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View Full Version : Wow this article says is all - Mon$ter.


mikehbkwm
12-21-2004, 11:53 PM
got this from my buddy who visits another forum check it out its pretty funny but ohhh soooo truthful...


Monster Monsters

Americans are granted a certain inalienable set of rights. You know, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, a complimentary Livejournal to explain why we're laughing at you because "you're all the same"... all that crap. When our forefathers sat down at the Thanksgiving table and decided to tell that ******* Queen of France that, by God, we were going to praise God, they penned one of the most famous documents ever written besides "Dianetics." Unfortunately, as time passed, their highly praised New York Times bestseller "The Declaration of Independence" began to lose its significance in an age where poofy shirts and three-cornered hats were replaced with FUBU phat pants and gang rape. Sure all that life and liberty and happiness junk still stands, but the Declaration of Independence desperately needs an upgrade to be compatible with modern times. All Americans are granted a certain set of inalienable rights, and among those should be the right to NOT buy Monster Cables.

Go into any large electronics store anywhere. Pass by the drooling cretins shoving cellphones in your face and demanding you switch to some random telecommunications giant who promises a more expansive Modest Mouse ringtone download hub. Walk right past the elderly folks being scammed into buying a Sony laptop because "most modern email programs need at least two gigs of memory to function correctly." Ignore the teeming masses of incoherent white kids pretending to be black kids interested in buying CDs featuring black kids pretending to be white kids pretending to be black kids. You should now be in the store area displaying wooden bookshelf speakers and Casio keyboards, right next to the weathered dustbin overflowing with "$5.99 SUPER ACTION DVD COLLECTION COLLECTOR'S SET" movies such as "Nuclear Cop Solves a Crime" and "Street Justice: Passion on the Streets." Here comes the tricky part:

Find an audio cable which costs less than a dinner for two at the Outback Steakhouse (even with the cheese fries).

It's impossible. The days of shelves lined with "Awesome Audio Inc." and "Val-U-Save" y-splitters are long gone. Somewhere, in the back of a filthy and decrepit warehouse, lies palettes and palettes full of rusting copper speaker wire whose beige cardboard packaging slip has become unreadable beneath the aged layers of grease and soot. Us hardworking, patriotic American citizens who spend our free time never forgetting and talking about Dale Earnhardt's many accomplishments have been stripped of our rights to purchase decent, affordable cables by simply driving to an electronics store and using money to purchase them. Somewhere on some day spools and spools of cheap, crappy copper wire that disintegrates when breathed upon were tossed into a blazing pyre along with copies of pro-evolution textbooks and Spuds MacKenzie t-shirts, and not a single independent corporate watchdog caught wind of it. Monster Cable scratched another item off their "to do" list and completed their aggressive penetration of the retail electronics industry, successfully conniving their way into Radio Shack and further stretching their blackened tentacles outward like a toxic oil slick.

Radio Shack to sell Monster brand cables - Fort Worth-based Radio Shack Corp. (NYSE:RSH), one of the country's largest electronics retailers, said Friday that it has made a deal with Monster Cable Products Inc. that will bring the popular Monster-brand audio/video cables to its 7,000 stores nationwide. The cables made by California-based Monster Cable Products are considered the top brand of the high-performance cables that are used to connect audio/video components for home, car and professional use, as well as computers and computer games, Radio Shack said, in a press release.

For those of you who mistakenly chose to live in another country, another NON-AMERICAN country, Monster is a giant electronics heavyweight specializing in the creation of highly advanced hype and expensive packaging (like Bose, only with slightly larger boxes). Rumor has it they also own a factory somewhere that produces actual wires, but nobody has ever been able to successfully prove this. While Monster sells cables identical in performance and quality to virtually any other wire company not staffed by eight-year old Mexican slave laborers, they effortlessly set themselves apart from the competition with one of the most aggressive marketing and advertising departments since the birth of Lucifer himself. Monster doesn't spend money researching more effective methods to make the audio in their cables sound crisp and clean; they simply spend money researching more effective methods to claim that they do on their packaging.

