Sparrows

[raimundo]

I just looked at the wizwazzle site on youtube, and the guy is still claiming to have created the design he clearly ripped off.

The design is my original work and was perfected in the 1980's long before I got on the internet.

as awol something, he has contacted me about a year ago and admitted his fraud, but he continues to not correct this.

Having looked at his youtube page this morning and his own curicula vitae, I find that it just pisses me off that he continues this.

hes no different than lockpicktools who ripped it off while conning me to calm down some people who they claimed I was leading and whom I was encouraged to calm down by Zeke 79 who had recieved free tools from them.

Jump on board and join one side or the other here, its time for this controversy to get sorted out. and moderators who are recieving free tools should admit it when that influences them.

[criminalhate]

Rai i agree with you. I never buy from Lockpicktools and I will never buy a set of Sparrows picks because of it.

Credit should be given when it can be and designs shouldn't be ripped off.


It's one thing to make a few picks off of someone elses design but it's a whole other thing to outright claim the design for your own.

[LocksmithArmy]

I emailed sparrows on more than one occasion and told them to put you under designers... but i see they have not... not cool

[awol70]

I just looked at the wizwazzle site on youtube, and the guy is still claiming to have created the design he clearly ripped off.

The design is my original work and was perfected in the 1980's long before I got on the internet.

as awol something, he has contacted me about a year ago and admitted his fraud, but he continues to not correct this.

Having looked at his youtube page this morning and his own curicula vitae, I find that it just pisses me off that he continues this.

hes no different than lockpicktools who ripped it off while conning me to calm down some people who they claimed I was leading and whom I was encouraged to calm down by Zeke 79 who had recieved free tools from them.

Jump on board and join one side or the other here, its time for this controversy to get sorted out. and moderators who are recieving free tools should admit it when that influences them.

I have NEVER claimed to be the inventor of the Bogota rake, and have, on more than one occasion, offered you full inventor's credit, and i also give you invention credit on my videos.
(this is NOT "admitting fraud')
Also,i have "ripped off" no one,and resent you saying so.
Why, a year or two later do you rekindle and fan the flames on this non-issue?
The other sparrows rake designs are 100% MY designs and were not even slightly influenced by your
"gift to the lockpicking community" (the Bogota rake)
(text below pulled from my inbox)
April 2010 you write to me:
No I don't want credit for the sparrows knock off, its not a very good one. I consider it a failed copy. Im not looking to start a big flap about this anyway,
I just saw the picks on the thread and felt that I couldn't pass this up without comment, but now Im done.
Ive seen your videos.
Ray

so ,evidently, you are not "done" and you wish to "start a big flap"
and respectfully, how would you have me "correct this" ?(after stating you want no credit?)
No disrespect,but i also noticed in one of your posts you claim Dealextreme has "ripped you off"
I have done nothing wrong,illegal,or immoral,nor would i knowingly do so.
please stop slandering and disrespecting me.
by asking members to "jump on board" and "take one side or the other"
seems purely antagonistic,like you are trying to instigate flaming and feuding....
In my opinion there is no "controversy" to get "sorted out" .

[raimundo]

I was certainly ticked off when I wrote that yesterday, and I will go back to your videos and your CV and review what claims I see there. as well as on sparrows. If I find that what I said is not suported there I will get back here and climb down.

it was a gift to the locksports hobbiest community to be precise. not to commercial exploitation.

[raimundo]

I don't believe I ever said that about deal extreme so please cite the page and I will look at that.

Im usually a pretty non confrontational guy but I have had conmen from lockpicktools ripping me off and if it had happened to you, you might understand.

I didn't look at all 595 of your videos this morning, but u tube allows a search function, where I used 'bogata' to find some of the relevant ones.
I looked at four or five of them, and did not find you making the claim of original idea, perhaps that has embeded in my mind from your many followers who do make that claim, I have seen that.

My impression that I was left with a year ago was that you would not claim my design as your original one and from both the cv on youtube and a statement on sparrows I did get ticked off yesterday, but today I will say that I was right a year ago, that commercial knockoff is not a true copy, It is different enough that I don't want to claim it.

Some of your handmade ones were though and your followers have made that claim for you, I don't sort this out over the years that I have seen these, so it left a sour impression that is all of a lump with the lockpicktools scammers.

Perhaps someday you will have this happen to you and you will understand how it rankles. dont take a postion of all injured innocence, though, I can't see this as not having been encouraged by you.

[ElbowMacaroni]

Rai,

Awol/Wiz is a top notch guy, and I sincerely doubt that ripping anyone off would ever be his intent.

Also, I have to add that your design with the bent handles in my opinion is a superior tool. I personally do not like bogota-alikes with straight handles, the bent handle is what gives it that special magic.

However, given the time passed since they were created, even if they had been patented, that protection would be long since expired giving anyone who wanted to make a similar tool free reign to do so without giving any acknowledgment. So that Awol/Wiz does acknowledge your creation of the design, speaks alot to his character in my book anyway. I know you don't know me from adam, and understandably, as such my opinion doesn't likely carry much weight with you but Awol really is a decent guy. Also, the genie is soooo far out of the bottle on bogota-alikes that at this point while the frustration is understandable railing out at someone about it is kind of pointless. Let's face it, almost every major pick manufacturer has an offering that quite closely resembles the design whether they use the word bogota or not.

I'm not trying to stir the pot here, just trying to be pragmatic.

Take care man!

[awol70]

Back on topic, To the OP { i think this guy provides a slightly better demo of the sparrows tools..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9AiuzZDzhs