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<blockquote data-quote="Ryan Lantzy" data-source="post: 35586" data-attributes="member: 7">Re: Gibson raidedThis might not be the &quot;rest of the story&quot; but here is an interview that he gave shortly after the raid.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_-taqM5Sk0&amp;feature=player_embedded#" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_-taqM5Sk0&amp;feature=player_embedded#</a> According to him the wood is legal.&nbsp; He also states that they aren&#039;t informing him exactly of which laws were broken nor have they settled the previous charges from the 2008 (9?) case involving wood sourced from Madagascar.I don&#039;t know much about this guy, and I don&#039;t own any guitars personally, and maybe as others have said, he is a terrible guy to work for, but these crazy ass laws are exactly why you can&#039;t start a small company in this country.&nbsp; Gibson isn&#039;t &quot;small&quot; but it&#039;s not GE either.&nbsp; The cost of compliance with these things can be astronomical because the laws are often written with strict liability (meaning you are at fault even if you didn&#039;t know you did anything wrong).&nbsp; That&#039;s fine for truly criminal acts, but using some wood that is &quot;illegal&quot; should be a tort and not a crime IMO.&nbsp; Therefore you need some high paid lawyers on retainer 24/7.&nbsp; Sure you can say &quot;cost of doing business&quot; but then this is exactly why US made goods often can&#039;t compete on price.To those that say &quot;oh, I started a business it&#039;s not that hard, I didn&#039;t need to pay any lawyers.&quot;&nbsp; Count yourself lucky, you probably just didn&#039;t get caught.&nbsp; Most businesses do violate the law on accident frequently.&nbsp; The sheer number of criminal laws out there ensure it.&nbsp; Some times the violation might be a tort and sometimes it might be a crime, but none the less it&nbsp; happens.&nbsp; Could be building codes, could be tax code, could be trade laws, could be new healthcare laws, who knows.&nbsp; Point is,&nbsp; you have to be an expert in a lot of areas of the law to know for sure you are in the clear.&nbsp; I&#039;d argue it may not even be possible to know for sure.From the small amount I&#039;m reading on this issue, if what Juszkiewicz says is true about how they are enforcing the law, *anyone* owning a guitar or other instrument that has exotic wood in it that doesn&#039;t have it fully documented (year, grandfathering, etc) could have it confiscated and destroyed.&nbsp; It has already happened in other countries where customs in those countries have enforced similar laws and confiscated musical instruments.&nbsp; It&#039;s stupid and wrong.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ryan Lantzy, post: 35586, member: 7"] Re: Gibson raided This might not be the "rest of the story" but here is an interview that he gave shortly after the raid. [URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_-taqM5Sk0&feature=player_embedded#[/URL] According to him the wood is legal. He also states that they aren't informing him exactly of which laws were broken nor have they settled the previous charges from the 2008 (9?) case involving wood sourced from Madagascar. I don't know much about this guy, and I don't own any guitars personally, and maybe as others have said, he is a terrible guy to work for, but these crazy ass laws are exactly why you can't start a small company in this country. Gibson isn't "small" but it's not GE either. The cost of compliance with these things can be astronomical because the laws are often written with strict liability (meaning you are at fault even if you didn't know you did anything wrong). That's fine for truly criminal acts, but using some wood that is "illegal" should be a tort and not a crime IMO. Therefore you need some high paid lawyers on retainer 24/7. Sure you can say "cost of doing business" but then this is exactly why US made goods often can't compete on price. To those that say "oh, I started a business it's not that hard, I didn't need to pay any lawyers." Count yourself lucky, you probably just didn't get caught. Most businesses do violate the law on accident frequently. The sheer number of criminal laws out there ensure it. Some times the violation might be a tort and sometimes it might be a crime, but none the less it happens. Could be building codes, could be tax code, could be trade laws, could be new healthcare laws, who knows. Point is, you have to be an expert in a lot of areas of the law to know for sure you are in the clear. I'd argue it may not even be possible to know for sure. From the small amount I'm reading on this issue, if what Juszkiewicz says is true about how they are enforcing the law, *anyone* owning a guitar or other instrument that has exotic wood in it that doesn't have it fully documented (year, grandfathering, etc) could have it confiscated and destroyed. It has already happened in other countries where customs in those countries have enforced similar laws and confiscated musical instruments. It's stupid and wrong. [/QUOTE]

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