For all intents and purposes, this strategy is paying off - big time. Every single major electronics store in America has signed lucrative contracts with Monster where all parties involved receive generous cash kickbacks every time some hardworking American walks into their store and buys their son a new DVD player, unaware that they are contractually obligated by law to purchase three feet of Monster's patented brand dual titanium braided alien alloy shielding complete with low-density insulation matrix and plutonium cancellation surge protection now with patented Monster Crunch technology which sends an arc of electricity through your balls every time it plays a Lil John track. If they refuse to buy one of these cables, store employees will sweep upon them like winged leeches, spouting off each and every "value point" Monster forced them to memorize during their three day training seminar entitled "If You Don't Sell Our Cables, We'll Behead Your Dog." Of course these wires cost nearly as much as the DVD player itself, even more if you include the Monster-brand power filtration adapting converter unit which instantly converts your cash into lines of high grade Columbian cocaine for the company's CEO.

To ensure they are the most obnoxious company in the free world, Monster has taken an extra bonus step to sue anybody even remotely using the word "monster" in any way whatsoever. This includes job placement companies, online Halloween costume shops, Disney (for their movie "Monsters Inc."), and their biggest threat in the fast-paced world of cut-throat consumerism: a vintage clothing store.

Two years ago MonsterVintage .com received a letter from a Trademark Attorney representing Monster Cable. We thought it bizarre and considered it to be Junk mail. After some time, I recieved a phone call from the attorney and he stated because I was using the word "Monster" I would have to sign a license to continue to use the Monstervintage.com name. Logo or design issues were never mentioned or I would have dealt with it). Then he continued with informing me that they get paid and sell their license and how much money could I come up with, I told him that MonsterVintage.Com is a small cottage business and has a limited budget. Monster Cable's Attorney then asked if I could come up with $1000.00. And then went on to say they also required 1% of the gross business yearly income. Of course, I did not agree with this strong-arm tactic and did not pay or sign the huge license agreement that was sent after that phone conversation, 1 1/2" thick License Agreement of pure legal trickery that was received around 5/2002.

Let's make a few things clear here: nobody in their right or even wrong minds could possibly confuse a store which sells vintage Barbara Streisand wigs with an electronics manufacturer which sells colorful words printed on top of thick plastic. There is absolutely no way anybody will ever load up MonsterVintage.com, view a page full of wrinkled Motley Crue concert t-shirts from the 80s, and ask themselves, "boy, I surely didn't know Monster Cables sold VINTAGE ORANGE HAWAIIAN DRESSES. I also didn't know they COMPLETELY CHANGED THEIR ENTIRE NAME. This truly is a step up from that silly multi-million dollar speaker wire racket they were running before!" It blows my mind to believe Monster can patent such a trivial and common word as "monster" and then attempt to enforce such a ridiculous concept with a bloodthirsty legal team full of psychotic *******s who'd felch their own mothers for a handful of bus tokens.

Now I'm all for ridiculous lawsuits and people trying to sue window manufacturers for failing to plaster their products with a few hundred stickers labeled "DO NOT TRY TO CHEW OR MAKE LOVE TO THE GLASS," because that kind of **** makes me laugh until I stop. But everything about Monster's company and their pro-alienation business plan seems just mind-bogglingly outrageous. How could any of Monster's expensive New York lawyers seriously argue that folks lining up to see Disney's "Monsters, Inc." mistakenly purchased their tickets believing they were going to watch two hours of speaker cable sitting on the floor and thrilling the audience with its amazing PEX dialectric insulation? More importantly, why did Monster demand the owner of the vintage clothing store give them $1000 up front and 1% of their gross business income? How the **** is that justified? Can they somehow prove that the sales increase of Members Only jackets is directly proportional to the sales of Monster Jazz Instrument Cables? Better yet, what the **** is a Monster Jazz Instrument Cable? Does jazz music really require its own special cables to accurately convey the subtle dynamics of an instrument which would otherwise be lost using the shoddy and inferior Monster Rock Instrument Cable?

Hey Monster, do I need to buy special ears to listen to jazz music? How come there aren't any Monster Rap Instrument Cables which excel in reproducing sampled cliched vinyl drum loops for 40 minutes? If you do ever begin manufacturing such a thing, be sure to start selling Monster 45-caliber bullets that I can use to decorate my brains all over the ceiling with MAXIMUM BLOOD SPREAD thanks to Monster's patented "MONSTER Explosive© Skull Diffusion© filter using patented TimeCorrection© DynaFlow© UltraMaximum© Technology©." I can imagine the their advertising angle: "The police claimed a single man killed 'Dimebag' Darrell, but we all know who really killed him - a load of awesome Monster 45s, the perfect bullet to make your point! All our Monster 45s are guaranteed for life to have the lowest possible wind resistance and kinetic energy displacement thanks to our patented Nitrogen-gas injected HydroAction© Flex-R-Zap© dielectric providing high velocities of propagation for maximum spread!"

