Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 10:00:37 -0500 From: Kevin Day <toasty@dragondata.com> To: Narvi <narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee>, Andrzej Bialecki <abial@webgiro.com> Cc: Kevin Day <toasty@dragondata.com>, "Daniel C. Sobral" <dcs@newsguy.com>, Nik Clayton <nik@FreeBSD.ORG>, freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: "The Matrix" screensaver, v.0.2 Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.19990822095052.00ad17c0@nfs.dragondata.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990822144636.5453A-100000@haldjas.folklore.e e> References: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9908221335300.54215-100000@freja.webgiro.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>On Sun, 22 Aug 1999, Andrzej Bialecki wrote: > > > On Sat, 21 Aug 1999, Kevin Day wrote: > > > > > > > > I hate to keep bringing things like this up, or start a legal war, > but this > > > screensaver is more than likely a copyright and/or trademark > violation, and > > > bringing it into the source tree may not be a good idea. Yes, lots of > > > people may be making things like this, but it would probably be best to > > > distance FreeBSD itself from such a thing. > > > > You can trademark the title "The Matrix", but you can't trademark a common > > word "matrix". That's the only word I use for the name of the module. As > > Daniel mentioned, they even can't claim that it's their idea. > > > > So I think I can pretty safely import it. > > > >If we wanted to be legally paranoid we would call it the "letter" saver >and add as the comment the words It's not just the name "Matrix" though. Make a screen saver of the Superman 'S' logo, and see how quickly a certain comic book company comes after you. :) Making a derivative work based on something that was in a movie probably is a copyright violation. Warner Brothers could easily say that you've copied an element from their movie (even if it's not the entire movie), and even go so far as to get a judge to get any CD-ROM distributors of FreeBSD to recall all unsold CD's, and destroy them. As for the trademark issue, it doesn't have to be a name to be trademarked. Logos, effects, and even sounds can be trademarked. I'm really not trying to be annoying about things like this, but I already had to fight for the ability to be able to use FreeBSD at work, after they discovered other copyright/trademark violations in the source tree.. (Trek, etc). "If they'll steal things here, how do we know the entire kernel isn't stolen from somewhere else?" Yes, it's silly logic, but they do sort of have a point. We're selling a product with FreeBSD embedded in it. Should some copyright/patent holder come up proving that the VM system is his, and FreeBSD stole it from him, they could legally force us to recall every machine we've sold, and replace it with non-infringing materials. Obviously we're not shipping 'trek' on our system, and wouldn't include the matrix saver anyway, but I (for completely selfish reasons) would like to keep FreeBSD distanced from anything that could possibly be infringing on anything, and let you download it from somewhere else if you want it. :) Kevin To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4.2.0.58.19990822095052.00ad17c0>