Gibson Guitar CEO - "...if you bought a guitar from us, and you resell it, YOU are criminally liable"
- Oct 23, 2011
- in Guitar Kit Builder - Electric Guitars
If you are not already following the federal raid of Gibson Guitar's Nashville and Memphis facilities, it may be time to start tuning in. I say that because of the following quote from Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar Corp., at 3:09 into the video below:
"According to this law, if you bought a guitar from us, and you resell it, YOU are criminally liable - YOU, not us, everyone who touches the product, the store owner who sells that guitar, is criminally liable. It doesn't matter whether he knew or not whether there was some issue there. It's a pretty dangerous precedent in my view."
The video is from a press conference regarding the August 24 raid of Gibson Guitar facilities in Nashville and Memphis by the Federal Government. The issue in this matter is guitar wood exported from India, but what appears to be under-reported is that the issue isn't the exporting per se, it's the work done by American workers to the wood, after it has been exported. From watching the video it appears that the reporters don't seem to get the issue, focusing instead on whether the exporting was legal or not, but Juszkiewicz lays out the case in this quote, at 4:19 into the video:
Gibson Guitar Commentary
"First of all they have not told us what was specifically illegal, and we infer from the case that we have here in Nashville, that their position is, that since wood, specifically we're talking about fingerboard blanks, which are partially finished fingerboards that we then put on the guitars and finish, that because they are partially finished they cannot be exported, because Indian law, in this case we're talking about Indian rosewood and ebony, Indian law requires that all the work be done in India, before it's exported. So in other words, if they finish the fingerboard in India and send it here, that's OK, but if they send it partially finished and American workers work on it, that's not OK, that's illegal, by Indian law."
The Lacey Act combats trafficking in “illegal” wildlife, fish, and plants. The 2008 Farm Bill amended the Lacey Act by expanding its protection to a broader range of plants and plant products. To understand better how the amended act is being applied to Gibson Guitar see Gibson Guitar and Lacey Act Misused from the Science 2.0 blog.
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Gibson Guitar CEO on criminal liability of guitar resale
Hey Henry, perhaps you should have told the Feds that you are a Jew and the son of Holocaust survivors from Poland. I am sure they would have exonerated you, Gibson, etc. for centuries to come. Big mistake not to “emphasize” your uniquness, Henry.
Don’t know what to make of this comment. Anti-semitic or are you genuinely serious?
Another shining example of how absolutely ridiculous the legal INDUSTRY has become. We’re appetizing 600 million laws in the US, from local jurisdiction thru federal…. Think about that. Good almighty had 10, simple, trainable commandments, we got 550 million plus… How’d we get so dammed special and important? What a crock of shit, cmon people, REAR UP OR NOT DOWN, YOU GET TO CHOOSE!!
How abusive it is harassment pure and simple what ever happened to jurisprudence in this case couldn’t apply more. I love Gibsons how they play and sound and wish company well.
It pains me to see the lack of common sense and simple logic that should be applied that is no longer considered important.