Re: [Linux-aus] FireFox vs IceWeasel

[Jeff Waugh <jdub@perkypants.org>]

<quote who="Andrae Muys">

> On 24/10/2006, at 2:11 PM, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> > This storm has been brewing for years. Trademarks are an unsolved
> > problem in the FLOSS space, and it is *not* an "illogical extreme" that
> > puts us there.
> 
> I'm afraid I can't let this slide.

Do you disagree with:

  a) trademarks are an unsolved problem in the FLOSS space

and/or

  b) it is *not* an "illogical extreme" that puts us there

?

> Contrary to other comments in this thread and elsewhere, this is not  some
> great calamity triggered by some inconsistency between FOSS and  Trademark
> Law.

It's not a calamity, and it's not necessarily an inconsistency, but it is a
serious problem that needs to be addressed. There are numerous projects and
organisations that are not defending their trademarks appropriately because
it would inflict too many problems on the greater FLOSS community. MoFo are
simply the first group to start defending their trademark "appropriately"
(at least with regards to trademark law, if not entirely usefully for the
greater FLOSS community).

There doesn't *need* to be a fork here, and indeed, this is not actually a
fork at all, it's just a renaming due to incompatibility with this specific
enforcement of the trademark and distribution of FLOSS. (The existence of
GNUZilla is an entirely different issue, which I'll ignore.)

> Also trademark law is here doing exactly what we want it to do.  It  is
> allowing individuals and organisations to take limited steps to  protect
> their reputation.  And the interaction with FOSS is extremely  healthy:
> when the owners of the trademark are not satisfied with  another parties
> treatment of their reputation, FOSS still permits  that party to fork,
> rename, and continue to release.

This is a very soft and fluffy way to understand the problem. No one really
*WANTS* to rename (let alone fork, which is not what we're talking about)
when doing so reduces the brand value for everyone involved.

This is not just an issue for Debian and "Firefox". There are a *lot* of
trademarks we need to defend *and* embrace. Distributors can't rename all
the trademarked projects in the name of "trademark law doing exactly what we
want it to do [...] and the interaction with FOSS being extremely healthy",
because that's *not* healthy or useful for any of us.

What we need is something as deliciously clever as the GPL's reapplication
of copyright law for our purposes, applied to trademark law. The idea of
"community marks" have been discussed in various places... Something that
would allow us to defend trademarks, strengthen our FLOSS brands, and use
them throughout the FLOSS ecosystem.

- Jeff

-- 
linux.conf.au 2007: Sydney, Australia           http://lca2007.linux.org.au/
 
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