> As both a musician and synth designer, I've always put the sound and user interface above all else.

You're talking about something slightly different: you're talking about what you use to evaluate the quality of a thing. I'm talking about what is the thing that you are purchasing. There is some overlap clearly; when you buy a synth you want a good one...but what it ultimately comes down to is you are purchasing the circuit.

The point is that in contrast to something like a lamp -with things like synthesizers the actual implementation is important and is in fact what you are purchasing -you are purchasing an analog synth of such and such type. Whereas with a lamp after a certain base level of functionality, you're purchasing entirely based on appearance.

> The level of originality being demanded here is unreasonable

I think you are similarly misunderstanding the issue. I think what the guy in the OP is trying to do in terms of a business is perfectly fine (with the condition that they are open about the fact that they are using someone else's design).

I also think that Etsy is trying to build a certain kind of marketplace...one for artists or crafts people. I think it's fair to question whether this counts as that.

If you're just taking a schematic from somewhere then paying someone to print the board, have them mount the components listed in the schematic, have them solder them, etc....which you then take and stick into an enclosure and wire the up... I just don't think that qualifies. I think you have a perfect right to sell that to people (heck, I'd buy it), I'm just not sure if it belongs on Etsy.

The problem is there's a lot of things to consider. How was he describing his products, was it accurate? How much of the assembling was he doing? Did he have any input into the design?

If on the other hand, he was doing the majority of the assembly, modifying the design, and/or he was using some creativity in sourcing parts (say, tracking down vintage diodes or something)...then I think it does qualify and should be allowed on Etsy.

> Imagine describing to a lay-person how a new library fit like a glove and saved you a couple thousand lines of code, only to have that person balk at your unoriginal, potentially dishonest work.

Right, this is a good analogy and I think you should think about it more. Just like the issue at hand, your analogy has a lot of nuance and things that must be considered.

What exactly was I hired for. If I was hired to write a program to compress a folder of images, sure it makes sense to just throw zlib or something in there and call it a day. That's fine. What though if I bill it as if I had written my own lib? What if I was hired to write a new compression library? Clearly in that case it's not ok to just give them zlib and charge for the work. What if I add a nice wrapper around it though, which adds utility...then it might become ok again since I am adding value. What if I translate zlib to another (programming) language then bill them? That might be ok in some situations, and others not.

It all depends.

What it comes down to is I think it's totally fair for Etsy to question it. It's enough in the "gray area" for me. It also seems the guy has not yet provided enough information to push it out of the "gray area".

I'd like to see stuff like this sold on Etsy, but it depends on the specifics.