It's really not that difficult to imagine Monster selling bullets. Hell, they are already selling season tickets to San Francisco 49ers games. They are already selling Monster Mints. If you thought either of those were mind-bendingly goofy, then prepare yourself for Monster USB cables, Monster DVI cables, and Monster printer cables. Why? Who the **** dreamed of these things? Are there filthy groups of lost and confused computer users out there demanding to know why their standard USB cable only lets them transfer text files containing passages from "The Bell Jar?" Has anybody ever said, "you know, this new printer we bought is awesome and everything, but I can't help to imagine how much better our documents would look if they came through a Monster printer cable! They're only $39.95 and are somehow personally endorsed by aging rocker Sammy Hagar, so let's buy a few hundred RIGHT NOW and then bask in the glow of our newly enhanced pie chart and tax return printouts!" The day Monster proves data travels significantly faster through their $35 "Ultimate Performance" cable is the day I go to their corporate offices and learn if a molotov cocktail with a Monster USB fuse burns faster than a normal one.

Monster is simply one of those giant companies I absolutely loathe for their terrible business tactics and questionable products. They prey on consumers' ignorance and lack of alternative choices to sell their grotesquely marked up snake-oil wire, strong arming all competition out of marketplaces and spreading through electronics chains like AIDS. Next time one of your wires goes bad and you need a replacement pronto, you've got two choices: either go to the local electronics store and spend $50 on a three-foot long Monster cable, or go to a somewhat different electronics store and spend $100 on a six-foot long Monster cable. Radio Shack, the last bastion of cable sanity, doesn't even sell their patented brand of 99-cent Awesome Vision cables which were recently upgraded to reproduce the yellow and "most of the blues." Yet despite having completely dominated the field by cramming a bloated wad of marketing and aggressive sales down the throats of every person in this continent, they continue to hammer away on rival vintage clothing stores and online shops selling Halloween masks, not content on resting until the dictionary entry for "monster" has a little "c" with a circle around it. If Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were alive to see the kind of ruthless tyranny Monster has used to penetrate America, they'd probably say, "OH GOD, WE'RE SOOOOOOO COOOLD, KILL US, KILL US PLEASE!!!" You know, because their flesh fell off decades ago. Maybe they just need some Monster Skin.

HDCowboy
12-22-2004, 07:01 AM
Just recently read the email coming into the MonsterVintage site and followed a few links to see what Mon_ter Cable has been up to... I'm disgusted...

Yesterday I bought Belden 1505A cable from the local electronics supply store B&E Electronics Calgary AB, Some Neutrik's gold plated RCAs which are cut and tapered for a tight fit, and some PET flex braid in various colors and as of tonight I built my own first set of "BetterBeldenNeutrikCowboyCables"(c) these BBNCC's(c) can be put together by my new firm for about $14. Canadian tax included plus $labour.... $14 bucks... I can't wait to convert all my stuff to BBNCC(c) cables just so that I can get rid of the Mons_er hiding behind my home theatre....

I got the kids to check under the bed for me but they assure me there are no interconnects hiding under there....

I loved emailing Mon_ter to tell them I needed a power bar/conditioner so I bought a Belkin.... :rockon:

Look for "BBNCC" cables soon to be crowding out a Mo_ster display near you soon :rofl2:

Crunchyriff
12-22-2004, 08:25 AM
Monster will not get one penny from me ever again. This is something I already decided, and this article just hardens my resolve.

They can go pound sand.

I hope other people with brains, class and a sense of ethics do likewise.

When Floyd Rose took his suits (read: attorneys) to the NAMM show in the 80's to sue anyone using fine-tuners on any stringed instruments (and violins, viols and what-not have had them for how many hundred years now?) because he went and 'patented' the fine tuner....I thought the greed of humanity had reached an all-time low.

Noel Lee and his Monster corporation have eclipsed Floyd Rose by a wide margin.

