From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Feb 12 14:39:38 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA16969 for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 12 Feb 1998 14:39:38 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (dingo.cdrom.com [204.216.28.145]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA16958 for ; Thu, 12 Feb 1998 14:39:26 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id OAA04410; Thu, 12 Feb 1998 14:36:17 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <199802122236.OAA04410@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: Greg Lehey cc: Mike Smith , A Joseph Koshy , freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: General policy on trademark violations In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 13 Feb 1998 08:54:36 +1030." <19980213085436.13673@freebie.lemis.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 14:36:15 -0800 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > On Thu, 12 February 1998 at 13:54:15 -0800, Mike Smith wrote: > > > >> Q2: What about programs, files and directories in the source tree that > >> "violate trademarks" in other countries like India, Japan, and Russia? > >> Will the FreeBSD project be willing be rip out parts of its source > >> base to satisfy litigants from other countries? > > > > It's not a question of "being willing", and this is, I think, where > > people are missing the point. > > > > If the FreeBSD project is faced with litigative action over a trademark > > infringement, what courses of action are available? > > > > - Fight it in court. This is only an option if a donor with a few > > million spare to spend on a hopeless case turns up. Trademark > > litigation is rarely started against small parties without some > > expectation of success. > > The expectation of success might be that somebody in the small party > assesses the chances of their success (based on their financial > ability) as small, and comes to the conclusion: Are you actually familiar with the basic principles behind trademark law? Did you read all the way through this thread last time 'round? There was a particularly interesting post which gave the trademark classification groupings of interest here, along with input from a number of people that have clearly been involved in this sort of thing before. A trademark litigation profiteer is not going to propose or commence action without expectations of success. That would be bad business. > >> Q3: Are the sources for the "extracted" parts available as a package > >> from anywhere else in the world? > > > > Obviously, no. > > It's not that obvious. After the USL decision, FreeBSD and BSDI had > to stop distributing Net/2. Two year later, Dr. Dobbs did a CD-ROM > with the stuff on it. Separate incidents. > So what's this all about? Hasbro and Boggle. If they were really tenacious, they could probably claim look-and-feel as well. How long since *you* played Boggle(tm) on your system? -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe hackers" in the body of the message