Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 13:54:15 -0800 From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> To: A Joseph Koshy <koshy@india.hp.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: General policy on trademark violations Message-ID: <199802122154.NAA04198@dingo.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 12 Feb 1998 17:12:16 %2B0530." <199802121141.DAA19040@palrel1.hp.com>
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I can't speak for the project, but I did follow the discussions last time. It's unfortunate that people didn't really get the sense of the basic principle involved. > Its sad to see that yet another part of the FreeBSD source tree is to be > surgically extracted on account of `trademark violations' :(. Yes, it is. But this is the way that trademarks work. > Q1: How far is FreeBSD willing to go in the direction of ripping out > portions of its source base? Is it willing to remove files in > non-games directories? If such files reasonably constitute trademark violations, and there is a real threat of action, then *something* will have to be done, yes. > 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. - Give in. So you can see where we have to go. Terry raised the issue that renaming, rather than just removing, things would be desirable. This could be made to work, but it requires developer resources that we don't have, and so far the components in question haven't seemed to justify the effort. > Q3: Are the sources for the "extracted" parts available as a package > from anywhere else in the world? Obviously, no. You can get them off an old FreeBSD CDROM though. -- \\ 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
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