What a bottom-feeder.

kevinw
12-22-2004, 10:47 AM
When I went to my local Radio Shack to pick up some component cables I saw the Monsters on display. Just for grins I asked a the manager what was the difference between RS component and RS composite other than the color bands? I asked if there were any specs onhis cables.
His reply was that the RS brands were lousy and Monster were the best. I laughed and told him I'll never buy something from his store again if he thinks Monster was better. The guy was a retard.

mjones73
12-22-2004, 10:50 AM
Personally I hope that company rots into the ground but that article was a bit over the top when it comes to being offensive...

roman
12-22-2004, 11:05 AM
I know its called Monster, cause paying $115 for 3ft of copper and stuff scared the hell out of me. My RS sucks too. That guy in the store thinks all that walk in at retarded and he is Mr Know-it-all! Now I will unwind the copper from the back of old speakers soldier on some connectors and make my own cables.

noffsin6
12-22-2004, 11:17 AM
I had to buy the DVI to HDMI cable for my new DVD player on Amazon. The only DVI to HDMI cables I saw at local stores were Monster :yborg:

I think the cable I bought was $75 cheaper on Amazon with next day shipping.

seanb
12-22-2004, 11:43 AM
Oh man! I was online trying to buy some vintage clothing the other day and accidentally ended up with 200 feet of overpriced speaker wire! These guys are insane. Take a look at the list of companies they're suing over their copyright. The list includes the Chicago Bears ("Monsters of the Midway") and Sesame Workshop (for "Cookie Monster" I suppose). The list goes on and on.

Funny part is that I thought the stadium named Monster Park was named by Monster.com!

Regretting buying any of their products.

Sean

mjones73
12-22-2004, 12:10 PM
I'm glad they changed the law in San Francisco so when the contract is up it goes back to Candlestick Park and stays that way.

noffsin6
12-22-2004, 01:13 PM
Oh man! I was online trying to buy some vintage clothing the other day and accidentally ended up with 200 feet of overpriced speaker wire! These guys are insane. Take a look at the list of companies they're suing over their copyright. The list includes the Chicago Bears ("Monsters of the Midway") and Sesame Workshop (for "Cookie Monster" I suppose). The list goes on and on.

Funny part is that I thought the stadium named Monster Park was named by Monster.com!

Regretting buying any of their products.

Sean

Yeah that's what I thought too, but it doesn't really matter which Monster has the naming rights for Candlestick park. I'm pretty sure Monster Cables sued Monster.com and they get a cut of any profits monster.com makes as part of a settlement.

mjones73
12-22-2004, 02:16 PM
Yes they did sue monster.com and settled with them.

Greysquirrel
12-22-2004, 02:51 PM
I don't know how many are aware of the fact that Brown is a registered trade mark of UPS, yet I have yet to see them suing anyone for using the work Brown in their business name.
Could the Brown Derby or even Brown Betty pudding be in jeopardy here or is UPS above all this nonsense and know when Brown is used it their ads we will be smart enough to know it's an ad for UPS and that the Brown Derby is a Restaurant and not a pick up spot for UPS.


As far as Monster Cable and RS goes I agree with all of you. :rmoon2:

mcwheeler
12-22-2004, 03:09 PM
Absolutely loved that article, I was laughing so hard some of my co-workers were looking at me funny.

The strange thing is, I am relatively new to the Home Theater thing and I had always assumed that Monster Cables were the only safe way to go. It ends up that the $15 set of Philips 2M component cables I got at Walmart have just as much performance as Monsters do, and I think they look better too:)

One thing I hate more than anything is Nazi-like corporate greed, something I developed through years of working for GE and seeing how cheap they are and how they screw the little guy (as in the low level workers) to maximize their fiscal year profit reports. That being said, this article has solidified my resolve as well to never buy Monster Cable again. Amazon has a great selection of non-Monster cables and I also found that Onecall.com has a huge selection of A/V cables as well.

Cheers Guys, Happy Holidays!

mjones73
12-22-2004, 03:09 PM
My understanding is Monster copyrighted the word Monster in every way possible where other people didn't have the mind to. This is what's allowing them to go after anyone using the word in any way. UPS probably only has it copyrighted to protect themselves from other people in the same type of business from using it or isn't a bunch of greedy SOB's that want to extort money from everyone possible..

I just stumbled accross this, it just amazes me how greedy this company is. Shame we can't make this information more readily available, I'm sure a lot of people would think twice about buying their crap if they knew what they are up to.

http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?qt=adv&qs=monster%20cable%20products&page=1

kevinw
12-22-2004, 03:32 PM
Monster Shrimp can be confused with :hah33: Monster cable...? Time for a national boycot .. Oh yeah I don't buy the brand anyway... :whistle:

wkrasl
12-22-2004, 03:46 PM
Yes they did sue monster.com and settled with them.

