Not sure what to make of this, other than I'm disappointed with the extremely childish way it was handled on both sides. I joined GeekHack thinking this community was above that level of petty bickering and schoolyard name-calling. I guess I was wrong.
Some of you could use a lesson in economics. When you force exclusivity on a product you create an abundance of demand. When the demand reaches a threshold, knockoffs will inevitably appear to satisfy it. This is not to say I support knockoffs. But if you want your clacks/brobots/gasmasks/whatever to remain limited and "special", then you should prepare for there to be knockoffs. Because people want to buy them and somebody, somewhere is going to seize that opportunity. Welcome to Economics 101.
It's also somewhat hypocritical to vehemently defend GH Maker keycaps and in the very next breath, run off to GMK IMSTO to beg for your copyrighted images to be printed/subbed onto caps and buy them by the shipping container. Guess what, that image/icon/logo belongs to somebody too -- maybe a big, faceless, corporate somebody who doesn't post on GeekHack, but still somebody interested in defending his copyright and his intellectual property. Is it only totally cool to steal someone's work when they aren't GH members? Where do you draw the line?
What a mess.
Edit: I chose my example poorly. I probably should have said IMSTO when I said GMK. I'll leave the original intact so that all may witness my shame.
The greater point remains.
