DIYbanter - View Single Post - Consumer Products Safety Commision - New table saw rules on the horizon.(sawstop, et. al.)

J. Clarke[_2_]

In article ,
says...

zzzzzzzzzz wrote:

All those inventions and new-fangled stuff that have been legislated
down our throats - seatbelts, intermittant wipers, airbags. And
forget about houses! CO and smoke detectors, standardized stair
dimensions, GFIs and AFCIs - hell, the whole electrical panel
requirement is a government-let plot to separate people from their
liberties!

There was no government mandated monopoly for any of those.

There's no proposed government monopoly for saws either. True, there's only
one product on the market that will stop a saw blade before it does damage.
But that doesn't mean others won't come along.

When they do get back to us.

Not too many years ago, the federal government, in its infinite wisdom, and
acting in a beneficent and loving manner for all the public, regardless of
race, gender, or hair-length, mandated that washing machine tubs stop their
spin cycle in five seconds or so any time the door was opened. Countless
children (well, maybe two) are alive today because of this ruling.

So did this require patented technology available from only one source?

So it might be with saws.

Find, mandate the thing but take the guy's patents away from him.

In fact, if such a ruling comes into force, it might spell the end for
SawStop! Not wanting to pay the exorbitant fees demanded by SawStop,
manufacturers will beaver their way to a non-infringing alternative.

What alternative would that be?

This
new technique may end up costing the saw manufacturer fifty-cents per
machine and double-dribble SawStop into oblivion.

Uh huh, right, they're going to instantly invent this new technology the
moment a new regulation is enacted.

You could make the same argument about air bags. But guess what, we got
air bags.