My net pay recently dropped $115 per pay period. It turns out I had gotten my job through Monster.com, and the new deduction was part of that settlement. :mecry:

NOT! :rmoon2:

wkrasl
12-22-2004, 03:54 PM
I recall reading a short story recently where some guy reinvented the wheel and got a patent for it. Nobody else had gotten around to it. :rofl2:

Now where did I put my old Round Tuit? :whistle:

Matt27
12-22-2004, 06:27 PM
Monster who, oh you mean monster "CRAP"!!!!lol

Tan Man
12-22-2004, 07:14 PM
Monster does seem to have been a monster here, but you need to understand the way trademark and trade name enforcement works. If you have a trademark or trade name, and you don't "protect" it, you can lose the rights associated with it (i.e., the right to prevent real competitors or other people who really are trying to piggyback off your name).

So it's not that they WANT to go after Boudreaux for his Monster Shrimp (at least I hope they don't), it's that if they don't, they could lose the right to prevent somebody who truly is in competition from using it. That's why you get all these wacky situations where little league teams get sued by Major League Baseball because they haven't "licensed" the use of the names of the MLB teams and stuff like that. It's silly, but there's no assurance that if you don't pursue EVERYBODY using your mark or trade name, that the next guy won't claim you've waived the right to enforce it. Gotta love the law.

mikehbkwm
12-22-2004, 08:25 PM
i just really and honestly hate monster cables they are a totall ripoff... im not saying they dont make good products but they arent worth the money they charge for their products and they arent any better then other reasonably priced cables out there.....

Crunchyriff
12-23-2004, 02:07 AM
Best Alternative to the "Monster Collective" (and a far better value, IMHO):

Blue Jeans Cable.

word.

HDCowboy
12-23-2004, 05:33 AM
(spoken with Transylvanian accent) Two!!!!.... Two sets of finely crafted component cables!!! I am the Count, because I love to count, with Cookie Monster looking on!!!!

Officially Two BBNCC (c) brand cables feeding HD and DVD to the 'ol TV....

Mun$ter (sic) kiss my Canadian :rmoon2:

INVESTED $28 CDN = Two sets component cable (swept to 3GHz- whatever) = MOON$ter not getting my $180 CDN... Even have the fancy PET flex braid like the other guys' (that's what we'll be calling them when BBNCC's hit the open market) but my flex braid is coloured to match the connector!!! :hyper: I find this probably makes them function much better :Party6:

incrediblenerds
12-27-2004, 07:58 PM
according to the trademark office, there are 46 filings using the single word "monster" as a trademark:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=m14384.1.1&p_search=searchstr&Search+History=&p_L=100&p_plural=no&p_s_PARA1=monster&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24FM&expr=PARA1+or+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24ALL&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query

KimmiKat
12-28-2004, 09:08 AM
I remember recently looking for a cable and only found the Monster crap. After several stores I finally found some non-Monster cables. I'm no fan of that company and they're getting to big for their britches. They even went after another mboard for a thread that was anti-Monster. The admins threw the thread, but the company didn't let up.

coyote
12-28-2004, 12:09 PM
Yeah but there's a problem. Monster Cables KNOWS they will succeed. Why? Because a decade ago, some coffee house persuaded average Americans to pay $4.50 for a cup of beverage they'd previously been buying for 50 cents. At that same time in history, consumers had driven the price of parallel printer cables from $18.00 down to $3.99.... then along came USB, and we're once again paying $20.00 for something that costs about 60 cents.

PT Barnum was right after all....

KimmiKat
12-28-2004, 02:43 PM
A few years ago at a local college many students howled when Starbucks replaced the cafeteria vender and there wasn't a place a campus to get food or soda other then a roach coach. After a semester, Starbucks added soda and some sandwiches a semester later they moved off campus and the caferteria vender returned.

KimmiKat
01-03-2005, 07:01 AM
That's pretty good! What's ironic as I type this, there's an banner above for Moon$ter... :confused:

(spoken with Transylvanian accent) Two!!!!.... Two sets of finely crafted component cables!!! I am the Count, because I love to count, with Cookie Monster looking on!!!!

Officially Two BBNCC (c) brand cables feeding HD and DVD to the 'ol TV....

