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Date:      Tue, 10 Jul 2001 16:32:48 -0400
From:      Garance A Drosihn <drosih@rpi.edu>
To:        Jordan Hubbard <jkh@osd.bsdi.com>, rh@matriplex.com
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: The Foundation [was Re: FreeBSD Mall now BSDCentral]
Message-ID:  <p0510100eb771169bf27a@[128.113.24.47]>
In-Reply-To: <20010707203138B.jkh@osd.bsdi.com>
References:  <20010707004731V.jkh@osd.bsdi.com> <Pine.BSF.4.10.10107071003530.12602-100000@mail.matriplex.com> <20010707203138B.jkh@osd.bsdi.com>

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At 10:30 AM -0700 7/7/01, Richard Hodges wrote:
>Could I just ask exactly what the FreeBSD Foundation _is_?
>
>I read the announcement and bylaws, and it looks like it is supposed
>to be the offical organization representing FreeBSD.  On the other
>hand, many people have suggested that there is no connection between
>Core and the Foundation.

It is a foundation which will fund some projects intended to
benefit FreeBSD, and "the public good".  People can send
contributions to the foundation and get a tax write-off.  For
the most part, there could be a hundred different foundations,
each contributing to freebsd in their own way, and any given
FreeBSD user could contribute to the foundations that they "trust"
the most, or which is funding the kinds of projects which that
user is particularly interested in.

The United Way collects money, and gives some of that to a local
hospital.  That does not mean the hospital IS the united way, or
that the united way IS the hospital.  They are separate entities.

>Although I infer tacit consent, I have not heard any official
>blessing of the Foundation, either.  But there is more than a
>hint of transfering the FreeBSD trademark to the Foundation.

I'll admit that this trademark issue is the one very odd thing
about the foundation.  I like the idea of the foundation, and
for the record I have already sent a small contribution to them.
If good things come of that, I'll send more.

Still, I am a bit uneasy about the trademark being turned over
to them.  Not that I worry about the individuals, but I wonder
about the foundation itself.  Let's say the trademark is moved,
and then the foundation folds.  What happens to the trademark
then?  What happens if the foundation gets the trademark, and
then they DO have to legally defend it from someone who's just
out to make trouble?  Could such an action cause the demise of
the foundation?

On the other hand, I have no better course of action to suggest
wrt the trademark.  It's just that this is the one "odd thing"
about the FreeBSD Foundation, at least in my mind.

-- 
Garance Alistair Drosehn            =   gad@eclipse.acs.rpi.edu
Senior Systems Programmer           or  gad@freebsd.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    or  drosih@rpi.edu

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