the dot above the "i" into a little circle in a different colour. So far so not very surprising.

A few months in we got a cease-and-desist from a company who claimed (and I'm not making this up) to have a trademark on the idea of making the dot of an "i" into a little circle in a different colour, and said that the trade dress of our logo was infringing because their logo was just their company name in a (different) font with the dot on the "i" being a circle in a different colour.

I wrote back and asked them to clarify that it was their contention that that was a trademark and making it very clear I would fight it and we had no intention of changing anything. They disappeared.

It's really important not to feed this nonsense by caving to the trolls.

fmajid - a month ago

Blue Jeans Cable is outstanding, and an oasis of sanity and competence in an audiophile market saturated with snake oil peddlers.

seattle_spring - a month ago

Ha, I love that this is about Blue Jeans Cables. I actually just bought some of their stuff this week-- really incredibly well made cables. Their website looks like it hasn't been updated in the 90s, which leads me to believe that cable quality and website quality are inversely correlated.

chrisweekly - a month ago

All bullies are cowards.

kevin_thibedeau - a month ago

Nice dig at the supreme court on their payments page. Kurt hasn't lost his mojo.

https://www.bluejeanscable.com/paymentinfo.htm

bigtex - a month ago

When I worked at Best Buy in the late 90's, we were trained on the virtues of Monster AV cables, which they pushed because they were an accessory with high margins. I recall one time when a sales manager cut open a cheaper version of some cables and discussed how it had less wiring and insulation, which I think he did with Monster cable to show the drastic difference. I think they had like 3 levels of quality, the cheap stuff, the mid-grade stuff and Monster. Even though I worked there I only ever bought the mid-grade because the quality to price ratio was great.

watersb - a month ago

I bought a pair of utterly ludicrous Monster stereo speaker cables off eBay a coyotes of decades ago, when I was putting together a home audio system.

Audio stereophile-wise, I could replace them with zip wire (two conductor, twisted 24-gauge cable). But they wouldn't have the neat nylon braided jacket, or shove things out of the way when I'm moving the speakers.

It was stupid but fun to add them to my setup, and now I'm glad I have them.

I also have some interconnect cables from Blue Jeans Cable, that fellow is awesome.

If Monster is suing him, may they burn in court.

noduerme - a month ago

>> developed an intense frustration with insurance carriers who would settle meritless claims for nuisance value when the better long-term view would have been to fight against vexatious litigation as a matter of principle

I got let out of 2-3 months of jury duty on an asbestos case by saying basically the same thing. Voir dire is fun, particularly if you manage to scare the bejezus out of both sides.

kazinator - a month ago

I'm thinking, what are the odds that the president of some boutique audio cable company would be a litigator.

samgranieri - a month ago

Aw man, how the heck did I miss this back in 2008? I bought some monster cables that year and had I of know about this, I would have declined.

seeing this pugnacious lawyer write an excellent response has me considering buying from blue jeans.

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ghshephard - a month ago

I read the letter and it looked like pretty much the first negotiating position of any lawyer. Regardless of what you think, convince the opposition that you are prepared to litigate to the end of time.

jb3689 - a month ago

Musicians picked Monster because they were reliable and had an excellent replacement policy not because of brand ego. The Darn Tough of cables at least in terms of policies

mmaunder - a month ago

So he’s going to aggressively not let them land any punches? Sometimes a bully needs an ass kicking.

dkh - a month ago

I want to be this man when I grow up

acobster - a month ago

Perhaps the coolest way I've ever seen someone say "I'd love to see you try."

cwillu - a month ago

Some followup available at https://web.archive.org/web/20080503164740/www.freesoftwarem...

*edit to fix link; in the future, maybe tell me it broke instead of reflexively downvoting

SeanLuke - a month ago

Meh. If this was the wrong guy to threaten, then he would have sued to overturn their design patents. Instead he just told them where they could stick it. That's done all the time.

nosequel - a month ago

I've been a fan of blue jeans cables for 15+ years, I'm so glad they are the subject of this post. Blue Jeans just makes high quality stuff for solid prices and no BS.

1970-01-01 - a month ago

Good lawyers are expensive because they're worth it.

nukem222 - a month ago

I don't quite understand the point of litigating businesses in civil court if existential threats are excluded from judgement. What is the reasoning behind a fine being sufficient to incentivize following the law when you can make so much more money not following the law? I also don't understand what the point of shareholders and board members are if they can't be personally held liable for their investments violating civil laws.

What is the fucking rationale behind that? Why must we baby shareholders and be cruel to workers despite the latter providing 100% of society's value?

vayup - a month ago

Has a "...what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you." energy to it.

VoodooJuJu - a month ago

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hagen_dogs - a month ago

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bachmidt1007 - a month ago

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belter - a month ago

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