Mun$ter (sic) kiss my Canadian :rmoon2:

INVESTED $28 CDN = Two sets component cable (swept to 3GHz- whatever) = MOON$ter not getting my $180 CDN... Even have the fancy PET flex braid like the other guys' (that's what we'll be calling them when BBNCC's hit the open market) but my flex braid is coloured to match the connector!!! :hyper: I find this probably makes them function much better

HDCowboy
01-04-2005, 02:08 AM
Had to flip "back" AND "forward" a couple times to catch it :wow: (changes banner that way) but that's too funny!!! :rofl2:

KimmiKat
01-04-2005, 05:20 AM
One thing I thought of after I posted last is although we may hate them, their banner here maybe helping pay the bills here. The other day I was in a major electonics chain and their Moon$ter display area actually shrunk and they had other brands of cables there. There's hope. Now to get their name off Candlestick Park in SF.

Had to flip "back" AND "forward" a couple times to catch it :wow: (changes banner that way) but that's too funny!!! :rofl2:

incrediblenerds
01-08-2005, 06:10 PM
wal-mart (the company that gives their employees training on how tro apply for food stamps, etc.) no stocks ADT brand cables.... ADT is a company that built a brand on high quality products. Let's see how long it takes the bean-counters at wal-mart to screw up a great brand.

while i was there i purchased some female to female RCA "barrel" connectors with the "PHILLIPS" brand on them. somehow wal-mart must have convinced them that consumers don't actually CARE if the cables fit into the connector... they were TOO SHORT to fully insert a normal male RCA into each end. ended up going to radio shack and paying a buck more for proper size, as a bonus they were gold plated as well. but i bet phillips saved a penny on each one by shortening them.

incrediblenerds
01-08-2005, 06:10 PM
above post: NOW stocks ADT brand... i can't type worth a darn

KimmiKat
01-09-2005, 04:50 AM
They're still at it... (The odd thing right now is one of their banners is above as I type this.)

Link: Monster fiercely protects its name (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/08/BUG1J9N3C61.DTL&type=business)

jackjohnson24
01-09-2005, 10:00 AM
Maybe im reading to much into, but reading this gave me a feeling that the author has something personal against african americans and their music. From the white kids having to be inhorent to want to buy music with black kids on it, to the monster rap cables that play cliched drum loops for 40min. I personally wasnt amused by those comments, and are easy to be taken the wrong way if they werent meant to be.

HDCowboy
01-09-2005, 10:09 AM
Maybe im reading to much into, but reading this gave me a feeling that the author has something personal against african americans and their music. From the white kids having to be inhorent to want to buy music with black kids on it, to the monster rap cables that play cliched drum loops for 40min. I personally wasnt amused by those comments, and are easy to be taken the wrong way if they werent meant to be.
What are you talking about??? Posted in the wrong spot maybe? :wow:

jackjohnson24
01-09-2005, 10:15 AM
Um, did you even read the article? Im talking about the comments that i guess were suppose to be jokes.

HDCowboy
01-09-2005, 10:39 AM
sorry, I did believe that you were posting in reference to the Chronicle news article that was linked to by Kimmikat....

Yes with regards to the original article at the start of the thread.... there are those inferences made that could be considered somewhat inflamatory. Further than the ones that you brought up I might add...

I believe that the intent of the submission was to provide a glimpse at just how rediculous Mon$ter Cable has become and that this was done by writing a number of rediculous things within the article... I think though that it needs to be kept in context... It's bashing Mon$ter... and overall a well written hoot...

It's also been 20 days or so since I read it and thought that your posting was with regards to the most recent article referenced... again my apologies...

jackjohnson24
01-09-2005, 10:44 AM
Its cool man. No problems :). I agree, it was funny at times, and i got how the author was just making fun of monster, and the retail business in general (i know, i worked at best buy and know some of the tactics we sellers had to use), but he needed to be a little more careful with some of the topics which in my opinion were offensive. Probally didnt even realize some of those comments could be taken the wrong way, as he probally thinks like that in 'real life'.

pcorrado
04-13-2006, 01:20 AM
My understanding is Monster copyrighted the word Monster in every way possible where other people didn't have the mind to. This is what's allowing them to go after anyone using the word in any way. UPS probably only has it copyrighted to protect themselves from other people in the same type of business from using it or isn't a bunch of greedy SOB's that want to extort money from everyone possible..

