Why do you guys call Maglites M@gs?

The subject says it all. I don't get it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Me either.

maybe it is to avoid coming up on search engins. I think lots of people don't like mag peeking in.

I've seen them called Gag-Lites, Fag-Lites, M@g-Lites, and similar horse puckey.
I'm guessing JonSidneyB has the correct explanation.

I don't know if it is still going on, probably is, but M@g has a problem with Peter Gransee and Arc Flashlights because they are in a "patent infringement". I don't know what else to call it.

It is the M@g Solitaire and the ArcAAA that are center stage. The Solitaire is a single AAA body open on both ends and is incandecent. The ArcAAA is a single AAA body closed on one end and is an LED light.

Saaby has some beam shots of the two I think...I know someone does and will hopefully post them (please!)

Here's a great review of the AAA if you need it in comparing the 2 lights.

Review.

Sorry, double post.

It's because we like the LIGHTS...

But have MAJOR issues with the company!

We hate to give them anything for free!

Here are some links this will get shut down soon. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

M@G

M@G 2
M@G3
M@G4

I never had a fondness for the ringy beast,the old mil anglehead and early chromed 4-D cell lights still held my fancy even after the products were first released. I still hold the aging 12 volt lanterns in higher regard.This is not intended to offend anyone, I just never warmed to the lights.

On the internet through the years, there's a time-honored tradition of skirting any obscenity filters by replace key letters with symbols. For example, if you want to type a curse word that starts with the letter "s", you could instead type "$" and then the rest of the word, and it makes it by the filter while still conveying the intended meaning.

My interpretation of "M@g" has always been that writers have such contempt for Maglite that they treat it as a swear word, and replace the "a" with "@" because of it. In just one poetic little flair, you pass editorial judgement!

Joe

They are a great light for what they are--a much more dependable version of an old favorite.

I don't understand the animosity about their business practices, either.

They vigorously protect their patents and intellectual property, is something wrong with that?

I recognize that they have gone after some that we highly respect here on CPF, but that is a sign of worry on their part and if a small manufacturer worries them, that manufacturer must have something special.

Why is it Ok to go after the Chinese copy artists, but not someone who they perceive as infringing here?

I understand that we don't always agree with their perception of what is their property and what infringes on their patents, but let the courts decide that.

The way I see it is that they are an American company building American products for sale all over the world, and WE need MORE of those, not less.

Bill

Heh, it always comes around to the business practices ...

[ QUOTE ]
Why is it Ok to go after the Chinese copy artists, but not someone who they perceive as infringing here?

[/ QUOTE ]

It doesn't seem like the same thing to me. In the one case, it's a company copying your products, with only a few minor changes. In the other case, it's a company who is innovating new products, who uses a feature that vaguely kinda-sorta can conceiveably violate a patent if you interpret it very broadly. But this other company can't afford to fight as long and hard as you -- so you sue them knowing they'll have to settle or bankrupt themselves defending the suit.

That's the heart of why people don't like Mag. Decades ago, they created an awesome product. In the intervening years, they've innovated what, exactly? What they've done instead is sued companies that did truly innovate -- not Chinese clone companies, innovators like Arc.

I would draw a direct parallel with Buck Knives, who was way on top by the 70s, and rightfully so. Then they completely stopped innovating, and by the late '80s, other knife companies sprang up and ate Buck's lunch. What if huge Buck had responded to every threat back then by suing the little innovators based on every weak overly-broad interpretation of their patents, suing fledgling Benchmade and Spyderco into the ground since Buck had more of a legal warchest? Then Buck would have been free to just keep coming out with Buck 110s, year after year, except this year they come in red, or say "Nascar" on the side. Instead, Buck responded by trying to capture the spirit that got them on top in the first place, and is staging a comeback based on some strong new products.

Joe

I think its ok to like the lights (for hosts or clubs anyways) and dislike the company and its practices. To me it is very silly for grown adults to insist on weird and different spellings for Mag or Mag-Lite. If you're trying to search for a Mag related topic on CPF it can make it really hard to find anything because of the many different spellings people use. It really makes me want to go into every post having to do with Mag-Lites and just spell out the words Mag and Mag-Lite just so people can find the post using the search engine.

-Keith

I usually use m*9 so it doesn't look like a link and use the abbreviations as a "statement."

When the whole Arc issue started, I swore off all m*9s. They'll never get another penny of my $ again. The only one I have left is a crappy 2D I use for greasy crap work on the car. I won't even buy batteries for it again being it's the last D powered device I have in my home. I won't even buy mods using m*9 hosts. I can't fault a company for wanting to make a product, but to use vast size to try and kill innovation just isn't right.

"If you want to build a better mousetrap, go ahead. Just don't kill the cat Because you're doing it."

Interesting comments. Seems that the two comapnies have greatly differing business concepts. Mag has the traditional concept of making a profit for it's owners/investors and may utilize the courts, rightly, to protect those legitimate profits. Arc intends to make the best, most innovative lights possible, and if they make a profit, that's nice. Apples and oranges.

Bigiron and Bwaites, please try to look at the big picture. M@g did not invent the cylinder-shaped flashlight any more than McDonalds invented the hamburger. Its lawsuits are not legitimate at all. They are an attempt to escape the competitive free enterprise system by shutting down anyone who dares to make a better flashlight. It's Arc that has the traditional concept, of making a profit by selling a product that outperforms the competition. That's called capitalism. M@g prefers instead to lock in its profits by monopoly, preserving its markets for inferior products by locking out competition through the courts. That's how things were done under the old feudal system, which promoted inefficiency that led it to be deservedly overrun by the free enterprise system.

The government is itself partly to blame for this, of course, since it made the laws so easy to abuse. That does not, however, confer legitimacy onto the abusers.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc intends to make the best, most innovative lights possible, and if they make a profit, that's nice.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I don't think there's any company that's quite so non-chalant about profits. I'd guess Arc would like to be profitable just as much as Mag would like to be profitable. Except Arc has chosen to pursue profits the way all small companies entering a new market have to: by innovating, by building better products, by doing it all faster. And Mag has chosen to meet all challengers by questionable lawsuits meant to smother innovation, rather than innovating themselves.

I should point out here that I'm a reasonably hardcore property rights guy, and IP is property. I would not condemn a company for using the courts to go after a clear, legit IP violation of their rights. But stamping out innovation due to the size of your legal warchest, regardless of the merits of the claim, is reprehensible.

If you agree with "lead, follow, or get out of the way", it seems like Mag is neither leading nor following. They're using the courts to do one of those things, though...

Well said. Reminds me of the courthouse saying -- "you might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride." Lots of emotionally and financially backrupt people who PO'd a prosecutor.