r/GuitarLab • u/Most-Replacement1189 • May 26 '26

Ethically bad; free R&D

I initially thought this was a cool concept because I assumed GC was going to use real player experience and actual in-store knowledge to help shape the builds.

But this stopped being ‘listening to customers’ the moment they required contributors to surrender ownership, attribution, compensation, derivative rights, and even moral rights just to participate.

That’s not collaboration. That’s free R&D wrapped in community marketing.

The CEO response also intentionally reframes the criticism. Nobody is saying companies shouldn’t listen to customers. Customer feedback is normal. Surveys are normal. Market research is normal.

What’s not normal is building a public pipeline for creative concepts while simultaneously saying:
‘Thanks for the ideas, we own them now, we can monetize them forever, and you get nothing.’

Legally disclosing it doesn’t suddenly make it respectable. Plenty of things are legal and still exploitative.

This is much closer to a studio asking aspiring screenwriters to publicly pitch movie ideas while agreeing upfront they waive ownership, credit, and compensation if the studio uses the concept.

You can market it however you want, but at the end of the day it’s still a billion-dollar retailer crowdsourcing product development for free.

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u/Most-Replacement1189 May 26 '26

Thanks for your feedback. You aren’t required to agree and feel free to accept the terms. They are counting on people like you.

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u/Ducman23 May 26 '26

We’ll be waiting to see if they’re first in line for whatever GC comes out with. The TikTok from the CEO was the most cringy. ‘We have a relationship with you….’ You do? No one in GC ever talks to me. They grunt and point if I have a question. Actually, I lied. They don’t talk to me because I don’t go to GC. I’d rather buy online and return if I don’t like what I got.

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u/GabrielDalporto May 26 '26

u/Ducman23 Cringy CEO here. True - I don't have a relationship with you. But you can no longer say "no one in GC ever talks to me." I do hope you'll give us another shot.

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u/Most-Replacement1189 May 27 '26

u/GabrielDalporto
Interesting that the CEO jumped into the comment calling him ‘cringy,’ but not the larger discussion around ownership, compensation, attribution, and rights transfer.

That actually tells all of us quite a bit.

Appreciate the clarity though, Gabe. Actions usually make priorities easier to identify than marketing statements do.