I just stumbled accross this, it just amazes me how greedy this company is. Shame we can't make this information more readily available, I'm sure a lot of people would think twice about buying their crap if they knew what they are up to.

http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?qt=adv&qs=monster%20cable%20products&page=1

It would not be a copyright (a logo could be not always a word but in some cases maybe i think the term 3-peat is copyright - copyrights extend to expressions of ideas and not mere ideas) Monster would be a trademark and sadly if they can make a case that the use of the name "monster" in something will give the wrong impression or association to their company - they are within their rights to sue.

mikehbkwm
04-13-2006, 11:45 AM
Man I haven't seen this thread in a while.

kevinw
04-13-2006, 01:06 PM
It would not be a copyright (a logo could be not always a word but in some cases maybe i think the term 3-peat is copyright - copyrights extend to expressions of ideas and not mere ideas) Monster would be a trademark and sadly if they can make a case that the use of the name "monster" in something will give the wrong impression or association to their company - they are within their rights to sue.
No matter how you say it- any business, company or person that uses the -word- Monster in describing a product, place or business can expect to be sued....Tell me how Wrigley chewing gum can be confused with a Monster cable product??/

S10 Guru
04-13-2006, 05:23 PM
I was asked to leave and not return to a local Circuit City store just after the Holidays this year.
There was a older man with a wad of cash purchasing a new TV and DVD player along with a surround system. I was looking around comparing products before I bought them online cheaper.The sales rep had this guy pinned to the Monster Cable section picking out all the cabled he needed to hook this whole thing up. I stuck my nose in and told him there are DVI cables in the computer section. Component cables just down the road at Wallymart for $15 and Phillips branded and could get some lamp cord at WallyMart for speakers.But thats if the boxes he bought didnt have any in it allready which most have alot of cables with and look first. He got the manager over to shut me up and I went ahead and explained Monster Cable ripoffs to them. Well one thing lead to another and the manager asked me why I was there in the store if I didnt like what they had. I told him straight out in front of now a growing crowd that I was there to compare some stuff which I planed to purchase online for much cheaper at Beach Camera and Tiger. Got everyone attention and mumblings started from others then I was removed from the store!!!

Kenetics
04-13-2006, 06:19 PM
Ha! Good for you Guru.
Did Monster invent the word "monster"?

DrewB
04-21-2006, 10:02 PM
I've yet to use Monster cable, specifically because of an article in Stereo Review (remember when it was called that?) about 10 years ago: Cable connections between components are nearly irrelevant. Sure, there's some lab equipment that could detect differences, but that was about it. For the testing (double blind), they used identical high-end systems--one hooked up with premium cables all the way through in the best possible way, the other hooked up with crap of different lengths, gauges and quality. In fact, the speakers were wired with lamp cord. The result: No audible difference.

Decent quality connections are a necessity. No question about that. But Monster is a pure joke of a marketing machine, and people seem to be eating it up. (Wish they cared as much about PICTURE QUALITY as they seemingly do about cable quality.)

If some independently wealthy person wants to spend $50/foot on cable, go for it. Just don't pass it off as a necessity for common-man systems. If any of you have a chance to check out the National Systems Contractors Show, you'll see the obscene money the cabling industry (not just Monster...although they're the worst) actually makes.

Kenetics
05-22-2006, 09:25 AM
I noticed yesterday at my local Home Depot, in the electrical section, there is a big wooden display board set up with a sign: "Coming soon, Monster Cable!". I guess everyone wants a piece of the monster mark-up.

lilsean95
05-23-2006, 10:16 PM
I love capitalism, hell if you could do the same thing you would. I bet all you people on here complaining have a computer at home and that cpu has Microsoft products on it and PLEASE doesnt Microsoft sell you a product that you have to renew ever year or take the chance of being outdate and having to buy a new cpu or OS. Hence, over priced and taking advantage of consumers, but Bill Gates is considered a GENUIS. I dont consider Monster a great company, but I used a friend who works at Best Buy and I got the Monster Cables at 60% off and then what does it matter it my money just like it other and mined your own business and we will all be fine. Much better to have the freedom of choice and of opinions. Any way, all things are relative so is Monster Cable just making a living for the people working for them. Get over it and buy what you want. Tahnk God for Americans and America

mjones73
05-23-2006, 10:35 PM
I bought my copy of XP 3 years ago for less money then what a Monster HDMI cable costs for my current computer and haven't had to put a cent towards it since then... MS hasn't put out a new OS in 4-5 years either. If I decided to upgrade to a new machine, I can transfer the license for the OS over to it without needing to buy a new copy of it also. Hell I have an old P3 machine I use strictly for work that's running Win98 and it's working fine.

