Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 09:20:35 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> Cc: A Joseph Koshy <koshy@india.hp.com>, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: General policy on trademark violations Message-ID: <19980213092035.32504@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <199802122236.OAA04410@dingo.cdrom.com>; from Mike Smith on Thu, Feb 12, 1998 at 02:36:15PM -0800 References: <19980213085436.13673@freebie.lemis.com> <199802122236.OAA04410@dingo.cdrom.com>
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On Thu, 12 February 1998 at 14:36:15 -0800, Mike Smith wrote: >> 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? Yes. They default to the basic principles behind civil litigation, one of which is "I have a good chance of success if I can convince you that you can't win". > 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. No, I missed that. > A trademark litigation profiteer is not going to propose or commence > action without expectations of success. That would be bad business. I didn't say they would. I just pointed out one reason they might expect success. It has nothing to do with being in the right. >>>> 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. What's separate about it? It was the same code base. For some reason (probably because they didn't see them as a threat), USL didn't proceed against Jolitz. I still thought it was risky to release the CD-ROM. >> 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? What is it? Seriously, though, I think that there is an issue here. I'm not criticizing the FreeBSD project for removing it, but claims of look and feel are getting too far. Not to mention sound. I'm now calling all the non-door openings on my house "Fenster", because the English translation now belongs to a voracious American company. Greg To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe hackers" in the body of the message
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