The average home computer these days will last a quite a few years without needing CPU upgrades, we are at the point where the computing power of a new PC is overkill for the average user as it is, only people running applications that require high end CPUs such as video editing or newer high end games might need to upgrade at a higher rate... Also, MS isn't the one selling the CPUs.

You might want to re-think your MS arguement..

I agree americans have the choice to buy what they want, the problem is a company like Monster has set this image around their overpriced products that they are better then anything out there and you must have them for the best PQ quality. When the average Joe walks into his local electronics store, the first thing shoved in his face when he's looking for cables for his new TV is Monster this and Monster that and if he doesn't know any better (which most people buying consumer electronics don't,) he's gonna get ripped off buying something when he could have bought a cheaper product that could have given him the same result.

Splicer
05-24-2006, 12:40 AM
mjones73,

And I agree to a point...But i don't think the average Joe being uninformed is Monsters fault. They found and are filling a niche and it works. Better or not is strictly a matter of subjectivity, nothing else. What you may think is best I may think is not. Mindset is the determining factor here, not actual specifications. In every industry there is a 'Monster'. Sony comes to mind as a 'Monster'...Bose is another...Motorola yet another. You know how the saying goes...'Buyer Beware'. :cheers:

Fore left!
05-24-2006, 02:39 AM
Monster isn't the worst offender...........just the most well-known. They are the Bose of the wire world (although,unlike Bose, they are a quality product).

There are wire touters out there with all kinds of designs claiming perfect signal transfer. Saw one that uses magnetic dielectrics in their speaker cables.............for a mere $600 per pair of 6-footers. Funny thing is that many people buy this stuff & claim it does improve the sound of their system.

mikehbkwm
05-24-2006, 03:27 AM
Hate on Bill Gates all you want, but lets be honest Windows is pretty cool. Granted I know you computer nerd out there will say NOOO Linux rulz or OS 10 rulz but sorry I gotta say Windows works for me just like millions and millions of other people on this earth. I'm drunk right now so if I'm not making a whole lotta sense then sorry but thought I'd throw my 2 cents in...... :cheers:

Splicer
05-24-2006, 08:08 AM
Monster isn't the worst offender...........just the most well-known. They are the Bose of the wire world (although,unlike Bose, they are a quality product).

There are wire touters out there with all kinds of designs claiming perfect signal transfer. Saw one that uses magnetic dielectrics in their speaker cables.............for a mere $600 per pair of 6-footers. Funny thing is that many people buy this stuff & claim it does improve the sound of their system.
Again, this is all subjective to the end user...

Kenetics
05-24-2006, 09:43 AM
There is nothing wrong with competition, in fact, it is necessary to keep prices down and to encourage technical advancement. The problem is, many of the stores that sell audio and video equipment only have Monster cables available. That is no problem for those that are knowledgable as we just go elsewhere for our cable and power needs, but for newbees it could be discouraging to see the high prices of connecting up a system. A business that also sells a variety of cables, and has honest and informed salespersons, would certainly win my support.

A far as Microsoft is concerned, it is probably a good thing that one operating system is predominant. Compatibility used to be a big issue in software and computer components and MS has certainly been a big help in solving these problems. One only has to remember the era before windows to recognize the difference. There is still enough competition from Apple and Linux to keep MS on its toes.

57U
05-24-2006, 10:06 AM
The thing that I don't like about Mon$ter is their deceitful practices. Although their products are typically good and their prices for that product are much higher than other similar products, it's their so-called "comparisons" that bother me.

They compare composite to component video connections trying to fool the customer.

They compare their speaker wire with a much thinner and longer connection for so-called "comparisons".

This is deceit and that's the issue for me.

KimmiKat
05-24-2006, 10:38 AM
What annoys me when some stores switch to Mon$ter cable like Radio Shaft and Home Depot. I used to bee able to get a special adapter at RS for $3.99, but the last time I went there to get it, it was replaced by a Mon$ter version for $79.99. I asked if they had the old version or if I could order it special, they said it was no longer available. I ended up getting it online from someone else.

There is nothing wrong with competition, in fact, it is necessary to keep prices down and to encourage technical advancement. The problem is, many of the stores that sell audio and video equipment only have Monster cables available. That is no problem for those that are knowledgable as we just go elsewhere for our cable and power needs, but for newbees it could be discouraging to see the high prices of connecting up a system. A business that also sells a variety of cables, and has honest and informed salespersons, would certainly win my support.

           


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